A Case-Study of Cooperative Learning and its Impact Among First Year Engineering Students in TamilNadu State, India
K. R.Vijaya, India
Dr. K.R .Vijaya works as the Assistant Professor in the Department of English, SRM Easwari Engineering College, Chennai, India. Her keen interest is teaching English to technical students. Her aim is to facilitate communicative competence effectively among engineering students.
E-mail: viji.murari@gmail.com
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Abstract
Introduction
Objectives of research
Methodology
Research results
The Impact of Cooperative Learning on English language proficiency
The Students’ opinions on Cooperative Learning
Discussion and conclusion
Recommendations resulting from the research
References
The aim of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of cooperative learning approach in reducing the fear and anxiety of I year Engineering students while trying to achieve the competence in English Language. It is quite understood that the anxiety is experienced by a considerable number of students with low proficiency, while speaking and writing in English. So, a case study was conducted in a class of forty Engineering students Tests were given on speaking, reading and writing skills. The pre- scores and post- scores from the questionnaire and the tests of the group were calculated for descriptive statistics and compared. It was found that the students’ overall language anxiety significantly got decreased. In addition, they obtained higher language proficiency scores for the post-test than the pre-test after learning through this approach. The survey also revealed that students also had a favourable attitude toward cooperative learning.
Over the last fifty years, there has been a large expansion of Engineering Colleges in India. As a result, the country presently faces many challenges, due to its inability to employ all the Engineering graduates. Not all the colleges could produce Engineers with Good communication skill .The students of Engineering learn communication skills only in the First year and the third year. The first year curriculum of Engineering course includes the subject of Technical English I and Technical English II. At the end of every semester, students have to attend a theory examination of three hours duration of 100 maximum marks. The internal marks assessed is for a maximum of 25 marks. Students will be given various assignments that cover the relevant contents of the curriculum throughout the year. The curriculum Content covers all the four skills; reading, writing, listening and speaking. It has been observed that the fifty percent of students enrolled in first year engineering undergraduate courses in the Tamil nadu State have vernacular medium background. More over, they are taught in heterogeneous groups in the same class, consequently, there is the same curriculum for the technical English subject for both the high proficiency learners as well as the low proficiency learners.
Since the students are tested in the first year, only by the theoretical assessments and in the third year only through paper presentation and Group Discussion skills, they lack a sufficient level of oral communication skills required after graduation. The students from the vernacular medium manage to pass the theory exam but face a lot of anxiety when it comes to oral communication. Anxiety in the classroom is a negative factor as it lessens the learner’s proficiency as it is obvious that under the anxious situation, it is difficult to think clearly. Anxiety can create a divided attention for anxious students. For example, when responding to a question in a class, the anxious student is focused on answering the teacher’s question and evaluating the social implications of the answer while giving it. As a result, they cannot do a good job in learning. Meanwhile, students with low proficiency of English tend to have more anxiety because studying English language might be comprehended as difficult for them. They may feel worried and anxious in language classroom and they may lack enthusiasm in learning. The important role of language anxiety has been demonstrated in several studies showing a negative connection between high levels of anxiety and language achievement (Saguanpong, 2007; Kondo & Yang, 2003). Knowing this, many language experts had conducted researches to find out a way to help students reduce anxiety.
During the past two decades, “Cooperative Learning” seemed to attract a lot of attention and became popular. In Slavin’s view, “the term refers to classroom techniques in which students work on learning activities in small groups and receive rewards or recognition based on their group’s performance” (p. 315). Cooper and Mueck (1990) regard Cooperative Learning as a structured and systematic instructional design in which small groups work together to reach a common goal. Therefore, Cooperative Learning conspicuously is not simply putting students together in groups and giving them tasks to do, but an environment in which teachers have to guarantee that the subsequent four elements transpire positive interdependence, individual accountability, group interaction and social skills . This conceptual approach is based on a theoretical framework that provides general principles on how to structure cooperative learning activities in a specific subject area. According to Johnson (2005), cooperative learning is a teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is being taught, but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it.
Teachers can use this approach to stimulate students to acquire the knowledge, as well as create interpersonal and team skills. Each student has a different background and ability in English, which he or she can bring to the group. So, group members can complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses in English. For example, one student may have a strong vocabulary that can supply students with a good knowledge in grammar. More over, poor students will benefit from interaction with better ones, and good students will feel proud that they play an important role in helping their weaker classmates.
Cooperative learning approach creates a supportive learning setting; it decreases competitiveness and individualism but increases opportunities to actively construct or transform the knowledge among students. By working in groups, students have more opportunities to talk and share ideas so they can see how their peers think and create new ideas. More over, discussing, creating, and thinking in a group, rather than in a whole class context, can provide a less anxiety-producing context. In such an atmosphere, students may feel more comfortable to try out new ideas. Therefore, a cooperative learning environment is believed to reduce anxiety and provide more opportunities for students to produce language. Many pieces of research have supported the effectiveness of cooperative learning in English classes so far. The results revealed that the students’ learning anxiety got reduced and their language proficiency improved significantly after the learning. Many studies indicate that cooperative learning approach could help develop students’ English proficiency.
The first year students of vernacular medium background were chosen in this study. Because of the curriculum of technical English, the students with low proficiency of English enrolled in this course were not able to catch up with others in class. Many of them developed a negative attitude towards studying English .As a result , they often cut the class. To solve this problem, the cooperative learning approach was taken by the researcher due to its positive outcome as mentioned earlier. The study was therefore conducted to see if it was effective in changing a classroom atmosphere to have less anxiety and in producing higher achievement. The research findings, can help the facilitator to understand the students’ learning better, find an effective way to help create conditions that allow students more opportunities to communicate in the target language in a relaxed, supportive environment, as well as enhance my ability to teach English.
- To compare the learning anxiety before and after teaching through cooperative learning activities
- To compare the mean scores of English proficiency before and after learning with cooperative learning activities
- To examine
Research Design
This study employed one group of students for pre-test, post-test design. The data was collected from one section containing 40 students enrolled in the First year Engineering course in the first semester of 2010 academic year through cluster sampling.
Three types of tests were used to assess the effectiveness of the cooperative learning for reducing students’ language anxiety. The first one was the survey that compares the levels of anxiety related to three areas: (1) understanding of oral communication (2) test anxiety, and (3) fear of negative assessment. The survey consists of ten statements. samples are given below.
- I am afraid of committing errors
- I am confident.
- I never bother even if I commit errors.
- I am never sure of myself when I am asked to speak in English class
Whichever statement that scored high would determine the attitude of the students. It was found that only the negative key scored high indicating the high level of anxiety.
The second test was English proficiency tests covering reading and writing skills, administered as pre-test and post-test. The total score was 30 points. The students were asked to : 1) read a story and answer five questions, 2) read a story and write a summary in ten or fifteen sentences, and 3) write an essay in 100 words. Time allotted for both tests was one hour. The contents of the tests were prepared by the researcher with the help of the language experts.
The third Test was a semi-structured interview containing two questions
- Are you comfortable with your partner and with the members in your group while doing the activity?
- Do you feel anxious when you are asked to speak and write in English class? Why? If not why ?
Cooperative Learning Activities
There were three Cooperative learning activities in this study. The first activity called “Think-Pair-Share” involved a three-step cooperative structure. During the first step, individuals thought silently about a question posed by the instructor. Individuals paired up during the second step and exchanged thoughts. In the third step, the pairs shared their responses with other pairs, other teams, or the entire group. Students were allowed to choose their own partners in doing pair work. This kind of activity covered two tasks - dictation and writing a summary.
For a group work activity, this study employed the activity Prediction-Response .The Learners were divided into groups of three/five members and the topics were broad enough to capture the entire groups’ interest and focused enough to elicit a significant response. Allowed to predict what will happen in a story or play. The group was allowed to respond to a crisis situation and create a group response to resolve the problem. Learners received feedback from a variety of perspectives. Group members served as a model for one another and hold one another accountable.
The last one was “Peer Review” - an activity requiring students to read each other’s draft and give comments on it. “Peer Review” provides students with the opportunity to learn how to provide and receive constructive feedback. The main goal of using peer review is to help the writers and commentators to improve their writing skills. The peer review in this research was conducted in pairs. The students were trained on the principles of peer correction and how to give feedback so that they would not encounter any difficulties when giving comments. Peer review training was available before the lesson officially started. This means they were taught how to follow the review procedure step-by-step, how to see the dictionary when in doubt, how to write up a comment, etc. Giving feedback focused on me following issues: 1) clear thesis statement, 2) relevant and adequate coverage of topic focusing on central idea, 3) good supporting details, 4) coherence 5) conveying meaning clearly and effectively, and 6) mistakes on grammatical points.
Data Collection
First, the questionnaire were distributed to the students followed by a proficiency test . Then a lesson was taught through cooperative learning approach for 20 classes. The intervention was followed by the post-test and questionnaire. The obtained scores from both tests were compared with the previous ones to reveal changes in language performance and language anxiety. To learn how the students felt when learning with this approach, six students, whose scores improved the most and the least, were chosen to share their opinions toward this learning.
Data analysis
The data obtained from the questionnaire and the structured interview were compared and analysed.
The anxiety among the students in this study included statements with negative keys. Before the cooperative approach was adopted to teach, the scores of the negative statements were high. Using the scores gained from the pre-proficiency test were used to divide the students into three groups; namely, high level intermediate level. To find out whether there were any differences of students’ learning anxiety among three proficiency groups at both times of the survey, the mean scores were compared. The results show that anxiety of the three groups was not significantly different.
To find out whether cooperative learning had an impact on students’ earning anxiety, the mean scores obtained from the learning anxiety scale questionnaires were compared. The results indicate that the post-questionnaire mean score was lower than that obtained from the pre-questionnaire. This means that the students’ anxiety reduced after learning with cooperative learning .In order to find out, whether the students’ anxiety decreased significantly in each group, the pre-and post-questionnaire mean scores were compared. The mean scores of the post-questionnaire in three groups were lower than that of the pre-questionnaire. It indicated that cooperative learning helped students to have lower anxiety.
To find out whether the students improved significantly in their English proficiency, the pre- and post-test mean scores were compared and the mean score of the post-test was higher than that of the pre-test. It clearly illustrates that the cooperative learning approach used in class proved rather effective.
Ten students who learnt through cooperative activities were interviewed about how they felt working with their peers; all of them were impressed and happy because of the friendly and supportive environment. The English class became more interesting. It was determined that six out of ten students like “Think-Pair-Share” the most because in the pair work, they could work in a relaxed manner and also with fun. Regarding learning anxiety in class, all students said that they did not feel anxious at all. Although the students were asked to answer questions, they did not feel worried about their low English proficiency because they felt very comfortable in a group and it was like playing a game. The students helped each other to find the answer. They felt relieved that they were not alone in a difficult situation. Five out of six students reported positive benefits from their participation in this research. They stated that it is lucky to be in this section and they were happy when they joined the activities provided. They learned that teachers could help them reduce language anxiety and they expected such activities in the following classes.
The findings of the study support the use of cooperative learning as part of the language learning method due to students’ anxiety reduction and higher language proficiency. The reason why their anxiety reduced was probably because this learning environment provided opportunities for students to support, encourage, and praise each other. In such an atmosphere, students may feel more comfortable to try out new ideas. It was determined that the pleasant atmosphere can be created by the teacher .Learning anxiety is not something to be ignored or considered a problem for the students to deal with on their own. It is the teacher’s task to find techniques or methods that do not cause any anxiety in class in order to help the students achieve their learning goals. Moreover, the significant improvement on the participants’ language proficiency possibly resulted from the fact that discussing, creating, and thinking in a group, rather than in a whole class context, can provide a less anxiety-producing context. If their friends feel positively interdependent with one another, a supportive atmosphere can develop their learning too.
Cooperative Learning approach can prepare the learners to be effective participants not only in their classrooms today but also in their workplaces tomorrow. Teachers should play the role of facilitators and pay more attention to students’ learning anxiety in English classes and should create a low stress, friendly and supportive learning environment. Apart from cooperative learning approach, some other techniques dealing with fear and anxiety should be investigated for their effectiveness. In addition, a study of strategies to cope with language learning anxiety can be employed by students should be conducted to see if they can help reduce the learning anxiety.
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