Zhanysbayeva A.P.

L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian national university

Application of group work learning methods in English classes

The teacher, who seeks to make learning a fascinating and informative as possible for the students, is constantly in the search process just to try to find the answer of how to avoid the monotony of routine. Moreover, we have to consider what to do with students with different levels of capacity to acquire more knowledge and skills. We think every teacher would be happy to find answers to these questions. Nevertheless, in high Kazakhstani schools, the teachers successfully use different methods and forms of group work for many years consequently. In recent years, group form of language learning has become one of the most effective and popular technologies afterwards.

For many years school education based on the principles of individualism and competition. This type of teaching is unilateral. For the student it becomes a major personal success, which is opposed to failure of another student. Of course, the ability to work independently and achieve their goals is very important. But we are called to prepare the children for life in the adult world, where a large role today acquires the ability to cooperate together and solve tasks.

In a traditional classroom, the teacher controls the class with authority; there is no active role of students during teaching-learning process. Contrary to this group work makes students autonomous learners who work collaboratively for their own learning. Language classroom is the place where teachers and learners come together for interaction and can learn in natural settings. Group work is a teaching strategy at all levels of education and researchers observed that group based assignments and discussions are a common feature of tertiary education. The effective use of group work in language class can provide a valuable learning experience to students and give them the opportunity to practically experience the ideas presented and strengthen their learning [1; 220].

According to Cohen group work is students working together in a group small enough so that everyone can participate on a task that has been clearly assigned. The 24 fact that the different members of a group bring different knowledge to the gathering indicates that the more members that there are in a group the more knowledge they have available. [1; 85] As Chirac note that group work can be a way to learn how to think for yourself, as well as developing the students‟ argumentative abilities and critical thinking. [2; 40] In another word it has been shown that student collaboration leads to higher productivity and greater results. Students that together with the teacher actively participate in the classroom benefit not only by gaining greater knowledge but also language wise and socially. Grоning also states that an abstract subject can through group work become more concrete and easier for the students to understand. Harmer states that when students work with and discuss a task in smaller groups, they learn more individually, as well as a group. [3;102]

Johnsons described several types of group work. According to Johnsons, a useful way of classifying group work activities is to look at the distribution of the information needed to do the activity. In many group work activities learner have equal access to the same material or information or cooperate to do the task. In the following discussion this is called the cooperating arrangement. In the superior-interior arrangement one member of the group has information that all the others need. In the combining arrangement each learner has a different piece of information that all the others need. In the individual arrangement each learner has access to the same information but must perform or deal with a different part of it. These four different types of group work achieve different learning goals, are best suited to different kinds of tasks, require different kinds of seating arrangement, and draw on or encourage different kinds of social relationship. [4;22]

Having examined the classification of the Johnsons, we developed a table that shows how organize group work to be successful on English lessons.

	Combining	Cooperating	Superior-interior	Individual
Distribution of information	Each learner has unique essential information	All learners have equal access to their same information and to each other’s view of it	One or more learners have information that the others do not have	All learner have the same information but use a different part
Seating arrangement	Learners sit at an equal distance from each other, facing each other	Learners sit beside each other facing the information	To knowers face to seekers	The learners face each other
Social relationship	Equality, mutual dependency	Equality	Inequality, the knowers are in a superior position	Equality, but with focus on individual performance
Most suitable learning goal	Negotiation of input mastering content fluency	New language items fluency	New language items mastering content	Fluency new language items
Most suitable tasks	Completion ordering providing directions matching, classifying, distinguishing	Ranking, ordering, choosing finding implications, causes, uses solving problems, producing materials	Data gathering completion providing directions	Solving problem completion
A typical example	A strip story	A ranking exercises	An interview	A chain story or role play

Caldwell has found five distinctive problem types that may be encountered in the application of group work.

· Additive problem – this problem adds all members’ individual achievements together, no singular contribution is more important than another. This problem type is always unitary and maximizing. An example of this type of problem could be rope pulling, all members of the group work together to be strong enough to beat the other group.

· Disjunctive problem – one singular answer is the representation of the group’s achievement. One group member’s answer will be the group’s answer; all other answers will be discarded. This problem type is unitary and either maximizing or optimizing. An example of this type of problem could be individual problem solving. The group is given a problem that has one correct answer and the first person to get it right answers for the group as a whole.

· Conjunctive problem – all group members are needed to solve the problem. The group is therefore dependant on its weakest member. This problem type is usually unitary and optimizing but can be devisable and maximizing. An example of this type of problem could be mountain climbing, the group only succeeds if all the group members get to the top they therefore have to work together and help each other.

· Compensating problem – each members individual answer is important, all answers are then· averaged together to find the answer wanted by most. This problem type is usually unitary and optimizing. An example of this type of problem could be deciding who is going to be class president, all member get a say and the person that most want is then chosen.

· Complementary problem – each individual in the group does what s/he is best at, the sum of each individual part is the group’s end product. This problem type is devisable and optimizing. An example of this type of problem could be writing an anthology, each member does his or her part these are then added together to for the end product. [5; 40]

One of the aims of our work is to try to find a solution to these types of problems. For achieving it we want to offer some methodological guidelines.

To resolve these kinds of problems the teacher should begin organizing group work with the formation of communication skills in pairs. Scenes and situations for dialogue should be varied, interesting for students and encourage them to communicate. Teachers need to have on hand the necessary support material that helps students to facilitate the communication process (cards with tasks, cards for the organization of role-playing games, dictionary, and elements of costumes and so on). All these instruments should be prepared in advance. Before proceeding to the group communication in the "student - student" mode, the students need to become accustomed to this communication, as the training conditions they feel more comfortable in the mode of communication "teacher - pupil". Organization of group work should take place in an atmosphere of cooperation, friendship and trust. Authoritarian style of the teacher will only negative reaction of students. The teacher must clearly and, if possible, briefly explain the task so that it was clear to the group and each member individually. It is also necessary to check whether all students understand the task and if not, to explain them further. Many experts in the field of group learning is considered a diverse group defining characteristic of this technique. Diverse groups are usually formed on the principle of one "strong", two "medium" and one "weak" students, and if the class has students of different nationalities, to diversify the composition of the group and on this basis. At the same time it should be noted some disadvantages tiered structure of group. Students can get used to the status of "strong" or "weak", which would entail the formation of undesirable stereotypes in the classroom. It is therefore recommended to periodically use a uniform composition of groups. students due course become accustomed to the composition of its permanent group, so teacher need to periodically apply an arbitrary method of forming groups, introducing an element of surprise and variety in this process.

We conducted a questionnaire to find out whether teachers use group work in the classroom and what the students’ opinions on the application group form learning in English lessons. In the questionnaire took part 60 people: 20 pupils (of school lyceum№ 56), 20 students and 20 teachers of Eurasian University, Astana.

English	Russian	Type of response
1. Do you agree with the expression of Johnsons: “Group work is a key structure in supporting and building a community in the process of learning and growing together”?	Согласны ли вы с выражением Джонсонов: "Групповая работа является ключевой структурой в оказании поддержки и в создании сообщества в процессе обучения"?	· Yes · No · Doubt
2. Do you think that learner can understand the theme of the lesson through his friends by discussing?	Как вы думаете, ученик может понять тему урока через своих друзей, обсуждая ее?	· Yes · No · Doubt
3. Do you agree that working in a group the teacher hasn’t enough time for all students?	Согласны ли вы с тем, что в работе с группой у учителья не достаточно времени для всех учеников?	· Yes · No · Doubt
4. Is it difficult to understand some grammar rules working in a group?	Трудно ли понять некоторые грамматические правила работая в группе?	· Yes · No · Doubt
5. Do you think working in a group is a good method to develop the communication skills?	Как вы думаете, работать в группе хороший способ развить навыки общения?	· Yes · No · Doubt
6. Do you think that studying in a group helps one to learn faster than studying alone?	Как вы думаете, обучение в группе помогает учиться быстрее, чем обучения индивидуально?	· Yes · No · Doubt
7. Do you think that sharing views with others in group work increase the knowledge?	Как вы думаете, обмен мнениями с другими учениками в групповой работе повышает уровень знаний?	· Yes · No · Doubt
8. Do you think that working in a group can take a lot of time by chatting, joking between members?	Как вы думаете, работая в группе ученики тратят ли много времени болтая, шутя ?	· Yes · No · Doubt
9. Do you find working in a group as an effective method of learning a foreign language?	Считаете ли вы работу в группе эффективным методом в изучения иностранного языка?	· Yes · No · Doubt

Having conducted a questionnaire we identify, that teachers use group works at lessons and 79% of them consider group work is an effective way to teach foreign language. 65% of pupils and 72% of students consider group work is an effective way to learn foreign language

In conclusion, we would like to note, the purpose of the article was not to convince teachers to forget about the traditional approach to schooling. All researchers’ group learning problems come to the conclusion that this type of activity brings positive results only in combination with conventional methods. It seems reasonable to use group forms and methods of work in about 25% of teaching time. In addition, we must not forget that the group work - not entertainment during school hours, it is a full-fledged form of work in the classroom, the proper use of which leads to the achievement of certain academic and educational purposes. Therefore, the teacher must do everything possible to students imbued with the understanding that they are not just play in adult, but above all learn to work together and improve their level of knowledge. In addition, would like to note such an important fact as the active support of the students the idea of group learning. We conducted a questionnaire among students and teachers, the results of which indicate that students in most cases considered forms of group work more efficiently because they feel a personal responsibility for the results of the entire group, not just receive information from the teacher, but they are researchers analyze information and make appropriate conclusions. Former weak students realize that they can learn better; on the other hand, the stronger students learn the role of assistant-teachers. Finally, without exception, the students emphasize the importance of interaction, collaboration, because they believe these skills are necessary in the future.

REFERENCES

1. E.G. Cohen, J. I. Goodlad. Designing group work: strategies for the heterogeneous classroom. 1994. -85 p

2. H. Chirac. Building group work process, 2003, -40 p

3. G. Harmer, The practice of English language teaching. 3^rd edition, 2001, -102p.

4. D.W. Johnson, R.T. Johnson. Learning together and alone. 1992, - 22p.

5. K. Caldwell, Study group guide for students, York University, -40 p.