Effectiveness of Pair Work in Teaching Complex Grammar Structures forESL Learners.

Abstract

Using pair work in the ESL classrooms is nowadays one of the approaches that are being practiced under communicative approach in teaching English as a strategy of overcoming the challenges face by the tertiary level teachers. Pair work has been recognized as the most effective technique in the classroom highlighting the importance of active participation of the students in the classroom. Moreover, it leads to practice the teamwork skills. Additionally, it has been found that the students who participate in collaborative learning get better grades, and they are more satisfied with their education. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the pair work when teaching complex grammar structures. A total number of twenty-two second year students who are studying Higher National Diploma in Information Technology were examined using Test Teach Test (T-T-T) method, which comes under qualitative methodology. Structures of Passive voice were taught and activities were given to work on at first individually and then as a pair work. The process was carried out in two separate days with the different activities. Moreover, some teachers were interviewed to examine their perceptions and the experiences on the subject. The data manifest multiple reasons for the success of using pair work. This approach gave the students opportunity to use the target language. Moreover, the students‟ active participation could be observed in practicing new structures through discussions and arguments with their classmates, rather than avoiding by saying that activities were difficult, and they got most of their answers correct. Sometimes the students‟ desire to pair with higher-level student could also be seen. Supporting the view of Moon claims (2000) “pair work valuable in providing more opportunities for more language exposure”, the result of the survey proves pair work has a positive influence in learning complex structures.