Pairwork and Groupwork by David A Hill

1. Pairwork
a. Open pairs: two people speak, everyone else listen
i. Teacher ↔ Student pairs
 Informal chat as class begins
 Talking about and checking understanding of language
 Talking about work done, checking comprehension
 Eliciting newly presented language
 Modelling newly presented language before closed
pairwork
 Talking about and checking understanding of a task
 Student questions
ii. Student ↔ Student pairs
 Teacher-instigated
 Spontaneous student exchanges
iii. Melée/mingle activity: the whole class operates on an open pair
basis with everyone else in the class
b. Closed pairs
.Advantages
 Increases STT
 Encourages learner independence
 Allows for individual differences in learning style
 Encourages cooperation
 Allows the teacher time to work with individuals
 Decreases stress (interaction in the most human format)
i.Disadvantages
 Large classes
 Noise
 Use of mother tongue
 Pairs talk about other things
 Pairs don’t like each other
 Phat happens with early and late finishers
ii.Classroom management - students work:
 Face to face
 Back to back
 Side-by-side
 2. Groupwork
. Open groups
.Teacher ↔ Groups
 Teacher wants to talk to a particular group about the way
they are working
 Elicit the answers to a task
 The group calls the teacher to clarify something/tell their
results
i.Group ↔ Group
 Feedback from a group task activity
 Open forum about their answers
a. Closed groups
.Cooperative discussion and problem-solving (roleplaying)
i.Advantages: similar to those of pairwork
ii.Disadvantages: similar to those of pairwork + social loafing

3. Pairwork and Groupwork

. Groups into pairs: students discuss a task, and/or the language necessary for a
task, in groups, before they move on to do the task in pairs
a. Pairs into groups:
.Students are paired to discuss a problem and its solution
i.The pairs are then paired into groups of four to form a group solution
ii.The fours are then paired into groups of eight and so on