Conflict in and between Groups, and Groups in the Language Classroom

1One lead role, two actors

The French club is staging a short play for the school’s language week. Keza and Gatete both insist on playing the lead. Within a week, rehearsals have turned into arguments; two other members have stopped coming; the rest whisper about “Keza’s side” and “Gatete’s side”. The teacher could simply choose one of them. But that might end the argument while leaving the club split for the rest of the year.

This lesson asks why conflicts like this start, why they spread from two people to whole sub-groups, and what methods actually resolve them, from the classroom to Rwanda’s community mediators.

21. Is conflict always harmful?

Karen Jehn (1995) studied 105 work teams in a large freight-transport company in the United States. Disagreement about the task was linked to better performance in teams doing non-routine work, but worse performance in teams doing routine work; relationship conflict lowered satisfaction everywhere. Later reviews were less optimistic: a meta-analysis by Carsten De Dreu and Laurie Weingart (2003) found that both task and relationship conflict were, on average, linked to lower team performance. A larger review by Frank de Wit, Lindred Greer and Karen Jehn (2012) concluded that task conflict is not always harmful, especially when relationship conflict is low. The current view: debate about ideas can help, if it does not turn personal.

32. Causes of conflict

Intragroup conflict can become intergroup conflict: once club members label themselves “Keza’s side” and “Gatete’s side”, social identity processes from Unit 2 begin to work.

43. Positions and interests

Roger Fisher and William Ury, in Getting to Yes (1981), advised negotiators to look beneath positions (what each side demands) to interests (why they want it).

Figure 1. The positions clash, but the interests do not: there are many ways to give both students speaking practice, visibility and a meaningful role.

Possible solutions that meet both sets of interests: two casts on two nights; a split lead with one actor per act; one actor plays the lead and the other the narrator, with an equally long speaking part.

54. Methods of resolution

Rwanda has built mediation into its justice system. Abunzi are mediation committees of respected residents, elected by their communities at cell and sector level, which since 2004 have helped neighbours settle many land, family and small civil disputes before they reach the courts. Their method is the one in the iceberg: let each side speak, find the interests behind the demands, and help the parties agree to a solution they can both live with.

65. Group dynamics in the language classroom

Zoltán Dörnyei and Tim Murphey (2003) argued that a language class is itself a group, and that its dynamics matter more than in most subjects, because learners must risk speaking imperfectly in front of others. A cohesive class with a norm that mistakes are normal raises willingness to communicate (Unit 2).

David and Roger Johnson’s cooperative learning sets out five conditions for group work that really helps learning:

1. Positive interdependence: the group succeeds only if everyone contributes (for example, each member holds information the others need in an information-gap speaking task).
2. Individual accountability: each member’s contribution is visible and assessed, which reduces social loafing.
3. Face-to-face promotive interaction: members explain, encourage and correct each other.
4. Social skills: turn-taking, listening, disagreeing politely, taught directly.
5. Group processing: the group reflects on what worked and what to change.

Reviews of many classroom studies, such as Kyndt and colleagues (2013) for secondary and higher education, have found that cooperative learning on average improves achievement and attitudes compared with traditional instruction, although results vary a great deal with how well it is organised.