Implementation of group work activities in an Armenian public high school to improve communicative skills

Abstract

Most public school teachers in Armenia still use the Grammar Translation approach and focus on explicitly teaching grammar and memorizing vocabulary. This often creates an environment, where students tend to be passive and do not get enough opportunities to practice speaking. Group work is a method, which is used to motivate learning, provide more opportunities to communicate and increase motivation through learning. The implementation of group work activities can provide teachers with new methods to use in their teaching and make their lessons more interactive. This action research study aimed to find out whether group work activities were used in one of the public high schools in Yerevan, what the teacher`s and the students` perceptions were about group work in general, and whether the implementation of group work could create more opportunities for students to practice their communicative skills. The participants were ten tenth graders and one English language teacher. The data was obtained both qualitatively and quantitatively through class observations, teacher interviews and student surveys. The results of the action research indicated that implementation of group work activities could enhance learners` communicative skills and change both the students` and the teacher`s perceptions towards group work.