Students’ perceptions of small group work at the IEP program of the American University of Armenia

Abstract

Small group instruction has been extensively implemented in the Intensive English Program of the American University of Armenia to prepare students for the university content courses where cooperative small group learning is widely used. This study investigated IEP students’ perceptions of this instructional format to determine how it affects students’ learning and what problems they see in regard to it in order for the faculty to respond to students’ concerns. The issues addressed were how students conceptualize the purpose of small group learning, their learning style preferences, the most successful group tasks, and the usefulness of small group learning for the enhancement of students’ social skills, higher order thinking, psychological wellbeing and learning English. The results of the study showed that the students valued small group learning as an instructional format and considered their group experience to be positive. Some difficulties were perceived with regard to the social aspect of small group learning, and a few minor problems were mentioned in relation to its effect on language learning. To address these concerns, some recommendations were provided, aimed at the enhancement of this instructional format.