Pairwork and groupwork continue to be very popular with teachers in ESL classrooms around the world, yet very few studies have compared the two activities regarding their effectiveness for TESL, or their popularity with learners This article reports on a project recently undertaken over six months in eight ESL classrooms in a Hong Kong university to investigate three questions whether learners work harder in pairs or groups, whether they prefer working in pairs or groups, and whether they learn more working in pairs or groups
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