Pair and group work have become almost synonymous with the modern, ‘communicative’ language classroom, and many teachers have found that these techniques have a lot to offer. Because they provide an opportunity for a genuine information and/or opinion exchange, they encourage very useful language

practice. They also help learners to get used to working cooperatively and helping each other. The following tips should help you to use pair and group work thoughtfully and appropriately, and therefore effectively.

1 Introduce the idea carefully. Your learners may not be familiar with pair and group work. In this case it’s important to discuss your reasons for using it (perhaps in L1), and to start using it little by little. After a pair or group activity ask your learners how they felt, and also give your own thoughts on how the activity contributed to the class’s aims.

2 Structure the work appropriately. A class who are used to group and pair work, will be comfortable with a simple request to ‘do this in pairs’. For a less experienced class, you yourself may need to organize the pairs, indicate who is to take which role, and give separate instructions for each stage of the activity. If you are doing pairwork in a class with an odd number of learners, you will need to make a group of three; consider modifying the task slightly for this group so that they can all participate.

3 Make sure group members can have eye contact. This will probably mean changing the seating arrangements so that members of the group are facing each other rather than facing the teacher. Even with fixed furniture, you can achieve eye contact by asking alternate rows of learners to turn round to face those sitting behind.

4 Think about the task. What do you think learners will gain by doing a particular task in pairs or groups? Don’t assume that just because a coursebook suggests this way of working, that it is necessarily the best one. Some ‘group’ tasks can be made more effective in terms of information exchange and language use by adding an individual stage first, or by slightly differentiating what each group member is asked to do.

5 Consider group size. Different sizes may be best for different tasks. Larger groups give scope for more variety of roles and interaction patterns. Yet if all members are to have the chance to contribute productively, it can also be important to define roles clearly in advance.

6 Make sure learners know what to do. State the goal of the activity clearly and give staged instructions, where appropriate. If these are complicated, you could also write them on the board. Then ask a learner to explain the instructions in their own words, or—for a short activity—ask a pair to demonstrate for the class.

7 Monitor group work discreetly. Certainly don’t interrupt groups: the whole idea is for the learners to operate as well as they can without you. Move around the class, quietly listening in; contribute to particular groups if they ask you to, or if you can see that they are stuck. Save your main feedback to give to the whole class after the group activity is finished.

8 Stop the activity at the right moment. This should be when most of the groups have completed or almost completed the task set, and before they start to get bored. For some tasks, it may be appropriate to set a time limit;

for others, you need to go with the feel of the class. If any groups have been working slowly, warn them a couple of minutes in advance that you will have to stop shortly.

9 Have something planned for early finishers. This could be a continuation of the original task, or something quite different that emerges, such as study of a particular language point. If your learners are more independent, you could invite them to choose their own activity.

10 Get pairs and groups to report to the class. Many learners gain reassurance and emotional satisfaction from telling the whole class what work they did. It’s also very valuable language practice: they get a ‘second chance’ to use the language of the task, in a situation where they will want to be as accurate as possible. You don’t have to ask every group to report every time, as long as everyone gets a chance over a series of lessons.

11 Be aware of L1 use. If your class is monolingual, you may find that they sometimes use L1 during group work time. You need to be sensitive about this, because sometimes L1 serves a useful purpose—for example, learners may be conferring with each other on actually how to do the task. Try and make sure that they at least do the task itself in English.

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