Pair work is a core aspect of classroom teaching that is used by many teachers and involves assigning tasks to two or three learners, which they can discuss and come up with a common solution. This method of teaching can be applied in L2 teaching to improve the fluency of the students, and the teacher should ensure that the students use the target language during pair work activities. The advantage of pair work activities is that the students get a chance to learn from each other. Besides, they can try out things that they would not have done in the broader class discussion. This helps shy and reticent students to gain more confidence in their capacity to use the second language.
However, pair work activities have their demerits. Once discussions on the activities have begun, the teacher subsequently loses control of the classroom in how much he can check or hear. There is also the issue of how the students are paired. Some students may dominate the discussions at the expense of the shy ones. Again, when a weak student is paired with a brainy one, the former may benefit while the latter gains little or nothing at all. Hence, the teacher must use a pairing strategy that benefits all the learners.