In this post, we explore why group work is a powerful tool for learning on English Taught Programmes, including EMI and TNE contexts.
In any EMI class, students will be working towards the dual aims of learning the subject content of the class (e.g. biology, engineering, law, literature) and developing their English language skills. This is true, no matter the size of the class or the student body.
Well-designed group work creates opportunities for students to do both of these things simultaneously, as well as providing the teacher with lots of data about student understanding of the given topic. Let’s look at the role of pair and group work in some more detail.
Developing language skills
One of the goals of an EMI course is to provide students with opportunities to use and develop their English language skills.
Pair and small group work is an obvious way to create chances for students to practice their English speaking fluency and active listening skills in a safe, friendly environment and within a meaningful context. During discussions, students can freely experiment with the vocabulary related to the subject, as well as practise using the functional language chunks required to agree, debate, collate, report ideas, etc. In some cases, students will also share knowledge they have heard or seen previously, perhaps in languages other than English, developing these key mediation skills.
In a class on Green Transformation (GX), for example, students might be asked the following:
Consider an energy provider you know well. What measures are they taking in terms of energy transition, both locally and globally?
This open discussion would involve mediating previous knowledge with peers and using key terminology relating to GX, including green energy sources and initiatives. In an international context, this question may also provide a wealth of international examples for open class discussion, including China’s investment in solar energy, work on hydro electric in areas like Brazil, India and Canada, and France’s nuclear energy programme.
In an online setting, breakout room discussion gives students the opportunity to use and develop these same skills. In addition, well-designed online forum tasks provide students with the chance to develop their communicative writing skills in much the same way as they discuss given questions and tasks, as well as comment on each other’s responses.
In essence, by integrating regular group work in classes, EMI teachers provide time and space for students to use and develop their English authentically, building their knowledge and confidence in becoming multilingual professionals in their chosen fields
Building confidence
For many students, speaking in front of a whole class can be intimidating. In an EMI setting, there is the added pressure of being judged on the quality of the English used. In other words, students may feel the pressure of losing face if they make a mistake when speaking in front of the whole class.
Group work lowers the stakes, making it easier to overcome shyness and anxiety. As students contribute ideas and solve problems together, perhaps in a mixture of English and other language(s) shared by the group (often known as code-switching or translanguaging), their confidence grows. This is both confidence in their knowledge of the subject, and in their use of the language required to discuss it.
We often see that students are more confident in answering questions in open class discussion after smaller group work, in part because they have had a practice at explaining their opinion(s) with a smaller group of peers before announcing them to the whole class (and teacher). Over time, this newfound confidence often leads to students being more willing to speak up in open class discussion, ask questions and actively engage with class materials.
Engaging in higher-order thinking
Well designed group discussions aren’t just about sharing information (showing what they can remember or understand), they’re about problem-solving. When faced with a context-specific, complex task, students must discuss different viewpoints, analyse information, and negotiate to reach a solution. This process not only engages their higher-order thinking skills, it also teaches them to respect and consider different perspectives, which is a key skill for success in the real world.
To take a couple of examples:
- On a digital green technology programme, students need to understand different types of green technology, but they also need practise in applying technologies together (e.g. integration of AI), analysing the impact of policies on green energy implementation, evaluating different green energy sources against one another in different contexts, and creating new, innovative, real-world applicable ideas.
- An international law student needs not only to remember and understand laws and rulings, but to apply knowledge of those laws to complex situations, analyse and evaluate the potential implications of their interpretation(s) of that application and consider how this might create a new precedent for future rulings.
A note here, that content teachers are not English language teachers. As such, we have found a good strategy to increase the amount of English used in group activities, especially in cases where the majority of students share the same first language(s), is to let students know they are not being judged on their use of English. The focus is on what they are saying (i.e. their answers and solution to questions and tasks the lecturer has set them), which leads us to our final point…
Providing evidence of learning
Whether working with smaller or larger classes, teachers need to know how much their students understand a topic in order to understand if it is appropriate to move on to the next topic.
Through group work, a teacher can see and collect evidence of student understanding. This involves the teacher setting a task, then monitoring student progress and answers discreetly. Once the task is completed, the teacher can use what they have overheard to:
- Highlight some key ideas raised, sometimes asking relevant groups to expand on them e.g. “This group had a great idea relating to X. Can you tell us more about that?”
- Correct any common errors overheard e.g. “I heard some groups mention X, but that’s not quite right because…
- Add any relevant ideas not mentioned by groups e.g. “I heard some great answers, here’s one more to think about...”
In the example below, this approach is being taken by a lecturer in mathematics in an EMI class in China. The teacher is monitoring how the groups are attempting to solve mathematical problems, collecting data in order to give targeted feedback on how these problems were (and can be) approached. In other words, she could see what the students had understood from her input, and highlight and go over areas which were still challenging for her students.
Summary
Group work isn’t just about getting a task done, it’s a vital part of the learning process in EMI. It helps students improve their language skills, build confidence, and develop critical thinking abilities.
Taking a more Overt Teaching approach, we believe this information should be shared with EMI students at the beginning of any EMI course. In this way, students better understand the vital role group work plays in the classroom, and are more likely to actively engage in it.
Training and support
At Oxford EMI, we practice what we preach on all our EMI training courses. As such, all course participants have many opportunities in each session of the Online trainer led and face-to-face courses to work together in small groups. This includes online forum tasks, short discussions, mini tasks, planning and delivering microteaching sessions.
To give additional support to EMI lecturers who speak English as an additional language, we focus on the functional language needed to set up, monitor and give feedback on group work as part of the English Skills for EMI Lecturers course.If you’d like to know more about any of these courses, please get in touch.