Group Cohesiveness and Academic Language

Group Cohesiveness: History and Relation To First-Generation

Language-Minority Community College Students

Groups may be formed voluntarily or spontaneously because of a felt need to socialize or to accomplish a practical aim, or they may be convened by some external authority like a school board or a legislature. Once members find themselves in relatively frequent association with one another, however, they are likely to develop some degree of mutual attraction. The extent to which a group is found attractive by its members has been termed "group cohesion" (Evans & Jarvis, 1980).

Feldman and Arnold (1983) report that the early research on group cohesion examined the phenomenon from a social psychology perspective. For example, Gross and Martin (19 ) explored group cohesiveness as part of their general interest in social influence. However, shortly after the publication of this initial work on the social psychology of group cohesiveness, researchers began to investigate the phenomenon for its relevance to work and business settings (Feldman & Arnold, 1983).

In somewhat more current research, group cohesion--both as a process of attraction and a group phenomenon--has been investigated and applied to educational settings

. . .
es can bring about group cohesiveness and unity among diverse groups of students. Therefore, community colleges may wish to offer programs where majority and minority students can come together and work through their conflict under the guidance of relevant school authorities. In summary then, the history of group cohesiveness research began with social psychology and business applications and proceeded to educational applications. While there have been some studies which have directly applied group cohesiveness to the situation of first-generation, language minority students, these are few. However, the general literature does offer fruitful avenues for using group cohesion to help these students attain strong levels of academic success. Academic Language: History and Relation To First-Generation Language Minority Community College Students The history of academic language can be conceptualized as being comprised of three waves of research. The first wave consisted of studies aimed at determining what, if any, were the effects of the English spoken in the classroom on the learning of language minority students (Solomon & Rhodes, 1995). These initial studies (e.g., Cummins, 1981; Saville-Troike, 1984; Spanos, Rhodes
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Survival Program, Roark Sharah, Solomon Rhodes, English-as-a-Second-Language ESL, Mexican American, Dale Crandall, College Students, Approach CALLA, Manaster King, Rosenfeld Gilbert, academic language, language minority, minority students, language minority students, college students, community college, language learning, community college students, effects academic, effects academic language, first-generation language minority, minority student, academic achievement, solomon rhodes, document reproduction service,
Approximate Word count = 2368
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Group Cohesiveness and Academic Language