A Study of Spanish II High School Students' Discourse during Group Work

Abstract: Group work offers a viable alternative to the teacher-centered, direct instructional model. However, many teachers have been reluctant to incorporate extensive group work into their teaching repertoire, citing concerns about the amount of English used and off-task behavior. This study reports the results of an analysis of five conversations of Spanish II high school students working on a series of group projects. The researcher established that the majority of student discourse was in English and that there was consistent off-task behavior in the groups. However, the majority of the student discourse was relevant to completing the assignment. A further analysis of this on-task discourse revealed examples of metacognitive discourse (i.e., talk about procedures and strategies) and metatalk (i.e., talk about vocabulary and grammar). Finally, survey data demonstrated that student opinions are generally positive about group work. Key words: discourse analysis; group work; metacognitive; metatalk; task-based instruction Languages: English, Spanish Introduction For much of its history, the teaching of foreign languages has been dominated by teacher-centered methodologies. For example, in the grammar-translation method, teachers directly taught rules and corrected errors. In the audiolingual approach, students responded to teacher directives with repetitions and recitations. Long and Porter (1985) characterized this style of teaching a "lockstep" mode of interaction. Even with recent "communicative" approaches, teachers initiate most classroom discourse in the target language (Mantero, 2002). Typically, the initiation of classroom discourse follows a three-step process in which the teacher poses a question to which a student responds and the teacher evaluates the responses (Kelly Hall, 1995). The constant repetition of this pattern of discourse results in an "Atlas complex" among foreign language teachers who feel obliged to dominate the classroom proceedings for the sake of efficiency and effective use of the target language (Lee & VanPatten, 1995). Group work may represent an antidote to the Atlas complex, freeing the teacher from total responsibility for language use and evaluation. Many researchers have identified group work as critical to second language acquisition (SLA) (Brooks, 1992; Pica & Doughty, 1985), recognizing that the negotiation of meaning and the expression of personal ideas most naturally occur in group situations. Frustrated with their roles as initiator, participant, and evaluator of all student interaction, many teachers now attempt to include some group work in all their classes. However, other teachers have been reluctant to incorporate group work into their teaching repertoire, questioning whether students are learning one another's mistakes, wasting time on off-task behavior, or using English excessively. Through an analysis of student discourse, the present study considers both the advantages and disadvantages of group work. Advantages of Group Work Group work may be defined as any activity involving two or more students in which, for a time, the teacher does not have to directly intervene (Davis, 1997). Bruffee (1984) defined group work as a form of indirect teaching in which the teacher poses a problem and organizes the students to solve the problem collaboratively. Smith (1987) cited two main benefits of group work in general classrooms: (a) Group work shifts the responsibility for learning from the teacher to the student; and (b) Group work increases achievement and improves students' attitudes. Ghaith and Bouzeineddine (2003) asserted that group work has been shown to be superior to other forms of individual and competitive instruction in terms of social and cognitive outcomes. Goodlad (1984) claimed that group work helps students develop critical thinking skills while Ames (1984) found that group work reduces the perceptions of differences among individuals. …