Group work for language students: worthless?

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Group work for language students: worthless?
« on: April 05, 2018, 02:19:16 PM »
What do language students do in small groups that genuinely benefits them? I've seriously started wondering about this because [humblebrag] I recently, by accident, discovered a way to have classroom discussions where all students produce authentic, monitorable language a whole lot more than I've ever heard before [/humblebrag] and then of course discovered that no one is in fact monitoring all that speech. It occured to me these are language students deploying a developing skill and no one is giving them feedback on their skill use. It occurred to me to wonder for how long they would keep speaking, how long until they discovered for themselves they were getting no educational reward for the effort they were putting into classwork? But pairs and group work is the same, isn't it? Asking students to chat with their partner is what as far as skill development is concerned?

It's like giving an exam and never telling the scores, isn't it?
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0