Managing Learner Anxiety in Literature Courses.

Abstract

SMALL GROUP WORK has become a standard feature of foreign language classes in recent years.1 These cooperative learning arrangements are particularly common in proficiency-based language instruction which focuses on enabling learners to apply their knowledge of the language in real-life situations rather than on giving them a detailed technical understanding of morphology and syntax. This instruction depends on activities such as these to provide opportunities for improving speaking competence. There are obvious advantages to dividing a large class into smaller units.2 First, participation is enhanced since many students can respond to each question, while only one learner at a time speaks if the whole class is working together. Consequently, small group activities producing more linguistic output per student allow the teacher to monitor the students more closely. If the circulates among the small groups, briefly joining each one at some point in the activity, he or she will undoubtedly find it easier to pay close attention to individual students than would be possible during a whole-class discussion. Furthermore, students working in a small group format appear to feel less timid about asking questions of the roving instructor than they do if all the other learners are listening. Another benefit of small group activities involves pacing. If the class is divided into small units, each group can work at its own tempo, so that students of different abilities may use more or less time than others to complete a given task. When students have this enhanced degree of control over the pace of a classroom activity, all learners seem to become more engaged in the exercise: the slower class members tend not to give up out of frustration and discouragement and stop participating, and the more adept students do not appear to grow bored and tune out, as they sometimes do when the entire class is working together. The can ensure that all of the groups work at a relatively uniform pace if he or she has strong students work with weaker ones; this also gives group members the opportunity to learn from each other. Finally, language teachers who use pair work and small group activities will no doubt have noticed that even the most reticent students often eagerly participate in such exercises. This observation leads to the final and perhaps the most important advantage of small group activities: dividing the class into smaller units lowers the stress level of the students and