นุชนารถ นาคฉายา. How Students Work Together on Tasks Outside the Classroom. Master's Degree(Applied Linguistics for English Language Teaching). King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library. : King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 2007.
How Students Work Together on Tasks Outside the Classroom
Abstract:
This study aims to survey what problems and solutions students find doing group work
outside class. The subjects of this research were five undergraduate students who were
enrolled in the course, Fundamental English III (LNG 103) at King Mongkut's
University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT). The criterion for selecting the subjects
was their familiarity with the researcher, as the researcher believed that the subjects
trusted her enough to feel free to accurately share information with her. For this study,
a non-structured interview was used in order to gain insight into the students' activities.
The data collected from the interview revealed a number of problems the students had
during completing group work outside class. For instance, they did not understand their
teachers' English instructions because of their limited proficiency in English. Students
also experienced difficulty due to inadequate preparation of language input. It was also
found that the students completed their group work outside the classroom without
working as a team. Some colleagues did not participate by doing their share and always
missed group meetings. As a result, work was completed in a hurry with only a few
people actually doing it. It can be seen that the students lacked psychological and
methodological preparation for working in groups outside class. However, they had
positive attitudes towards group work outside class as they saw it in terms of learning
with freedom from the teacher's control. Only two students had negative attitudes for
learning without the teacher's control outside the class because they thought that doing
so leads some students to take advantage over others, and it encouraged laziness.
The findings suggest that teachers should reflect on their own roles III giving
instructions, explanations and demonstrations, as well as checking students'
understanding before assigning them work outside the classroom. The findings also
suggest that students should be psychologically and methodologically trained and
prepared for doing group work outside class. Also, in order to promote the students'
learning in groups, teachers are recommended to be available as consultants and
facilitators outside the classroom. Furthermore, the students' positive attitudes towards
group work outside classroom should be maintained by presenting the benefits of the
learning outcomes to them.
The researcher hopes that the results of this study might be useful in raising teachers'
awareness of developing their students' learning in group work that has been assigned
to be completed outside the classroom.