GROUP WORK STRATEGIES IN

KOREAN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Why group work?
The goals of language learning and
Quality teaching
Student-centred approach to
teaching and learning
Two heads are better than one
Productive, creative, motivated,
tackle more complex problems

When to use?
Beginning of unit of work: assessing
students prior knowledge
Developing / expanding learning:
research work
Summative group tasks: projects

Benefits of group work: Students
Encouraged to become active learners by developing collaborative and co-
operative skills
Enhance interaction and social skills
Have the opportunity to learn from each other
Encourage quiet or less confident students to speak /participate in
activities
It makes learning more challenging and interesting
Motivate students and engages in learning
Promote student learning and achievement
Improve learning outcomes
Develop communication, decision making, problem solving, values
clarification, critical thinking, negotiation, and teamwork skills


Increase teaching and assessment options
Increase teaching effectiveness and efficiency
Large numbers of students can work on task
simultaneously
Students get the chance to work on large projects
which can save time
Alternative ideas and points of view can be generated


Benefits of group work: Teachers
Before implementing group work
To work successfully in groups, students need
to learn how to work with others.
Explain their ideas to others
Listen to alternative ideas
Reach consensus
Delegate responsibilities
Coordinate efforts
Resolve conflicts
Integrate the contributions of team members

Expectations of group work
Get along
Respect others
On task behaviour
Use soft voices
Participate actively
Stay in your group
Implementing group work in the classroom
Preparing and designing the group activity
a task/outcomes/grouping/timings/resources
Introducing the group activity
Explicit instruction
Group roles
Ground rules for group interaction
Monitoring groups
Is the group using effective planning process?
How are they functioning?
Is the group staying on task?
Are members contributing equally?
Are they listening to each other?
When should the teacher support or intervene?
Ending the group task
Presentation/ Evaluation / Reflection
EXAMPLES
OF
GROUP WORK
ACTIVITIES
Group activities: Reading, viewing & Responding
Study features of texts:
Compare and contrast different text types
Identify issues/ main points of the text /summarise texts
Identify text structure/targeting audience/ purpose / context
Short story: identify structure/ characters
Compare and contrast Kongi patji and Cinderella story (settings/ characters/ending)
Drama/ Movie: identify characters / settings / special effect
Poem/ Song lyrics: Theme, message, language features
Paintings: composition /colours /styles
Sequencing jumbled paragraphs of stories
Identify grammatical features from texts particles, connectives, adjectives,
sentences using conjunctions
Read texts and create possible exam questions
Produce travel guide brochure
Finding letters and words from magazines, newspapers
Matching Arabic numbers and Korean numbers
Create a role play script from a segment/ a part of the story

Group activities: Spoken exchange, Listening & Responding
Discussion: discuss to generate information/ clarify ideas/ share opinions
Debate
Situational conversation
Role-play: at the shop/ at the restaurant/ visiting doctors
Listen to the song and complete song lyrics/ missing words/identify
musical effect
Rewrite lyrics of the song and singing the song
Describe appearance of people & characteristics of people / objects/
scene
e.g. Each group is given a different picture of a person and one sheet of paper.
One student from the group describes a person and the rest of the students
draw the person being described.

Group activities: Writing
Build up sentences / paragraphs using given words by adding words and phrases
Writing descriptions / Creating stories using stimulus pictures
Compare festivals in Korea with Australia complete table of comparison then
present to the class writing information report
Product and Services- descriptions of different shops, menu
Create advertisements - Public campaign /commercial
Produce travel guide brochure /travel itinerary
Produce a poster/brochure /Power point
Informative: Korean festivals, Hanbok, folk games, Taekwondo, Farmers band, seasons
and weather, Street scene of Local area, Product and services
Persuasive : Sun safety, Water safety, Healthy eating, get along, Playground safety, No
smoking, , Harmony day, Volunteering, Environmental issues(Natural disaster, preventing
bushfire, Protecting endangered animal, Water conservation, Forest conservation)

Group activities: Writing cont.
Display chart: Life cycle of butterfly/frog/chicken, procedure, explanation
Translation (English Korean): each group translates one paragraph of the text into
Korean and read their part to the class eg. Moon Festival, The First Fleet
Changing text type: Survey- report- exposition/poster- narrative
e.g. Survey: litter in the playground
write a report based on the result of the survey
Write an exposition on Our playground should be free from litter
Write a narrative I am a rubbish bin in the playground
Producing role play scripts
Writing unfinished stories/ changing characters or setting of stories
Change parts of song lyrics
Creating Comic strips using iPad
Project/ Research work End of term / semester /unit of work
e.g. Australian animals/Solar system/Natural disaster

Other group activities
Craft
Collage/ jigsaw puzzles
Korean flag, Mugunghwa, Korean traditional house, Han Bok, Icons of
Festivals, Folk games (, )
Games
Memory memorise and recall the lines of poem/ lyric of songs
Korean whispers
Creating sentences/paragraph using given words
Playing Yut/ Jegi
Bingo!
Building up a sentence
Unjumble stories
Describing appearance of people & characteristics of people / objects/
scenes

Recommended reading:
Language games for classrooms: kindergarten to Year 2
Language games for classrooms: Year 3 to Year 6
http://iteslj.org/c/games.html

EXAMPLES
OF
STUDENT GROUP
WORK




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References
Hellmut R. Lang, Arthur McBeath, Jo Hebert (1999). Strategies and Methods for Student-
Centered Instruction . Haecourt Brace
David Vale, Angelina Scarino, Penny McKay (1991). Pocket All. Curriculum Coroperation
Calton Vic
Jo-Anne Reid with Bill Green and Robin English (2002). Managing small-group Learning.
Primary English Teaching Association NSW
Mary Harris Clarke (1997) Language games for classrooms: kindergarten to Year 2 /
Language games for classrooms: Year 3 to Year 6. New Communication Concepts Pty.Ltd