1 whole-group instruction: the class is taught as a whole
2 small-group discussion: a group of between six and eight students
working on a discussion topic
3 tutorial discussion group: a small group of usually less than five students
focusing on a narrow range of materials, often to help remedy a learning
difficulty.
Important issues in grouping are group size (a factor which influences
learner participation in group work) and whether students learn better in
mixed-ability groups or in groups of about the same proficiency level. Use
of small groups is a characteristic of Communicative Language Teaching
and Collaborative Language Learningsince group work is said to facilitate
real communication and naturalistic language use.
see also co-operative learning, small-group interactiongroup work n
(in language teaching) a learning activity which involves a small group
of learners working together. The group may work on a single task, or on
different parts of a larger task. Tasks for group members are often selected
by the members of the group.
see also pair work
guessing parameter n
see item response theory
guided discovery n
an inductive teaching technique in which the teacher provides examples of
a target language item and then guides the students to work out the meaning
or underlying rules for themselves. For example the teacher may provide
a text containing several examples of the past perfect, a set of questions
to prompt the students to think about time references, and ask students to
try to work out the meaning of the past perfect.
see also deductive learning
guided discussion n
see discussion miethod
guided interview n
an interview in which the interviewer makes use of a set of questions that
has been prepared in advance and that is used to guide and structure the
interview. The list of questions used by the interviewer is known as an inter-
view scheduleor protocol. Usually the interviewer records answers to the
questions into the schedule during the interview.
group work