Pair work in ELT

Abstract

The theoretical part of the diploma thesis introduces key concepts beyond Communicative Language Teaching, including communicative competence as its objective. Furthermore, it details the principles of cooperation from psychological and pedagogical perspectives, Cooperative Language Learning and main differences between pair work and other organisational forms. Finally, the theoretical part presents the influential taxonomy of activities by William Littlewood and concludes with teacher roles in pair work activities. The practical part includes a case study aim of which was to merge the outputs from the theoretical part and verify their application in practice through an analysis of a School Educational Programme, observations and semi-structured interviews.