How to Pair Up ESL Students
Posted: Monday, April 04, 2011
by Chris Cotter
http://www.betterlanguageteaching.com
A key component to the effective ESL classroom comes with pairs. Students need as many opportunities to work in pairs as possible to improve accuracy and fluency, and to make their language production more automatic. In addition, the teacher needs to reduce his/her speaking as much as possible, and that definitely means allowing students to work together rather than individually report information to the teacher. The former creates a student-centered classroom. The latter creates a teacher-centered ESL classroom.
First and foremost, the teacher should consider ability. It's often a good idea to pair up students of similar ability. So a weaker student will pair up with a weaker student, while a stronger student will pair up with a stronger student. Weaker students will largely focus on the target language. Stronger students will add to the target language as they more quickly become confident with the new material. However, no matter the ability, both sets of students will work at their level of ability and get the most out of the activity.
On occasion, the teacher may want to pair up mismatched students, such as a stronger student with a weaker student. This works well too, but only when used sparingly. The stronger student now has a chance to teach, correct, and guide his weaker partner. The weaker student also benefits because he/she has a model with which to gauge his/her ability. And because it's a peer who is used as a measure, it's less abstract what may be achieved with additional study and practice.
It's important to note, however, that mismatched pairs should be used for short periods of time only. If mismatched ESL students work together for the entire class period, then frustration and boredom enter into the picture. The stronger student doesn't have the chance to challenge him/herself. The weaker student realizes his/her limitations, and so feels similarly frustrated. In fact, both students will actually have lesser ability with the target language at the end of the class!
The teacher should also think about other issues like gender, age, hobbies and interests, and even the nationalities of the students. Some women may not want to participate in speaking activities with men, for example. Some people have such widely varying interests or opinions that speaking activities will feel forced; they simply won't have much to say to one another, and so won't venture far beyond the guidelines set by the teacher.
In any classroom, the objective should be for natural use of the language. This means after presenting the target language, students need to practice it. And the best way to practice is through effective use of pairs in the ESL classroom.
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