5 ways to make studying in a group work for you

A overhead shot of a group of people working at a desk with papers and notebooks

There are many benefits to studying in a group, ranging from reducing procrastination and boosting your confidence to gaining new perspectives and learning faster. Many English language learners enjoy working in a group, and many English language teachers recommend it. Here’s how to make studying in a group work for you or your students…

1. Create an effective group

Even though you love spending time with your friends, don’t base study partners on friendship. Instead, look for people who stay alert in class, take notes, ask questions, and respond to the teacher’s questions – and don’t make the group too big. An ideal size for a study group is three or four students.

It’s a great idea to try to meet on the same day and time each week because treating the study session as you would a class helps you to keep to a schedule and ensure that everyone attends.

Finally, hold study group sessions in a place free of distractions with room to spread out the materials. This will help to ensure that you don’t end up talking about the latest movies or songs instead of studying the future tense!

2. Decide on the topics and set goals

Before your study group, think about the topics you’d like to discuss – then agree on one. This will help you concentrate on that topic without straying away. Once you’ve decided on your subject, also consider what you want to achieve at each session – but don’t take on too much material for one session.

For example, if you’re using a novel written in English to learn more about the language, just think about one aspect of it, such as a couple of the characters, rather than trying to discuss the entire book.

3. Prepare effectively

Before attending your study group, prepare by reading more about or researching the topic you’re all going to discuss.

Also, make a list of anything you aren’t sure you understand so that you can discuss it with your fellow learners. There are sure to be different things you all need explaining in more detail, so you can help each other to understand. Which leads us on to…

4. Learn from each other by communicating well

Communicate openly – it doesn’t matter if one of you doesn’t understand something or needs more explanation. And don’t be shy about asking for your peers’ feedback: “Am I talking too much?” or “Did I present your point of view correctly?”. It is often said that it is best to teach other material you understand, and learn from others who understand the material better than you do.

If your study session reveals points of disagreement or confusion that you cannot resolve as a group, make a note of it and ask your teacher.

5. Make it enjoyable

Last on the list, but very important: try to make studying enjoyable in whatever way you can by keeping it interesting. Pick novels about subjects you all really enjoy reading about. Go to see an English-speaking movie together and discuss it at your study group. Or try a quiz together (online or in person) to see how you've picked the subject matter up.

Explore our blog post 'Games and puzzles to level up language learning'.

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    How to motivate and engage students with authentic video

    By Sue Kay
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    Sue Kay has been an ELT materials writer for over 25 years. She is the co-author of app's Focus Second Edition and is one of the co-founders of . In this article, Sue takes us through her experience of using video in the classroom and shows us how to motivate and engage students with authentic video.

    Videos are no longer a novelty

    When I started teaching in the early 80s, video was a novelty in the classroom. We only had one video player for the whole school and had to book it a week in advance. There was very little published material available, but thanks to the rarity factor, the students lapped it up.

    There was no problem with getting them motivated, even if the lessons accompanying the videos were not particularly exciting and consisted mainly of comprehension questions. Lucky for me, our school had a very dynamic Director of Studies who gave great teacher training sessions and I was very taken with a presentation he did on active viewing tasks.

    I was, and still am, a big fan of the Communicative Approach and I embraced the more interactive video tasks enthusiastically: freeze frame and predict, watch with the sound down and guess what people are saying, listen with the screen hidden to guess the action, etc.

    When I’m preparing a video lesson, I still try to include at least one of these activities because the information gap provides an ideal motivation for students to watch the video and check their ideas.