“A good all-round French workout” or “a massive stress”?: Perceptions of group work among tertiary learners of French

Collaborative group work in second language learning usually involves the completion of short tasks undertaken in one session rather than long-term group projects where learners need to work collaboratively and negotiate concepts, ideas, and knowledge over a substantial period of time, and where such peer collaborative processes are known to contribute to deep learning. This study aimed to ascertain whether a cohort of intermediate learners of French were conscious of these beneficial learning processes during one such group project completed over a six-week period. Findings suggest that a majority of students made clear connections between the benefits of collaborative group work and the positive effect on their learning. Nonetheless, a large proportion of students felt quite ambivalent towards the task, particularly when responses were compared to other learning activities and what they perceived as more traditional assessment tasks completed during the semester (i.e. grammar tests).