e-Pedagogium 2016, 16(4):15-26 | DOI: 10.5507/epd.2016.041

The rotation of Seats in the Classroom and the Students' Learning

Carlos Torres, Marta Hudousková

Mgr. et Mgr. Marta Hudousková, Katedra jazyků, Provozně ekonomická fakulta, Česká zemědělská univerzita, E-mail: Marta.Hudouskova@seznam.cz

The paper describes a research done in two groups of Spanish language courses at a technical-oriented university. The aim of the research was to demonstrate the influence of the controlled rotation of seats on the fluency and interaction during a thematic dialogue in a conversation class. The rotation of seats in the classroom is considered one of the aspects of the cooperative learning. The rotation of seats is a classroom technique that allows the teacher to gain power and competence to influence students' performance in a class as well as final exam results. The investigation consisted in the comparison of the final exam conversation results in a class where students were asked to follow a certain seating arrangement (an experimental group) and in a group were they were allowed to sit as they chose to (a traditional group). The result was that students from the experimental group achieved better results in the final exam. The statistical theory and the method of hypothesis testing was used for the analysis of the quantitative data.

Keywords: Assigned Seating Arrangement, Language Testing, Language Assessment, Second Language Acquisition, Seating Position in the Classroom

Published: August 1, 2016  Show citation