Cooperative Learning In English Classroom

Cooperative learning approach defines the class as heterogeneous groups. The class is organized in groups of two or six students in order to fulfill a learning task cooperatively. The learning task is based on interaction and reciprocal interdependence among the members of group and requires mutual help.The purpose of this study is to find out whether cooperative learning could improve the overall climate of the college English classrooms in the 2nd Northwest Institute for Minorities. The research questions to be addressed in the study are the following: 1) Compared with teacher-centered classroom, what psychological changes happen to students in cooperative learning? 2) How differently do students behave in cooperative learning classroom? 3) What possible difficulties do teachers have in implementing cooperative learning?The subjects were 61 (33 males; 28 females) second-year non-English majors studying in the 2nd Northwest Institute for Minorities. The information that forms the core of this study was obtained by means of three survey instruments: classroom behavior observation, interview and a students' questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 20 items arranged in a Likert scale format, with spaces for specific and general comments. And it was conducted after the student experienced cooperative learning approach for two semesters.The central quantitative findings from the survey are the perceptions of the students, summarized in a table. Critical analysis is made based on the perceptions held by the students. Subsequently, trends in findings are discussed according to comments made by the students and theoretical perspectives form a literature review.This study finds that cooperative learning improves overall climate of language classrooms to increase classroom dynamics and involves task-based interaction that is believed to be favorable to Second Language Acquisition. In addition, this study may help teachers out of those problems that probably occur in complementing cooperative learning.