An Empirical Study On The Factors Affecting Group Work's Effectiveness In An EFL Classroom

The thesis is intended to carry out an empirical study on the affecting factors of college English classroom group work's effectiveness through questionnaire and interview. It aims at providing college English teachers with deeper insights into the use of group work and improving group work's effectiveness.The study shows that teacher's roles in the class, topic choice, grouping, length of time can affect students' motivation differently, and thus affect group work's effectiveness. It also shows that students' language aptitude, personality, classroom atmosphere and setting, and students' mood can have an effect on their performance in group work.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One gives a brief account of the present situation and objectives of college English teaching and learning in China. It points out the problems concerning the use of group work with the purpose and organization of the thesis. Chapter Two is literature review, which presents the theoretical foundation of group work, definitions and previous studies of group work. Chapter Three is concerned with the present study, in which research design and data analysis of the study are introduced. In Chapter Four, the author reports the results of questionnaires and interview. Chapter Five concludes the thesis by summarizing the findings and making some suggestions for the use of group work.In order to make full use of group work in college English classroom, teachers should have a an acute consciousness of the affecting factors of its effectiveness. They should act their roles properly, choose interesting topics, arrange the time length flexibly, group students heterogeneously and encourage members' cooperation actively and provide relevant knowledge and vocabulary.