Does talking with peers help learning? The role of expertise and talk in convergent group discussion tasks  

Oleh:

Tin, Tan Bee

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Full Text) vol. 2 no. 1 (2003), page 53–66.
Fulltext: Bee_Tin_Tan.pdf (250.75KB)

Isi artikel

The use of group work and group discussion tasks is widespread in Higher Education, the underlying assumption being that group talk helps learning.Many studies have identified features of effective talk for learning, but a belief in the importance of talking for learning is itself questionable and culture-specific.As Stubbs [(1976) Language, schools and classrooms (p.104) London: Methuen says: ‘‘this equation of learning with talking is widely held in our society, but is by no means universal.’’ In this article, I will examine the extent to which talking helps learning in convergent group discussion tasks, where the students’ goal is to construct pre-determined ‘‘true justified knowledge’’.The article will analyse instances where the same group of Malaysian students, studying on a Higher Education programme in the UK, both succeeded and failed to arrive at the truth.Although the analysis confirms the value of exploratory talk in the construction of valuable knowledge, we need to consider what causes students to engage in exploratory talk.In convergent tasks exploratory talk may not be triggered unless the expert knowledge required to solve the problem is already at the students’ potential or developmental level.Recommendations are made for the use of group discussion tasks in pedagogy and EAP classes.

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