OHalloran, 2012, p4 [302136]

[anonimizat]. The semiotic resources are now part of the pedagogical process: gesture, gaze, images and movements.

O’Halloran affirms that the linguistic discourse present theoretical limitations which can distort the purpose and the meaning of the course. The educational research is focus in integrating new tools in order to perform in the pedagogical process.

Spatial pedagogy reconfigures the space of classes both by the teacher stationary positions and the movements and pacing. [anonimizat].

Halliday’s sustain that the semiotic resources have three metafunctions: [anonimizat]. The pedagogical spaces are constantly reconfigure depending on the placement of the teacher’s desk along with the teacher’s actions in the proposed space.

Hall’s [anonimizat]: Public, Social -Consultative, Causal – [anonimizat].

O’Halloran, 2012, p4

[anonimizat], which permits a formal and professional relationships between the teacher and students.

O’[anonimizat]: [anonimizat], Supervisory space and Interactional space.

The Authoritative space is in front of the teacher’s [anonimizat]. [anonimizat].

Usually the Personal space is the space behind the teacher desk. [anonimizat].

[anonimizat]’ desk with the purpose of supervision during the individual activities.

[anonimizat], most common placed in the back of the class where teachers silently watches the students during an individual task.

[anonimizat]. Is the space where teachers stay alongside the student’s [anonimizat]. It’s [anonimizat].

[anonimizat], on the final year classes ( 17 years old), during the same time with the same curriculum genre of a revision lesson.

The teachers were different by gender ( one male and another female) and with different teaching experience ( the female with more than 10 [anonimizat] in the planning of the curriculum and the Scheme of work for the teachers, and the male less than two years of teaching). Both teachers used the same type of didactical material and had the same objective at the end of the class. This experiment cannot permit a generalization on the gender’s teacher use of semiotic resources but permits a study of the possible implication of effective teaching for the future.

The results of the experiment were analyzed with Cytoscape , an open source bioinformatics software platform, an application not confined within the scientific disciplines.

The results of the data inputs are in the following graphs:

Adeline & Wilson’s Use of Space (reproduced after O’Halloran, 2012, p.13)

The first graph is for Adeline and the second in for Wilson.

Static position is represented by the orange circles; the movement and pacing are represented by purple rectangles; the directions are represented with the arrows. The bigger they are, the most time the teachers spent time or passed through.

Analyzing the graphs, both teachers spend most of the time in Authoritative Space (Adeline almost 30% of the time spent in the Classroom front center building a professional relationship with the students in Authoritative Space and Wilson almost 13% of the time in the same position and 18 % standing in the Classroom Front Right).

The front center of the classes offers an authoritative posture to the teachers, in the center or in the right or left part of the center.

Off-center ( Reproduced O’Halloran, 2012, p.16)

The space around the teacher’s desk was used by both teachers to use the laptop and the video player and Adeline use the space behind the teacher’s desk teaching ( 13% behind and 19% half- behind the teacher’s desk) transforming the Intimate Space into the Authoritative Space for gaining more formal and professional distance with her students.

Around Teacher’s desk as Authoritative Space (Reproduced O’Halloran, 2012, p.18)

Comparing to Wilson, Adeline used a more static position in front if the class, most of the time between whiteboard and move forwards to explain a certain point of the lesson.

Wilson spent 21% of the movements in the classroom area and Adeline only 10 % of the time. Both teachers used The Supervisory Space along with the Surveillance Space in the individuals or group activities task.

Wilson spent almost 8% of the time spacing the Supervisory Space (Adeline done it only 4% of the time), with energic movements used along with another semiotic resources like gesture and language enforcing the dominance and authority.

Adeline’s Pacing (Reproduced O’Halloran, 2012, p.20)

Wilson’s Pacing (Reproduced O’Halloran, 2012, p.21)

Although Wilson may appear more dynamic and energetic person, O’Halloran appreciate that this kind of great movements may reduce the impact of the other semiotic resources used in transmitting the message to students . Constructed as a more informal relationship choosing the off center position of the class, Wilson succeed to be more authoritative and powerful teacher through the language and theatral communication.

Adeline succeed to create a formal and professional interpersonal relationship with the students using the Authoritative Space without more movements, but using a clear structure of the lesson with the help of the interpersonal meanings made through language ( frequent use of the modality and adjunct and indexical gestures to indicate openness and possibilities).

The conclusion is that the teacher should conduct the lesson with clear guidance and parameters, but enough open and free to allow the students to enjoy, discover and interact in order to achieve their own understanding.

The results of the experiment were used for a better understanding of the spatial pedagogy concept. It’s introduced a new concept “structured informality” consist in the use of a combination of semiotic resources for a better management of the power dynamics between teacher and the students, for a better didactic structure of the classes. From the experiment, Adeline was the teacher succeeded to use the structured informality in creating a non-threatening environment for the students where they interact with the teacher and built a structured progression of the lesson.

The use of the computer technology (Cytoscope) in order to project the results of the study shows the usefulness of interactive digital media in analyzing the inputs. For the teachers, those analyses help to adjust the practices during the classrooms, in order to obtain a better pedagogically results.

The conclusion is that the nonverbal is as powerful as the verbal in the multimodal nature of teaching. There is no model to success but still, some reflection can be made after analyzing the inputs -the semiotic resources use such us gaze, gesture, posture in delivering the messages.

Although the inflection of the voice, the notes written on the table, the student’s notes were not taken in consideration, that a clear connection between the pedagogical process and the semiotic resources.

Mohammad Issa Mehawesh in The Socio-Semiotic Theory of Language and Translation: an overview affirms that the audience make judgements about the speaker based also on the background information such us signs, symbols, sound and paralinguistic means.

Semiotic is defined as a science that studies the impact of the signs in the social life and consider that linguistic is just a part of the semiotic science.

Specialized studies established the proportion in which the verbal language and nonverbal languages ​​is used in oral communication, as follows: 7% words, 38% paralanguage (mainly the intonation and inflections of the voice), 55% other elements of non-verbal language (mainly face expression) , body gestures and posture). Only 7% of the communication takes place through words, the rest being non-verbal.

Obviously, we can use images to communicate our message, either to replace words or, more importantly, to strengthen the verbal message. But, when we talk, voluntarily, or involuntarily, we also communicate through

• face expression – the smile.

• gestures – the movement of the hands and body to explain or accentuate the verbal message.

• body position – the way we stand or move.

• orientation – if we stand in front or behind the interlocutor.

• proximity – the distance to which we stand from the interlocutor.

• eye contact – whether we look at the interlocutor or not and sustain the look for a period of time,

• bodily contact – a slight beating on the shoulder.

• body movements – to indicate approval / disapproval or to encourage the interlocutor to continue.

• the external appearance – the physical appearance or the choice of clothing.

• nonverbal aspects of speech – variations in the height of sounds, their loudness and speed of speech, the quality and tone of the voice

• non-verbal aspects of writing – handwriting, placement, organization, accuracy and general visual appearance.

This set of non-verbal elements of communication is called “metacommunication”.

The first studies regarding the "nonverbal communication" appeared in the middle of the last century when there were identified another different systems involved in human communication:

1) physical presence and clothing

2) voluntary gestures or movements

3) random actions

4) traces of actions

5) vocal sounds

6) spoken words

7) written words

There were in fact identified the following channels of nonverbal communication: facial expressions, eye movements, posture, proxemics, physical appearance, semiotics factors, such as intonation, timbre and volume of voice, and dermal touch.

The classification of nonverbal communication can be done mainly according to the sensory modalities involved in receiving the signals. The field of nonverbal communication includes the following facts:

1) how we look

2) how we hear (tone of voice)

3) how we smell

4) how we move – individually or in conjunction with others (gestures, posture, look, facial expressions, body touch and proximity)

5) how the human interactions affect the environment and how they affect the environment as well (the spatial arrangement of the furniture, the temperature, the presence of other people, the noise, etc.)

Using of nonverbal communication might help or change the substance of the spoken language or substitute it by expressing emotions, transmission of interpersonal attitudes, making personality presentation, accompanying the speech as following:

• repetition: we tell someone that the address you are looking for is on a street on the right and at the same time pointing with your hand to the right

• substitution – replacement of verbal messages – a postponed face tells us that the person concerned is not feeling well

• completion – collaboration in the transmission of verbal messages, which leads to a better decoding of them

• accentuation / moderation – highlighting the verbal messages, amplifying or diminishing the words: – when we admonish a friend the facial expression may show that we were not very upset

• contradiction – transmission of signals in opposition to verbal messages; we say we are glad we met a well-known person but we look elsewhere when we extend his hand, we see that we have nothing to live for, but we are shown with very expensive jewelry or clothes

Chapter 3. Classroom dynamics

3.1 Classroom space and group dynamics

Even the teacher applies every learned skill and use semiotic resources, sometimes with observe different results depending on the cultural aspects along with the students group attending the classes. A new concept in teaching is structured and use: the group building.

Why the teachers should “worry” about the groups?

The group has a vast resource which can be used in the teaching and learning purpose than a single member/student

The group has a very powerful effects on the members of the group – in our case – the students; the group serve as reference and provide guidelines and standards in order to adjust attitudes, beliefs and behavior of the members.

The group is a powerful source of motivation to learn

The group can support or maintain the teaching and learning process

Stevick declared that “success depends less on materials, techniques and linguistic analyses, and more on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom”.

In a survey, Hadfield asked the teacher’s ( a group of teachers very experienced, head of departments, materials writers) to define a group that didn’t gel. The answers were the followings:

– Students don't listen to each other.

– They don't laugh at each other’s jokes.

– They don't make jokes.

– They can't deal with problems: molehills become mountains.

– They stay in nationality groups.

– They are territorial; they don't like regrouping.

– They are culturally intolerant.

– They don't socialize outside the classroom.

– They are all sitting in silence when you go in.

– They make you dread teaching.

– They won't work with each other.

– Nothing you do seems to work and the harder you try, the worse it gets

– The more uncooperative they are, the worse you teach, the more uncooperative they are, and so on.

– There is often an 'indigestible' group member.

– They question everything you do and if you make a mistake, they crucify you.

– They are teacher-dependent.

– They all want different things and won't compromise.

– There is no trust.

So, he reconsiders the answers and redefine the unsuccessful group as following:

The members of the group doe note cohere

There is a negative atmosphere within the group

Each member is more conducted by his own goals more than the group’s goals

There are some members not involved in the group activities

The group is dominated by the members do not qualify as the most experienced.

The territoriality space is more present in the group

The members do not listen one each other

The members group are depending on teacher

There are some members that create disturbance in the classroom

The group members do not cooperate for the tasks

Members of the group are intolerant of cultural and personal differences.

Group members have certain fixed or rigid ideas which they are reluctant to modify

. – Members of the group lack responsibility: they are reluctant to make an effort or take

the initiative.

– Group members tend to be over-serious with little sense of fun

Group members lack confidence in themselves as learners, what they are learning, and

the way they are being taught

Some conclusion might appear:

The group dynamic techniques must be mandatory sustained by the teaching message as process.

The technique dynamic of the group must be adapted to each group depending on how the classes works

The teachers must manipulate the groups in a positive manner for a positive feedback.

The group dynamics might consist also in chemistry

Group dynamics consist in scientific analysis about the behavior of a small group, developed in the 1940s but more developed in 50s and 60s.

There are two crucial facts that must be considered when we handle with the groups:

The individuals behave differently than they do outside the group – a group “has a life of its own”

All group have some fundamental common features, making possible to study the group in general

Hadfield affirm that from the previous experience, more teachers were focused in forming and the initial stage of the group and less on maintaining groups after they has been formed. The scientist it’s convinced that a successful group dynamic is a vital element in the teaching/learning process.

The firsts contacts with a group class are very important in establishing the group dynamics. The members of the group might feel anxiety, lack of confidence, uncertain regarding a possible implication in the class hours. The members might observe each other, observe the leader, typically on guard.

After a few classes, the group is structuring and organizing on a social structure that will prevail for a long period of time, depending on the intermember relation and group norms.

Regarding intermember relation there are identified three factors that my positive influence the groups:

Shared threat – the feeling f the group toward and very hard exam

Intergroup competition

Cooperation – between the members for a common goal – successful completion of the whole group tasks

The groups norms and standards are the institutional norms imposed either from the institution (schools) either from the leader of the group. The institutions norms became the group norms after they are accepted by the majority of the group. The group norms can start with the “class rules”. The advantage of the group norms consist in the fact that if the norms are well assumed by the group, once a member of the group violates the rules, the individual is put by the group in so called “social quarantine”.

The group development is also a major challenge for the teachers. Tuckman (1965) identifies five developmental stages for groups: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

The forming stage takes part when the group forms and the members became oriented towards each other’s. Members begun to show their public behavior and to avoid revealing the private beliefs.

The storming stage begins when the members starts to express their individuality. Disagreement and competition are typically at this stage: the speaker might be interrupted, and the idea criticized. The teacher must mediate and lead the group to the storm.

In the norming stage, the groups became a cohesive structure with harmony, trust and increasing supportiveness.

The performing stage is characterized by a maturity of the group, focus on completing the tasks performing as a unit in achieving the goals.

The group has different characteristics that determines the group dynamics: the norms, the status system, the group roles, the group cohesion and the classroom goal structure.

The status system is in regard to the position that every member of the group has in the entity. The relative status of the individuals affects the communication they are initiating and received by the others. The higher status members are more likely to criticize, command or interrupt the others, more often than the other members of the group. Also, a person status affects the manner of the evaluation used by the members of the group.

The scientist appreciate that the there are two fairly independent status hierarchies, the first associated with the competence and the second one related to the social skills, physical prowess, ability to defy authority and other emotional capacities that have little direct relationship to academic learning.

Group cohesion depend on the strength of the relationship between the members. There is identified a strong connection between the group cohesion and group performance. In a strong cohesion group, the members are more involved in task regarding the goals, the group norms are more powerful on the individuals, and the group is more likely to participate actively in conversations of the classes.

The cohesion of the groups depends on the amount of time spent together, the shared group history, the positive intermember relations and the groups legends. For a group to be harmonious and cohesive, it must have a definite sense of itself as a group and the individuals who comprise it must have a sense of belonging to the group as well as a sense of their place within it. Very successful group seemed to build up a kind of group mythology, sometimes giving themselves names and inventing characteristics for themselves.

One of the most important factors in the group cohesion is the leader.

In the classroom goal structures, can be identified the competitive, cooperative and individualistic goal structures. In the competitive groups, each member works individually and only the best of them is rewarded, depending on the results. In the cooperative groups, every member works with the group sharing the responsibility and all group members are equally rewarded for the success.

In an individualistic structure, student’s work alone and one’s probability of achieving a goal or reward is neither diminished nor enhanced by a capable other.

The classrooms can have a big effect on the physical of the group. The classroom from this point of view consist in the size of the classroom, the furniture, the size and the location of the windows, the walls decorations.

For a better result on the group reaction, teacher may modify the environment through an different display of the tables and chairs, making possible the eye contact between the members. In this case, it is preferred the circulars arrangements with the teacher as leader in the group. Standing in circle helps the interpersonal attraction and involvement in the group.

Most of the classroom are arranged in a semi-circular manner, with the teacher standing in the open area of the circle. This reinforce the teacher’s status, because he is put in a position where he can use better the interpersonal influence.

The teacher may agree to have a no desk area of the classroom for a better interpersonal relationship with the group. But since the desk might be seen as the student’s private territories, they might feel unsafe and reject the idea of not having a desk.

Personalizing the classrooms by involving also the members of the group is also a success in the group dynamics. The classroom space consist in a complex of well-defined “subteritories”, consisting of a “private spaces” belonging to the students (their chairs and desks), some “public spaces “governed by the teacher ( e.g. the aisles), and the teacher’s own domain in the front of the class, including the blackboard.

In the group dynamics, Hadfield identifies different action for the teachers to deal with the groups, depending on the forming, maintaining and ending groups process. He proposes for each process a series of affective and cognitive activities in order to create a positive and supportive group atmosphere.

Teachers might prefer to use only a part of the activities depending on his preferences or his manner to handle them or depending on the group and x the period of time. Also, depending on the group reaction, teacher should change or not the strategy on group dynamic technique.

Every group is different, and the balance and emphasis of activities will need to be different for every group you teach. In the end it is a matter of your temperament, your class's temperament, the complex interaction between them, and ultimately your own sensitivity, that must determine how you structure group activities, what you include, and what you leave out.

The activities are selected depending on the teaching style and the teacher’s personality, the composition of the group and the rhythm of the lesson and the time.

Depending on a group composition, affective or more cognitive activities must be selected. An intellectual group or a very traditional, rigid group may prefer more cognitive activities. In those groups, the affective activities must be introduced gradually in order to help you in the teaching process.

On the other hand, if the group respond very enthusiastically to the affective activities, , it might be needed to balance the high atmosphere by including more cognitive activities in the teaching process.

During the courses with a certain group it might be needed different strategies at the beginning, in the middle and at the end, depending on the changes that might appear in the group reaction ( the students might feel pressured, lack of energy, or tired and they need warming up, cooling down or even a break).

The strategies regarding the using of the cognitive activities or affective activities might take in consideration also the moment of the day. In the morning, the groups need at the beginning some wake up activities (affective activities) in order to energize people.

At the end of the lesson or in the afternoon, it might be needed to cool down the group. Activities might end with “Have I got what I wanted to?”, activities that encourage students to summarize the lesson content and to point the relevant aspects of the lesson.

In the middle of the lesson or after a hard task, the group must have a break , recommended a non-verbal one ( for example to keep the eyes closed during a quiet music is played).The end of the week is also a cooling down moment, like an end lesson, for remembering of what have been achieved and to clarify the goals of the past week. It’s recommended also at the middle of the week to have a short break or to design the lessons different ( put together two classes or devote some time to project work, video, creative writing or drama).

Hadfield groups the activities recommended in warm-up activities, cooling down activities and suggest that in the middle of the term to have a project, video program, a magazine that will break the routine and give the group a sense of solidarity and achievement – something they badly needed if they are going through a mid-term slump.

A distinctive perspective is in the examination period, or in the case of a rigid or packed program. Most of the activities will not need a special group dynamic but to be oriented towards he program and the teaching purpose.

It’s very important to establish from the beginning a good group atmosphere by relaxing the students and relieve the tension they might feel, to introduce them to each other and also to aware the student they are going to be involved both in learning a language and working together as a group using the cognitive and affective activities.

Dealing also with the group problems is a very important issue in the teaching process. Hadfield consider that not all group problems can be fixed. “while I do believe that the most potential problems can be solved, or better pre-empted by the use of techniques, the belief that the teacher is responsible for every group problem can lead too much unnecessary guilt and soul searching.

The main sourced of the group problems might be: teacher’s group, intra-group conflict and the undesirable group member.

Group Problems (Reproduced Hadfield, 1992, p.149)

A conflict of expectation about the progress might appear when there is a group which had made very good progresses at the beginning and they became an above the average intermediate group. They might feel in the middle of the term that they are no longer learning anything; they are feeling loss of confidence in themselves as learners and to the teacher, beginning to be a group not learning very well.

Some group problems might appear also with the groups who had before an authoritarian teacher who dictate content and expect deference and respect. The teacher changed and they were involved in a different type of teaching, when they were asked about the lessons, they responded only to please the teacher as very well and in the second day a violent quarrel begun in the group. In the way to solve the problem, the teacher was asked by the group to be more authoritarian, to put them to work and to have high expectation from them.

When the group problem interferes, the teachers might feel attacked, exposed, and rejected. Careful listening and flexibility on the part of the teacher are vital—even if it means swallowing your pride and your principles.
The mixed nationalities groups with different teaching styles, might feel discontent about the teaching process. The teacher discussed with the group and agree a certain type of activities that were considered as useful, but of course the problem was not solve but diminished.

Sometimes when the group consist in different nationalities and half ethnic minority, an inter-group rivalry might be the solution and not the intergroup rivalries.

Other example was a group formed half with Japanese students, well trained and disciplines willing to perform mixed with half of rebels’ students who makes problems during the classes. After the first term, all the tentative to form a group vanished and the class was split in two, on different time because was the easiest way to keep the goals for those types of students. Sometimes a radical decision to regroup students on a different basis may be the only way to create a less explosive mixture of people I have a feeling that this kind of sideways, unexpected, apparently irrelevant solution may be the best answer to a log-jam, where head-on confrontation of a problem is yielding no results.

Another issue is in regards with the groups having a shy, and awkward with obvious learning problems. The teacher attitude was to stand next to this member of the group, because the other members start treat his with respect and great affection. As the youngest member of the family.

The other issue appears when a member of the group is ostracized by the other members of the group depending on the previous experiences in the origin country. The students explained to the others the real problems he had to confront previous, and after, he was included in the group bases the shared bad experience and a felt of compassion.

The experience of continuing to teach after a very well accepted teacher is also an experience where the teachers must integrate with an existing group facing at the first some difficulties.

Hadfield identified different stages of solving the problems :

1.Stage 1 – the teacher must start with both affective and cognitive activities trying to pre-empt the problems.

2. Stage 2 – organizing a set of interviews regarding the expectation of the group, preferably in a place where they cannot be overhead by others. This is the manner the teacher finds out about particularly bad experience and expectations.

3. Stage 3 – taking the actions, in three manner possible

– continuing doing the same teaching process in the hope of the problem is minor and will disappear by default

– avoiding frictions by permitting less contact between group members and a lower emotional temperature

– acting in a radical manner by regrouping the students, changing teachers or tactics – it’s very important to maintain the teacher position and not he the psychotherapist one.

– confronting the problem – emotions are involved both on the group and the teacher’s side.

4. Stage 4 – after the crisis were resolved, the teacher might maintain the same techniques or a modification in the teaching styles, the group should be able to enter a new phase of productive work.

It’s possible that the crisis cannot be solved, and the group cannot be concealed. In this case the teacher should return to the stage 3 and identify a new manner of action by adopting a different solution.

There are some strategies and techniques for defusing tension, useful for different groups and situations. The teacher will use those strategies depending on his own experience and to adept them to the new context.

Listening is one of the most important techniques because some people might try to put forward their own point of view and to not listen properly the others. In this case, Hadfield recommends:

Really make an effort to listen to what the speaker is saying instead of mentally preparing your own counterarguments while he or she is talking.

– Make eye contact with the person who is speaking.

– Show that you are listening by body language; don't betray irritation or impatience.

– Don't interrupt and don't react defensively as soon as the speaker stops.

– Instead of leaping in immediately with your own counterarguments, acknowledge

what the speaker has said in some way, make a positive comment if you can, or ask

for an explanation of anything you didn't quite understand

Stating your case is another strategy that can help to reduce the inflammatory remark by:

Insisting that the participant to express the feelings Ï think”, Ï Feel”

Discouraging students to make direct and hurtful accusation by replacing You with The

Don’t permit the generalizations but encourage to be specific.

Replace the verbal speaking with writing, if the atmosphere become tensed or taking a break and playing music for a while just to detention the situation.

The teachers must make sure that all the different opinions are represented – “Make

sure, everyone has a chance to speak and that no one is allowed to speak 'on behalf of others”.

Another strategy is to ask the persons to summarize the thing said before starting to discuss about his point of view. Although it might seem a little bit laborious or artificial, helps misinterpretations and discourage the defensive reactions.

Finding a solution is the goals of all process, but first it’s important to take the opinion on it, to conclude with the group that everyone accepts that there is a problem, before finding a solution. It’s important to verify if all the points of views where expressed and summarized.

It is also very important to establish the idea between the group that everyone’s looking for a win-win solution and this will result at the end of a negotiating process.

This part of the conflict solving, Hadfield recommended two proposals:

Solution visualization – the members of the group close the eyes, identifies the best solution for ourselves and the feelings they will have after the conflict solved period an discuss about this with his colleague.

Brainstorming solutions – divide the group in the pairs and put them to write the ideas that comes into their heads. This exercise is a way of making the group to think outside the box and to visualize different point of views. After that, each pair must conclude only one solutions. One person from each pair will sustain the solution in front of everyone and will have to negotiate the solutions with the representatives of the others groups. The solution that won, is the solutions accepted by all the members of the group.

3.2 Teacher’s roles and students’ groupings

The key of the group forming and maintain is the teacher’s role. The highest cohesive groups are the ones where the teachers symbolize the group concerns and identity.

The traditional teacher, authoritarian and inflexible is not well received in the groups dynamic because it’s not allowed the group to form and to develop. It might appear a conflict between the short time objectives and the long-time objectives: a tighter control might have result on a few lessons, meanwhile integrating the students in a participative way might have goods result for a long-term period.

Therefore, an efficient group leader’s task, in our view, is not so much to lead the group but rather to facilitate it, that is, to create the right conditions for development – in particular a safe and acceptive climate – and to enable the group to do away with any emerging obstacles.

The most efficient facilitator is the one that has empathic ability, acceptance of the members and congruence (ability of the teacher to be and to communicate according to his own beliefs).

One of the most important thing for maintaining the group is the understanding and the acceptance that the teacher is not the possessor of all the knowledge, skills necessary to reach the group goal and the resources of the group are needed.

The recommended actions for a teacher to become a leader of the group and to facilitate the teaching process are:

To accord same time to learning efficiency and student satisfaction.

To value each member of the group equally as a contributor to group development

To use the icebreakers at the beginning of the classes

Start each lesson with a warmer

To integrate the new members in the group

To promote the interaction between the members of the group

To personalize the tasks

To prevent the emergence of the rigid seating patterns

To use the tasks for small groups

To include the competition between the small groups

To include role-plays and drama in the language classes

The teacher’s must adept the activities depending on the group stage and also the moment of the day.

The Breaking the ice – warming up activities are recommended at the beginning of the week or term in order to facilitate the students to know each-other, to get in touch with each other, to learn names, to find some interesting things about the group members and to create a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.

Exercises:

1.Guess my name – should take between 5 and 10 minutes; the students must write the names on a small paper and after standing in a circle should guess whose name is written in the paper randomly received.

2. Shaking hands – should take around 5 minutes; each student should shake hand to the persons around them formally and to present themselves. After they stop to present formally but to imagine that they are meeting with an old friend and to recognize the faces and to call them by names.

3. Circles – should take 15 minutes; the students standing in the circles should find in 2 minutes as many things about one neighbor and after to describe it to the other neighbor; at the end of the exercise they are asked if they knew anything else except the neighbors.

4. My home town – should take about 10-15 minutes; the students should write on a small pieces of paper thing about their native town, the ticket are after random distributed and each student must recognize the cities of the group by putting questions depending on the information received on the paper.

5. group skills – should take around 10- 15 minutes; after distributing an essay concept previous by each member of the group they can find the skills of the group and the persons they can count in particular cases ( math problems, car reparation, etc)

6 Family statistic – should take around 10 – 15 minutes – the students are asked questions about their family and after they will group the information depending on the similar answers.

7 Forfeits – should take around 15-20 minutes; a forfeit pack of cards is needed, and the students are put to answer questions and after to respond to the tasks written on the cards.

The exercises Thinking about language: individual learning styles and group strategies are helping students to became aware of different attitudes to learning and different styles within the group. The following exercises are recommended:

1.What kind of person are you? – should take around 30 minutes; each student should respond to a questionnaire regarding their feeling and life preferences and after try to make a generalization of the group depending on the similar answers.

2. What kind of language learner are you – should take around 30 minutes; each student should respond to a questionnaire regarding his motivations and skill in learning foreign languages and after to openly discuss about the issues. This kind of exercise helps teacher to adopt the most accepted teaching technique after the group profile and the students to recognize that every one of them need different approaching of teaching.

3. Experience and expectations: should take around 20 minutes; each student must respond to a questionnaire regarding them previous experience in learning foreign languages; the teacher must use the answers in generating the group profile.

The Thinking about groups: group strengths, individual contributions exercises can identify the members of the group that are not making part of as well as the awareness of the members to cooperate between them. The following exercises are recommended:

1.Thinking about the group – should take one lesson- the students must respond to questions divided in pairs of two people and after to collect the information on the table.

2. Contributing to a group – should take around 30-40 minutes; the students are grouped in 6 persons groups and have to respond to a questionnaire regarding the personal opinion regarding the individual contribution in the group tasks; the second questionnaire they must respond is about the feeling sensed in the first group activity.

3. Roles in group – should take one lesson – the students are split in small groups and some secretaries are need. Each group must discuss individually about a certain subject and the secretaries should note each time one group responded on the tiling’s mentioned in the questionnaire (the group was well organized; the different opinions were accepted). The students should meditate on their role in the group along with the general impression of the small group.

After forming the group, the main challenge of the teachers is to maintain the group focused, a positive atmosphere and maintaining the contacts between all the members of the group.

The bridging gaps: opinion and value-bridging activities may have a beneficial effect on classroom dynamics, particularly if your class has recently had a rich diet of opinion gap discussions and heated debates, or if your class is composed of forceful individuals or idiosyncratic personalities!The following exercises are recommended:

1.One world: should take more than 20 minutes; the students are placed on a open space depending on the geographical position of the origin county; they move to each other and tries to find as many thing as he can about the visited country. Wins the students who founded as many similarities between the visited countries.

2. The Flat Earth Society – should take around 20 minutes; the student slit in grpoup must write in a specific period of time as many statement they can ( one of them might be fictional); the group with the greater number of statements wins;

3. What’s so special about us? – should take around 10 minute; some personalis details about the group must be known previously; the students are grouped depending those previous known information and each group should guess the topics that bring them together in the same group.

4. Elemental passions – should take around one lesson – the students are group depending on the zodiacal signs (Air, Fire, Earth and Water) and each group must find as many positive aspects of the group depending on the zodiacal sign. They must share them with the other groups at the end.

5. Happy families: should take around 20-30 minutes; the group are divided depending on the position on the family (the eldest child, the younger child, the single child) and after to discuss about the feeling that are common.

6. The smelly-foot Tribe – should take more than 20 minutes-slit the students in groups and put them to rename the group regarding the tribal names (The big nose, the smelly foot, etc.). Each group must decide the name of the other’s group by putting questions

7. Predicting similarities – should take around 15-20 minutes; the students divided in pairs must write in a certain period of time as many thinks they think they know about the other member of the group; they must confront the result each other.

The territoriality might make the student to not cooperate between them, so it’s very important in the exercises to habit them with the partner changes. The maintaining fluidity: reseating and melee games helps to make this territoriality a positive aspect in the group as following:

1.Seating plan – the students must place in the classroom depending on the instruction received on a card regarding the neighbors (some details regarding the hair, origin, size, etc.).

2. Changing places: should take around 3 minutes – the half of the group must place near a colleague depending on the instruction received (a person who can ride a bike, a person elder than you, etc.)

3. Airport lounge – the students are group on the airport depending on certain destination; they must find on their own group by putting the questions.

4. Station – should take around 5 minutes – two persons with some details must find each other in two separate groups depending on the information received

5. Picture section – around 5-10 minutes – the students must reconstruct a picture split by putting questions to the others.

6. Invitation – around 5 minutes – each student receives a role play cards and they must group depending on the tasks received

The Getting to know each other: humanistic exercises and personalized grammar exercises are use either in their pure form, as an end in themselves, to develop a positive attitude to self and others, in which case they are often used as warm-up activities or ice-breakers; or in a derived form, as a means to an end, where they are used either to provide general speaking practice, or to practice some specific language point.

The best way in combining the humanistic and linguistic exercises is by using personalized grammar practice exercises which offers a concentrated practice of grammar but with a personal focus.

It might be used exercises as following:

1.What are they up to now (present continuous) – around 10 minutes – the students must close the eyes and to think to one member of the family, imagining what they are doing in that moment. They have to group also the members of the family with the same kind of activity.

2. How often? (simple present) – around 10 minutes – the students must respond to a questionnaire and to point differently the activities (very often, often, sometimes, rarely, never) regarding personal issues, in order to know each other better

3. Past confession (simple past) – around 10 minutes – the students must respond to a questionnaire with questions (When did you last time?)

4. Class records (present perfect) – 20 minutes – it’s based also on a questionnaire in order to know each other better but asking questions and respond ( how often we have…)

5. Magic moments (past continuous) – 15 minutes – the students must respond to a questionnaire with question starting with Can you remember what you were doing when?

6. Group prediction (will, future continuous, future perfect) – 20 minutes – the students are asked to make some predictions about themselves.

Empathy activities – I did it your way – are used to develop a sympathetic and harmonious relationship between the members of the group. These activities may be useful to try with a group

whose problem is that they know each other too well and feel they have no information gaps left to fill.

1.I am you – should take around -20-30 minutes, the students divided in pairs must respond to some questions with what they believe regarding the partners’ action in some situation. The most accurate answers are obtained when the group know each other

2. If I were you – should take around 15-20 minutes, the students must imagine the actions in place of the pair.

3. Ghostwriters – should take one lesson – the students placed in circles must find as many information about one colleague and after to write on a piece of paper as many things he remembers or thing about the other person. The papers are posted on the wall and they have to recognize themselves depending on the description.

4. How did it feel? – should take one lesson – the students are hearing one story about their teacher when strong emotions were involved and after they must put themselves in the teachers situations and the imagine the feeling felt in different moments.

5. A day in your life – should take one lesson – the students divided in pairs have to put each other questions regarding the daily activities and after to write them down on a paper and to posted on the walls. They must recognize themselves depending on the description. Imaginary things can also be used.

A sense of belonging: whole group identity activities may be used throughout the course, though the first three are better used in the first couple of weeks, when students are still unacquainted with each other and it is important to establish the beginnings of a group identity.

Are recommended the following exercises:

1.Group history – about one lesson – the students must remember good things happened in different periods of the group, to write them down and after to recall all those things in the group.

2. Group profile – should take around one lesson – each student must collect information from the others regarding a specific topic and after the information are centralized and put it on the wall (afraid of spiders, snake, dentist, etc.).

3. Rainy Sunday Shock Horror : a group newspaper – should take one lesson – each students is a reporter and realize interviews with the others and after to post an article on the board – designated as the newspaper ; this exercise is recommended for Monday morning , more as a broken ice activity.

4. Group portrait with melon – should take around one lesson – the students must dress as a character (actor, historic one), to act as the character and after to take a picture at the final.

Establishing trust: trust- and confidence building activities are recommended when an insecure feeling might come up in the group. To counteract this, it is important to establish a climate of trust among the members of the group, so that they can feel confident enough to say and do things in front of others without fear. The activities are derived from drama activities.

1.Falling – should take around 10-15 minutes – the students split in pairs must simulate a fall and they have to count each – other

2. Blind trust – should take 5-10 minutes – the students simulate blindness and they have to act in an obstacle space based on the others recommendation.

3. Look after it for me – should take around 5 to 10 minutes – the students imagine a very important object for them, and they have to give to another person to take care of.

4. Promises, promises – should take around 15 minutes – the group promise to each other to do 2 things important for themselves and for the group

5.Silly walks – around 10 minutes – the students simulate a walking in the mood, they get stacked and the others called to help get stacked also.

Staying positive: encouraging positive feelings exercises – are therefore all affective

in nature and aim at building up and reinforcing positive feelings about one's self and one's abilities, about the language and culture, and about other people in the group.

1.I like it when – should take around 15 minutes – the students must remember positive thing happened and write them on a post. The positive things are shown to the others

2. My English self – around 15-20 minutes – the students are individually to write down five qualities they think they have, five qualities they definitely do not have, and five qualities they would like more of.

3. Wanted – the perfect student – should take around one lesson – the group is looking for the perfect students, identifies the qualities required and also apply to that post with cv and recommendations letters obtained from the others.

4. Medals – should take around 15 minutes each lesson – a medal is designated depending on the abilities requested in a ceremony award.

5. Crazy complements – around 10 minutes – each student my respect the instruction received on the others posted in the back

Post models (Reproduced Hadfield, 1992, p.92)

6.Present-giving – takes around 10 minutes – the students divided in pairs must simulate a present giving.

7. The negative feelings dustbin – around 10 minutes – the students must write on a piece of paper a bad feeling and after to throw this paper as a manner of losing that negative feeling.

The group achievements: product – oriented activities are designed to give groups a common purpose that will lead to a recognizable, tangible achievement.

1.A partridge in a pear tree: a group song – around one lesson – the students must learn an reproduce a music song dividend in pairs.

2. Tonight at noon – a group poem – takes one lesson – the students must read the poem using the opposite terms for some words.

3. TV news – one whole morning or afternoon – the students must prepare and record an TV news program.

4. Travel posters – one lesson – the students split in groups must make a presentation about one place and post it on order to attract the other students to visit

5. Group scrapbook – 15 minutes – the students must write one experience from the previous week in English classes.

Bringing it together: pyramid discussions, feedback techniques, and summaries exercises encourage the pairs activities involves 7 stages: pyramid discussion, reporting back, poster presentation, postbag, instant opinion pool, storybook and amazing facts.

That patriotic class feeling: inter-class activities and competitions such activities can at the same time provide a bit of fresh air and a release from the group, in the shape of new people to talk to and new ideas.

1.Inter- class – debate – two classes debate based on certain topic

2. Package tour- one lesson – the students must come up with ideas regarding a region, a country, etc.

3. Inter class quiz league – 20-30 minutes – the student grouped have to answer to different quiz questions in a settled time. Wins the team with the more correct answers.

4. Silly sports – should take an afternoon – the students race each other with Rope, bicycles, trays with plastic bottles and cups, etc., old clothes, eggs, spoons, sacks, scarves for each team, whistle, Prizes.

5. Sketches – 45 minutes – two things are very important in these sketches: good thing and clear differentiation of the individuals characters on the bench, at the bus-stop an in the queue.

A major problem of the groups is the fact that not all members participate equally in discussion because some dominant member that tender to take over the discussion. Those exercises are designated to make student more aware of the problems and to create a better balance in discussion.

The teachers can use the following exercises:

1.Interaction mapping – one lesson – the students are slit in small groups; one observatory for each group; the observatory person will design a diagram depending in the time that every member participated in discussion.

2. Catching the quest – up to one lesson – a ball is transferred between the students depending on the person that must respond to a question.

3. Group scribes – up to one lesson – the students split in small group have a person observatory that had to note all the issues discussed in group and after, to present those opinions in fron of the class. It’s better to choose as observatory a shy person in order to be encouraged to sustain a public speech.

4. Over to you – up to one lesson – the students must respond to a certain question depending on the name written on the playing card.

5. Passing the buck – up to one lesson – the students must make some actions depending on the cards received – for example: start the discussion, tell your opinion than pass the subject to the person in front of you.

One of the most common problems in the group is that they don’t listen each other. There could be many overlapping causes for this problem: students could find one another boring; they could be seeing a speaking activity purely as an activity that practices their speaking, without realizing that in order to speak effectively and with confidence a sympathetic audience is the first requirement; they may not find listening to a non-native speaker very productive in terms of their own language learning; they may be so busy thinking out what they're going to say next that they have no time to listen to their partner; or they could just be exhibiting that very natural human tendency to be more interested in one's own preoccupations than in anyone else's. those techniques are mainly used so the students became aware of the need to listen each other.

1. Speaking to a brick wall – 15 minutes – students are divided in pairs and they have to discuss with the pair as they are talking with a brick wall. After the roll-play they have to discuss about the feeling of not listen.

2. Tea and sympathy – around 15 minutes – students divided in pairs must act as they are friend at a cup of tea and they must listen to each other.

3. Listeners – around 15 minutes – they must discuss about one situation when they really felt that they are listen by the other.

4. Bamboo telegraph – around 15 minutes – after the discussion, the partner changes and they have to explain to the new partner the main topic discusses with the previous one.

5. Body language and showing interest – about 5-10 minutes – divided in pairs the students must express using body language the interest in the story related by the pair.

The sense of direction: setting, assessing and resetting goals are mainly used to focus the group on the common goal. Are useful those kinds of exercises:

1.I’m here because – around 10 minutes – each student must respond to a questionnaire regarding the personal goals for the English classes.

2. Visualize it – around 10-150 minutes – the students must imagine a roll where they used the English lesson in the real life (a visit, a holiday).

3. What do I want? – around 15-20 minutes – the students must think about the short, medium- and long-term goals regarding the English classes.

4. How can I help you; how can you help me – 10 minutes – the students might realize the help needed along with the kind of help they might offer.

5. Have I got what I wanted? – the students must review their goals and realize the status of the achieving.

6. What we’ve done? – 10-15 minutes – from the previous action regarding the goals, the students might realize the status.

The ability to compromise is fundamental for a successful group. The coexistence and compromise: individual want and frustration; group solutions are design to help the emphasis between the members of the group.

Exercises such as Ideal homes, win-lose and win-win, middlemen, timetabling priorities, negotiating the timetables should not take more than 10-15 minutes and help the group to negotiate and make compromises for the group goals.

If a group has been close and affectionate, it is easy for them to feel let down, abandoned, and lost at the end of a course, when the group life is over, and everyone disperses. It is important to give students some sense of continuity after the abrupt end of a course that may have been a major part of their lives for some three months, or even longer. Two areas are important here: keeping up the English they have learned and keeping up the friendships they have made.

The activities for ending the groups are design to round off the group experience in a positive and looking forward ways, and the change to express the feelings of thanks to the other members of the group.

For ending with positive feelings exercises like Remember when, I’ll remember them because, thank you- presents, Hopes for the future should not take more than 15-20 minutes and helps the group to express the gratitude for the teacher and for the other members of the group.

For the group experience exercises up to 20 minutes such as: Look how far we’ve come, Now we can, Evaluating learning strategies and What’s left for us helps the students to see the progress they have made as individuals and as a group.

Hadfield recommend that every teacher after each term to make a short resume concerning the teaching process in order to collect the good things and thing must be done better answering the following questions:

1. How the composition of the group affected the dynamic of the group?

2.were you aware of the nature of the group and willing to adjust the teaching style to suit them?

3. Did the group developed in stages?

4. were you aware of those stages?

5. Did group relations progress harmoniously and steadily or were there setbacks and crises?

6. What strategies did you use, consciously or unconsciously, to promote good group dynamics?

7. How and why did you select these strategies?

8. Were these successful or unsuccessful? Why?

9 .do you think a different strategy was better to be applied?

10. How did you keep in touch with the feelings and opinions of (a) the class as a whole, (b) individuals in the class? Is there any better way you could have done this?

11. How did you deal with any crises or problems that arose? Was the group atmosphere better or worse after this?

12. Try to analyze the causes of any problems. In retrospect, do you think there was anything more you could have done (a) to prevent the crisis happening, or (b) to defuse tension and find a solution?

13. Focus on something positive that happened

In Romania textbooks, the publisher tried also to include activities that makes the group classes to work together to solve issues or to make the practices funnier and easier to understand.

I tried to make a short survey between the English textbooks posted on

www.manualeedu.ro.

In the textbook “Limba moderna 2 – Limba engleza” by Jenny Dooley, Uniscan Grup

Educational each lesson has an exercises chapter where are static activities, interactive activities, listening activities, pair work and groupwork.

Reproduced after “Limba moderna 2 – Limba engleza” by Jenny Dooley, Uniscan Grup

Educational

The textbook is slit in modules, each with a specific topic. At the end of each model pair or group activities are included. During the first module, the students split in pairs must respond each other to simple questions regarding the known words.

Practises in pairs along with mime are part of the training exercises.

Reproduced after “Limba moderna 2 – Limba engleza” by Jenny Dooley, Uniscan Grup

Educational – p.19

In the same textbook, at page 31, a group activity consists in noting information about the educational system from the students country origin and present those particularities to the others. This is a kind of activity recommended by Hadfield in order to create a better group collaboration and understanding between the members.

Reproduced after “Limba moderna 2 – Limba engleza” by Jenny Dooley, Uniscan Grup

Educational – p.31

”The author at page 44 propose a group game in “Listen to the dialogue again. Takes roles and read it aloud. Mind the intonation”

Reproduced after “Limba moderna 2 – Limba engleza” by Jenny Dooley, Uniscan Grup

Educational – p.44-45

“Another textbook analized is Limba Moderna 1 – Limba engleza studiu intensiv” by Ben Goldstein& Ceri Jones with David Mc Keegan, Cristina Rusu and Diana Todoran , Publishing House Art.

The students are encouraged to work in pairs and personal information regarding each other are revealed during practices: What’s your favorite month, When’s your birthday?

Reproduced after “Limba Moderna 1 – Limba engleza studiu intensiv”– p.5

The quiz is included in the exercises and the students must compare the own answers with the partner answer.

At page 10, the students must work in pairs. They have to write sentences about themselves using superlative form of some adjective. The students might find some personal things or funny about their colleagues and repeat some vocabulary information.

Reproduced after “Limba Moderna 1 – Limba engleza studiu intensiv”– p.8