teacher to students that is translating a sentence. This case shows up clearly that students are not involved in teaching and learning activities Brown, 2001: 178.
Related to the learners autonomy Jenny Des Fountain states “school knowledge is the knowledge which someone else present to use, we partly grasp it, enough to
answer examination question, but it remains someone else’s knowledge not ours. If we never use it we probably forget it. Therefore, we have to use knowledge for
our own purpose and incorporate it into our view of world” Fountain, 1994: 48 d.
Step toward Individualizing Instruction Group work can help students with varying abilities to accomplish
separate goals since in the classroom there will be different characteristics of students with different proficiency and objective. Therefore it can help teachers to
help them achieve their goals. The other advantage of group work is found by Reza Pishghadam and
Mostafa Morady Moghaddam from their research study. The result shows that the class which was taught on group work as the main tool for teaching enjoyed
considerable advantages, especially in memorizing conversations and learning new vocabularies. Although it was found that there was also a little variation in
term of phonological and grammatical that was produced by the students Pishghadam Moghaddam, 2011. Similarly, Eveyik-Aydin 2003 also states
that teachers agreed that grouppair work activities developed oral conversational and communication skills, encouraged student involvement, and increased the
quality of language practice and students motivation to use English. This statement is based on his research study finding conducted in Turkey.
4. Types of Group Work
Nation 1989: 20-23 suggests four types of group work or he named it arrangement
which can be implemented in teaching and learning activities. Teachers can select which one of those four types will be implemented in teaching
and learning activities. The selection of the arrangement type should be based on the goals they want to achieve, after that, teachers should determine the tasks.
seating arrangement should also be considered because different types of group work will have different seating arrangement.
a. The Combining Arrangement
In this type of group work, each member has different piece of information that all the other needs. It is the ideal arrangement in group work because it
ensures interest and participation. It also encourages students’ involvement because each member has unique and essential information that the other
members do not. Therefore, the students will take part actively. Sometimes, this arrangement is also inserted in the other arrangements to make them work well.
b. The Cooperating Arrangement
Different from the combining arrangement, in the cooperating arrangement each learner has access to the same information or materials and
cooperates to the task. The cooperating arrangement is the most common arrangement. it is very useful when teachers want the students to share their
understanding of the solution to the task or of materials.
c. The Super-Inferior Arrangement
Actually, this type of arrangement almost the same as the combining arrangement, the difference is on the member who has information. In this
arrangement, there is just one member of the group who has information that the other member needs. It is also very useful for pair work activity.
d. Individual Arrangement
Different from the cooperative arrangement, here, each learner has access to the same information but must perform or deal with different part of it.
5. Implementing Group Work in the Classroom
Brown 2002: 182-190 suggests that there are four step of implementing group work activities. The steps are:
a. Selecting Appropriate Group Technique
This step requires teachers to select whether they want to create pair work or group work. The selection should be based on the goals and tasks that they are
going to give. In this step, Harmer 2001: 120-122 suggests teacher should also figure out how the group work will be created. There are three ways of creating
group work based on Jeremy Harmer which based on 1 Friendship, 2 Streaming, 3 Chance. By means with streaming is that teachers mix the students who are
smart and not really smart based on the understanding of materials. b.
Planning Group Work There is an article from National Oracy Projects 1994: 57-59 which
states that planning is the central and crucial activity in such activity not the evaluation of the activity. Therefore, it is very important to check that the learning
is being managed in such a way. In this step, Brown 2002: 187 suggests teacher carry out several considerations to figure out before implementing the group work
like introduce the technique, justify the use of small groups, model the technique, give explicit detail instruction, divide the class, check for clarification, and set the
task in motion. Dealing with the instruction Jeremy Harmer 1998: 3 suggests that the instruction should be as simple as possible and logical. Then, teachers
also should check students’ understanding of the instruction. c.
Monitoring the Task In this step, teachers’ job is being a source and facilitator Brown, 2001:
189. Therefore, as a teacher, Jenny Des Fountain suggest the teachers should be aware of the importance of finding ways to listen carefully to what our students
actually say, and to value their ideas Fountain, 1994: 49 d.
Debriefing There are two things teachers should do. The first is reporting in which
each member reports the result of their work to the other groups. The second is establishing affective support
in which the teacher brings the class back together as a whole community of learners then they may discuss or ask question related to
their problems when doing the task.
E. High School Students
1.
Characteristics of High School Students
In this stage, children are able to think beyond the immediate context in more abstract terms. They are able to carry out logical operation such as deductive
reasoning in a systematic way. And therefore, they begin to solve problem with
logical thinking Brown, 2001: 92. Furthermore, Harmer 2001: 39 states that children at this stage are in the process of searching their individual identity.
Therefore, they try to look for their peers approval and attention rather than teachers approval. Teachers’ approval and attention are not crucial for them at this
stage because they want to be accepted by their peers. Besides searching for individual identity, Douglas Brown states that the students at this age are
experiencing puberty in which they are not a child anymore but they are not an adult either. Therefore, problem may occur since they have to be treated specially,
not as children and not as adult. They are in an age of transition, confusion, self- consciousness, growing and changing bodies and mind. Brown suggests that
teachers should apply a very special set of consideration to teaching them Brown, 2001: 91-92.
Although Ur 1998: 286 in Harmer 2001: 38 suggests that children at this age are the best language learners, students at this age are also easily
provoked to be disruptive. This condition is the result of peers’ approval from which the students believe in. in addition of the disruptive behavior Jeremy
Harmer states that the disruptive behavior can be caused by boredom they cannot cope. Dealing with Penny Ur statement about the students’ potential, Jeremy
Harmer also says that students at this age have a great capacity to learn, a great potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest
them in a condition they are engaged to be involved Harmer, 2001: 39. The word “interest them” probably should be emphasized, because looking back at the
Harmer statement Students are also easily bored. As a result of their boredom,
