Investigating the Use of Group Work in the Oral Expression Module. Case study: First Year BMD Students in the Department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou

Abstract

This study is concerned with investigating the use of group work in the oral expression module with the first year BMD students in the department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou. To carry out our study we have relied on Brown and Ellis’s theory of group work. the study aims at checking whether the group work technique is used by teachers of the oral expression module, and if it could enhance the students’ speaking skill. The investigation is based on the mixed research method. It combines a questionnaire that is addressed to first year BMD students and an interview that is conducted with their teachers of oral expression module. In fact, the study combines the quantitative and the qualitative methods. It uses statistical method to elicit statistical data, then, adopts qualitative content analysis for the interpretation and the explanation of the results. After the discussion of the results, we have found out that the teachers of the oral expression module in the department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou use the group work technique with the first year BMD students. Also, the results provide evidence that group work is the right technique that could help for increasing the students’ oral participation in interactional environment