(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)*
An important ingredient for making pair work activities successful learning experiences would seem to be active involvement on the part of both members; and it seems obvious that certain tasks would produce more involvement than others. In fact, research has been conducted on the type of communication present when pairs are involved in one-way and two-way tasks.
(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)*
One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching a conversation class is that when you teach your ESL students conversation techniques, you get to hear them talk about their culture, their experiences, opinions and dreams.
A student-centered approach doesn’t mean the teacher just puts students in groups, gives them a topic and tells them to talk about it. It doesn’t even mean that the students are put in pairs (Student A/Student B), given two different “information gap” papers and told to complete the exercise by talking.
Recording on a smartphone
This technique requires minimal preparation, but it will help you zero in on the words/ sounds that a student is struggling with. And it will enable you to help him/her improve their pronunciation in a non-threatening way.
To watch a more detailed description of this technique, see my YouTube video Most Effective Approach to Helping Students Improve Their Pronunciation (Time Efficient)
A teacher once said that she avoided pair work during conversation lessons because she wouldn’t be able to monitor all the students to catch their grammar mistakes. Is this a legitimate reason? Researchers have studied what, in fact, happens when students work in pairs with other students and when they work with non-native speakers which can dispel some of the mis-assumptions about the drawbacks to pair work.
Common Sense Teaching ESL 