Title: Enhancing General Vocabulary of ESL Students through Small Group Discussion
Abstract: Majority of the students in India study in vernacular medium for their primary and secondary education. Dur- ing their study they do not get that good exposure of English language. For learning any foreign language, four major skills should be balanced equally. Instead of using all four major skills, the students only make use of two skills: listening and reading and sometimes writing also but only for their home works. They never get chance to speak in front of the class and among their groups. During a small survey, while interviewing a group of students, the researcher found some of their problems with English language. The students were complaining about grammar, sentence structure, pronunciation etc. But the majority of the students had problem with vocabulary. The sample group students claimed that, they know the word in their mother tongue but when they are asked to give its proper word in English, they fail. After the survey, the researcher, observed other stu- dents as well. And the conclusion was that a big number of vernacular medium students find problem with their vocabulary. This gave an idea to the researcher to bring a suitable way out to this problem. Group discussion is considered to be the most effective approach of learning a language and logically arguing things. If group discussion is arranged, the learners should have some basic knowledge of language to present their views in favor or against the proposition. They should also have knowledge of how to put across one's ideas. Group discussion is an important activity in academic and administrative spheres. It is a systematic and purposeful interac- tive oral process. Here the exchange of ideas, thoughts and feelings take place through oral communication. The exchange of ideas takes place in a systematic and structured way. The participants sit facing each other almost in a semi-circle and express their views on the given topic/issue/problem. Group discussion can also be used in classroom situations. Students, most of the times, do not get chance to use their target language orally. In this situation, group discussion is a tool that a teacher can easily use in classroom and make the class interactive. Through group discussion students learn how to present their thoughts, how to make an argument, how to present counter argument, what words or phrases should be used while presenting an idea or an argument. Hence in the present paper the researcher explores the use of small group discussion to enhance vocabulary of ESL students.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-05-06
Language: en
Type: book
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