Empirical Study On The Influence Of Different Grouping Patterns On Students’ Interaction Activity In EFL Class Of Junior High School

In recent years, the use of group activities in the second language classroom has gained the supportof the second language acquisition theory and pedagogy theory. There are more and more interactiveactivities of this kind in English class in Zhengzhou City. However, many English teachers have noticedthat some students just passively participate in interactive activities without any meaningful communicationand negotiation with their partners in EFL class; therefore, doubts on the effectiveness of interactiveactivities were raised by the teacher. Combining classroom observation and related experience in teaching,the author thinks that the factors influencing students’ enthusiasm of interaction may be the groupingpattern adopted by the teacher, rather than the interactive activity itself. Therefore, it is necessary for us tocompare the results of different grouping patterns, including those widely used in the EFL class inZhengzhou.The present study chose the8thgrade students of Huimin Middle School as the research subjects, anddesigned three different patterns of interaction group which were applied to three groups of students (In twoclasses). We have carried out experimental study for one semester to conduct comparative experimentalanalysis on student’s interactive features and willingness to communicate in three different groupingpatterns, such as: Group A. fixed-grouping selected by the teacher; Group B. fixed-grouping matched bythe students themselves; Group C. freed-matched small group. The research methods the author adoptedinclude questionnaire survey, classroom observation and tape recording during the experiment. Thequestionnaire surveys are employed to measure students’ willingness to communicate in English, and theirperceptions of interaction in English. The tape recordings get the general situation of group workinteraction in the classroom, and the results from those are employed to get the students’ interactionbehaviors of the three groups.The results showed that the students in Group B are the most active in participating the classroominteraction of the three groups.1. After the experiment, students from group B displayed a most significantincrease of their willingness to communicate in English (in and out of class), students in Group A alsodisplayed an increase in this aspect, but the increase is not statistically significant, only students in Group C displayed a decrease of their willingness to communicate in English.2. After the experiment, studentsfrom Group B displayed the most positive perception of group work in class, while in Group C, studentsturned to be less favored of group work than before.3. The analysis of tape recording data revealed that, inGroup B, there was the largest number of evidence of peer assistance and interaction as an interpersonalactivity, while in the groups of free-grouping pattern, students’ non facilitative/unpleasant interaction tookplace more often. The research results above indicated that the Group B pattern significantly outperformedthose from the group C pattern, which is employed most frequently by the English teachers in ZhengzhouHuimin Middle School. Furthermore, the comparison between the two groups of fixed grouping patternrevealed that the Group B is more preferable than the Group A. English teachers need to conduct moregroup interactions. Teachers should pay special attention to selecting the topic which can arouse students’interest. Meanwhile, teachers themselves not only should often carry out the classroom grouping interaction,but also pay attention to choosing the most efficient pattern.