TO THE ISSUE OF GROUP WORK AT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS

Abstract

The article concerns group work method as a way to achieve cooperation and mutual support at a lesson since group work is a form of common training that aims at critical thinking, language and social skills improvement. Described are some aspects of such work – types of groups (homogeneous – with students of different language proficiency levels and heterogeneous – where students are grouped together according to the similar results); useful sub-skills for students to be able to successfully and effectively participate in a group discussion – they need to develop the ability to analyse, persuade, control emotions and support each other. Thus students practise conversational strategies of negotiating, agreeing and disagreeing and turn-taking as well as thinking skills
such as rationalising and problem-solving. Described are several key things to consider when setting up group discussions in the classroom to ensure that they run successfully. Encouraging students to give each other feedback after activities and introducing the appropriate task language, not only provides opportunities for discussion, but also the opportunity to use language for a real purpose. Traditional feedback still has its place under certain circumstances, but a variety of feedback techniques relieves the monotony of the procedure, particularly if those techniques encourage learner involvement, responsibility and co-operation. The teacher is then left to field questions, clear up problems and respond to the diagnostic function, while feedback serves a real, meaningful and communicative purpose. Presented are the main researches of foreign scholars regarding group work.