A STUDY OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING APPROACH IN EFL CLASSROOM
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Abstract
This study was aimed at implementing a cooperative learning approach in an EFL classroom in order to determine whether or not this approach can be implemented to improve students’ English knowledge in the “Sociological and Cultural Background of English-Speaking Countries” course. This investigation was conducted in Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, with 87 third-year students divided into two groups. The control group consisted of 45 third-year students majoring in English whereas the experimental group comprised of 42 third-year English major students. They enrolled in the course in the first and second sections respectively. The control group was provided an ordinary teaching method whereas the experimental group was conducted using a cooperative learning approach. The result revealed that the means of both groups indicate noticeable differences between the pretest and posttest mean scores. The posttest mean of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group. In other words, the cooperative learning approach was an inappropriate tool for teaching in the material. Subsequently, an interview was administered in order to elicit the students’ opinions to reflect the root causes of the failure of implementing the cooperative learning approach found in this study. The investigation results pointed to three categories of problems namely, the students, the teaching strategy, and the teachers.
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