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A Cooperative Small‐Group Methodology in the Language Classroom
Author(s) -
BEJARANO YAEL
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.2307/3586499
Subject(s) - group (periodic table) , linguistics , psychology , mathematics education , pedagogy , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
The study reported in this article assessed the effects of two small‐group cooperative techniques (Discussion Group; Student Teams and Achievement Divisions) and the whole‐class method on academic achievement in EFL for 665 pupils in 33 seventh‐grade classes. The students were taught by 18 teachers (assigned at random to one of the three methods), who participated in training workshops followed up by in‐class coaching. Evaluation of pupils' achievement was conducted by observation and by special achievement tests administered before and after the experiment. Particularly noteworthy are the findings revealing that both group methods registered significantly greater improvement than the whole‐class method on the total score of the test and on the listening comprehension scale. These findings support the link between the communicative approach to foreign language instruction and cooperative learning in small groups. The study demonstrates how to forge a link between the content and the process of instruction.