awej 5 no.4 full issue 2014

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.4, 2014Group Work in ESL: A Teacher’s Perception and ApplicationAllhedanSignificance Mike Orr of the ResearchExploring the tensions between teachers’ beliefs and practices points out areas ofimprovements that are often not clear enough for most observers. Understanding andacknowledging the reasons behind these tensions also provide teacher training that is betterconstructed towards needed areas.Limitations of the StudyThis research has a few limitations that were unavoidable at the time of conducting thestudy. First, the short period of the study could only lead to basic results. Consequently, furtherprecise results as well as a variety of themes would emerge if this study has extended to coverlonger periods of observations of teacher’s classroom practices. Another limitation is related tothe one class of students, the subject of the carried out practices. A range of observationoutcomes might appear if there were more than one class with different types of students to beobserved. Finally, such studies that are focused on one or a few subjects generate results specificto the subjects of the study, thus presenting results that cannot be generalized.Research MethodsParticipantsThe major participant is an in-service teacher with a thirteen-year experience in teachingEnglish as a Second Language (ESL). The minor participants were the students in the class theteacher was currently teaching. There were sixteen students with a high-intermediate proficiencylevel. They were of similar age groups but had mixed L1 backgrounds. The researcher had littleinteraction with the students, but their dynamics were the subject of attention while conductingthe research.Data collection and analysisThe data were collected via two methods: a semi-structured interview and pre- and postclassobservations. After observing one class on October 1, 2012, the researcher made anappointment suitable to the teacher’s schedule and conducted the interview in the teacher’s officeon Friday, November 16, 2012. Twenty questions were asked in semi-structured interview. Thebulk of the questions asked specifically about the concepts behind the teacher’s belief in groupwork and how to address the possible problems with group work. This interview lasted twentyeightminutes and was followed by a class observation. The other questions were about theteacher’s background and general beliefs in language teaching methodologies; these questionswere asked after the class in a twenty-six minute interview. During the interview, the researcherasked some additional questions that were not originally included in the questionnaire to seekclarification on some of the teacher’s answers. The interview was fully recorded via iPhone andtranscribed via ExpressScribe for analysis and discussion.The first class observation was oriented to the teacher’s general teaching practice andfocused on teaching vocabulary within group work. In the 90-minute class observation thatfollowed the first interview, careful attention was paid to two foci: the teacher’s practices andinteraction with the groups and the groups’ dynamics. Field notes was the method used forrecording events in the classroom. Recording the class interaction was considered as a method,but then it was dismissed because of the difficulty of recording all the sounds in a largeclassroom and because of the stress it might provoke, which could lead to unnatural reactions.Additionally, the teacher encouraged the researcher to interact with the students while theyArab World English JournalISSN: 2229-9327www.awej.org473