Abstract
This study involves a survey on student’s perceptions on whether group work is enjoyable, interesting, promotes interaction and an effective mechanism of learning. It further investigated if gender and performance in English had any bearing on group work. The instrument used consisted of four sections. Section A is for the descriptive data, while section B, C and D use a Likert scale where ‘5’ was the most positive answers. The sample of 70 respondents was randomly chosen from a semi urban school in the East Coast state of Terengganu. There were 27 males and 43 females and all of them were 16-year-old Malay Form Four students. The findings indicated that the students found group work to be enjoyable, interesting and promoted interaction. They also perceived it to be an effective means of learning. Through comparison of means and t-testing, it was established that there was no significant different between the genders in their inclination towards group work. Co-relational analysis indicated that there was no significant relationship between the students English language performance in their keenness towards group work. For future research, the study should be conducted in a longer period and in experiential way.
Highlights
In recent years, one of the basic problems in teaching English as a second language is to prepare those students to be able to use the language
The findings showed that teaching English as a second language (ESL) using group work activities made the lessons more interesting and enjoyable as it reduced the tediousness of language lessons
He further added that group work is superior to exercises such as classroom drills as it provides opportunities for children to talk freely as they find group work activities to be interesting and enjoyable, and this helps to improve their language.In view of this, school teachers should pay careful attention to the value of group work in the ESL classroom as well as give motivation to their students as the performance improves substantially when they are enjoying their lessons and highly motivated
Summary
One of the basic problems in teaching English as a second language is to prepare those students to be able to use the language. The students’ proficiency in English as a second language (ESL) can be improved through the practice of writing and speaking skills. Most of the teaching and learning process is class centered, whereby students only listen to their teachers as instructors who only enhance their commands. Some teachers feel that the best way to teach language is through whole class teaching. There are many benefits for using group work in the ESL classroom but not many teachers use this strategy. They seem to feel that group work is difficult to carry out. Doyle (1986), states that he viewed the classroom as a unique unit in which the teachers and their students interact for the purpose of teaching and learning to take place
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