English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI)
Reading 4.2: Case Study: Structuring Group Work
It can be confusing to know how to structure group work, from assigning roles to setting up projects to
grading them. It is useful to hear from others on how they make group projects work for them,
integrating them into the course, and ensuring that the group project utilizes the strengths that
interaction brings.
The following case study outlines how a Lecturer in the Faculty of Foreign Languages structures group
projects. This case study also utilizes technology to improve student engagement and maximize class
time. Regardless of the courses you teach, perhaps you can identify some elements of this case study
that will help you utilize group projects in your classes. Consider how the strategies outlined here could
be used in your context.
Case Study
• Ms. Hanh Tran, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Teaching
Methods Class
• Khanh Hoa University, Nha Trang, Vietnam: Khanh
Hoa University has programs in Education Science,
Natural Science and Technology, Humanities, Social
Sciences, and Arts. They serve students in the South-
Central region of Vietnam.
• Student entry requirements: Students need to reach
B1 in the Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages before attending class.
“Hanh Tran” by Dawn Bikowski is licensed under the CC0
license.
Group Project in Action: Students Making Content
The project that I like to have students do is to help each other out in making videos. This way, the
stronger students in speaking, listening, and pronunciation help the weaker ones with the content and
their language use. Here are the steps I go through:
1. Group students into groups of two. You can have more, if necessary, but this number works
well for this particular assignment. Try to structure it so that you have strong and weak students
in the same group. This way, stronger students can help weaker ones. They can be stronger or
weaker from a content-knowledge perspective or based on their English proficiency level, or
both.
2. Each group is given the assignment to work together and each person in the group makes
their own video, one per person. They can record their video multiple times until they are
satisfied with the result. These videos can be made inside of class or as homework. Stronger
© 2022 by Ohio University. English as a Medium of Instruction MOOC Reading 4.2 Case Study:
Structuring Group Work for the Online Professional English Network (OPEN), sponsored by the
U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government and administered by FHI
1
360. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, except where
noted. To view a copy of this license, visit [Link]
students should work with the weaker students to ensure that both videos are of a high quality
in terms of content and communication (English). The video can be 1 to 2 minutes in length and
can be recorded with a smartphone, device, or laptop. It is best to continue this project
throughout the term, so each student produces many videos in the course.
3. Ask each person to upload their video to a shared space. This can be a course management
system used by your institution, or a free one such as Schoology and Google Sites. Alternatively,
students can upload their videos to YouTube and adjust the settings so that only users with the
URL can access the file.
4. Show a few randomly selected videos to the class. Showing the class videos will help motivate
students to practice so that they can show a strong video to their classmates. The instructor can
lead a discussion about the topic in the video or ask the student group to lead the discussion.
5. Grade the videos shown to the class, using a rubric that you shared with students at the
beginning of the project. Both students in the pair receive the same grade for the video shown
to the class. In this way, the stronger student is motivated to help the weaker student produce a
good video since that stronger student will receive the same grade as the weaker one.
6. Student Feedback: Initially, stronger students were nervous about this grade, worried that it
would be lowered because of someone else and not their work. But with time, all students
realized the importance of this model. They appreciated learning how to teach (given that this
was a teaching methods class) and also receiving individualized attention.