SAMPLES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES THAT MAY BE USED IN CLASSROOM

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Rationale and objective

When we think about the seven years spent on English language learning at the secondary schools in Madagascar, we cannot help not wondering why students are still unable to use or speak the language fluently. The fact of being offered the opportunity to continue our study in the field of English language teaching at the university provides us with the chance to carry out an investigation to find out some answers to this question. There may be many reasons for this failure, but the most noticeable one is that in Malagasy CEGs and lycées the English language teaching is not focused on making students speak fluently. It is just a set of rules to be transmitted to the students and the teacher is the possessor of knowledge and the students are the recipient. It is true that as a foreign language, English is meant to be learnt. However, to be successful in language learning and teaching, we had better take into consideration the baby‟s natural way of acquiring language. As we may well have noticed, children acquire their mother tongue through interaction with their parents and the environment that surrounds them. As experts suggest, there is an innate capacity in every human being to acquire language. By the time a child is five years old, s/he may be able to express ideas clearly from the point of view of language. Although parents seldom explain children the workings of the language, their utterances show a superb command of intricate rules and patterns. This suggests that it is through exposure to the language and meaningful communication that the first language is acquired, without the need of systematic studies of any kind. When it comes to second language teaching and learning, the communicative approach has already been adopted to bring a more natural communication in the classroom.
In short, we see this tendency in which second or foreign language teachers are quite aware of the importance of communication in young learners and their inability to memorize rules consciously (although they will acquire them through a hands-on approach just as they did with their mother tongue). Our objective in this research is to adopt this natural way of learning through the use of CLL approach in Malagasy classrooms. This is also the reason why we choose to implement this approach in “Classe de Seconde”, since we have all experienced that the younger we are, the more easily we acquire something, and it remains the same for language learning. Teachers could never expect their students to speak if they are never given the chance to speak like in a natural situation. Thus, in this research, we will also try to bring natural situations to the classroom.
Cooperative learning may be broadly defined as any classroom learning situation in which students of all levels of performance work together in structured groups toward a shared or common goal. According to Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (1994), « Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups through which students work together to maximize their own and each other‟s learning ». In classrooms where collaboration is practised, students pursue learning in groups of varying size: negotiating, initiating, planning and evaluating together. Rather than working as individuals in competition with each individual in the classroom, students are given the responsibility of creating a learning community where all of them participate in significant and meaningful ways. Cooperative learning requires them to work together to achieve common goals which they could not achieve individually. By learning together, there are richer exchanges of input, and it is easier for the students to convert understandable input from their peers into their own outputs.
As a former lycée student, we also experienced that one of the major problems in the field of language learning is learning in a community that you are unfamiliar with. In any Malagasy lycées, every student comes from very different social classes, cultures, religions, and schools (CEG). Consequently it may be very hard for them to mix and communicate with the other classmates, especially at the beginning. The best way to deal with this social barrier is the CLL approach because it provides an immediate solution to this socialization problem.
Owing to different barriers in language learning, the purpose of this research includes three main points. First, it is aimed at showing the effectiveness of CLL approach on English language learning and teaching. Secondly, it is also intended to highlight the importance of cooperation and the change it can provide in students‟ language learning achievement. Finally, it is also to provide teachers with mere ideas of how to cope with this approach.

Significance of the study

By using the CLL approach in English language teaching, teachers actually provide a better setting in which students could learn the language like in a natural situation. Then it is not needed to make many efforts finding something to say for one session. Instead, they give the students the opportunity to interact in a lively classroom atmosphere. With the CLL approach, all types of barriers to language achievement are likely to be cancelled. These barriers may be emotional, social, or linguistic one. Thus, the implementation of this approach is beneficial for both the teacher and the students.

Scope and limitation

As stated above, the CLL approach also provides the effect of promoting social skills which may lead a great positive impact on students‟ learning. Besides, the lycée students come from very different backgrounds, so it can be very hard for them to socialize. As the “Classe de Seconde” is the first level in the lycées, we have decided to carry out our research in this class. The students will probably be able to fit in their new community in the upper classes if they are taught how to do so earlier.
CLL also consists of making students work in heterogeneous groups. In the lycées, in the big cities, we often meet this problem because students tend to move to towns to look for better education. Consequently, there are many varieties of students. That is why most of our investigations are conducted in these lycées. We could conclude that if we are able to implement CLL successfully in lycées in big towns like Antananarivo, it is likely to succeed in the rest of the country. However, it is worth noting that in order to have the most reliable result, we should have carried out our research in all lycées in Madagascar. It was not possible for us to do so due to the financial and time constraint.

Structure of the workr

The present work is divided into three major parts. In the first part, we will provide the theoretical view on CLL. Then, we will deal with questionnaire and classroom observation in the second part. The last part focuses on our experimentation and suggested lesson plans for English language teachers in Malagasy lycées.

Table des matières

ACNOWLEDGEMENT
0-INTRODUCTION
0-1- Rationale and objective
0-2- Significance of the study
0-3- Scope and limitation
0-4- Structure of the work
PART 1: THEORETICAL VIEW OF COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING INTRODUCTION TO THE NOTIONS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Definition of “approach”, “method”, and “technique”
Language acquisition vs. language learning
1-1COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING (CLL)
1-1-1- Definition of cooperation
1-1-2- Definition of cooperative learning
1-2- CLL AND OTHER TEACHING APPROACHES
1-2-1- C.L.L.Vs. traditional language teaching
1-2-2- Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
1-2-3- CLL vs. competitive and individualistic classroom structures
1-3- THE EFFECTS OF CLL ON THE STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT
1-3-1-CLL and language acquisition
1-3-1-1-input
1-3-1-2- Output
1-3-1-3-context
1-3-2- CLL and social skills
1-4- PROBLEMS AND BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH CLL
1-4-1- Problems associated with C.L.L
1-4-1-1- The teachers‟ perception
1-4-1-2- The social level
1-4-2- Benefits of CLL
1-4-2-1-Achievement in language learning
a-Improving students‟ academic achievement
b- Providing the chances of input and output
c- Increasing the variety of language function
d- Increasing students‟ motivation
1-4-2-2- Achievement in social skills
a-Collaboration and negotiation
b-Appreciating diversity.
c-Creating affective climate
d-Forecasting positive interdependence between students
1-5- ROLES OF THE TEACHER, THE STUDENTS, AND THE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN CLL
1-5-1-Teacher roles in a CLL class
1-5-1-1- Setting up principles and forming groups
1-5-1-2- Facilitator of learning and socialization process
1-5-1-3- Structuring cooperative tasks and learning goals
I-5-2- Student roles in CLL class
I-5-3-roles of the instructional materials
1-6-GROUPS AND PAIRS IN CLL
1-6-1-pair and group work in cooperative learning
1-6-2-Difference between cooperative groups and typical classroom groups
1-6-3-Forming pair of students in cooperative learning
1-6-3-1- Random pairs
1-6-3-2- Voluntary pairs
1-6-3-3-Assigned partners
1-6-4- forming cooperative groups
1-6-4-1-Group size
1-6-4-2-Random groups
1-6-4-3- Voluntary groups
1-6-4-4- Teacher assigned groups
1-7- SAMPLES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES THAT MAY BE USED IN CLASSROOM
1-7-1-Think-pair share
1-7-2- Round robin/ Roundtable
1-7-3-Placemat
1-7-4- Jigsaw
1-7-5- Numbered heads together
1-7-6- Information gap activities
1-8-WAYS OF ASSESSING STUDENTS
1-8-1-Individual success
1-8-2-Group success
1-8-3-Cooperative skills
CONCLUSION OF PART I
PART 2: QUESTIONNAIRE AND CLASSROOM OBSERVATION
INTRODUCTION TO PART II
2-1:C.L.L. AND THE OFFICIAL SYLLABUS OF THE CLASSE SECONDE
2-1-1-The goals of cooperative learning in language teaching
2-1-2-CLL and the objectives of English language teaching in Classe de Seconde
2-1-3-CLL and the content of the syllabus
2-2: QUESTIONNAIRE
2-2-1-General objectives of the questionnaire
2-2-2-Description of the questionnaire
2-2-3-Analysis of the questionnaire
2-3 CLASSROOM OBSERVATION
2-3-1 The classroom observation itself
2-3-1-1 Classroom observation n01
2-3-1-2 Classroom observation n02
2-3-1-3 Classroom observation no3
2-3-1-4 Classroom observation no4
2-3-1-5 classroom observation no5
2-3-1-6 classroom observation no 6
CONCLUSION TO PART 2
PART 3: SUGGESTIONS AND EXPERIMENTATIONS
INTRODUCTION TO PART 3
3-1- SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED DURING THE CLASSROOM OBSERVATION
3-1-1- Group formation
3-1-1-1- Dealing with group size
3-1-1-2- Allowing students to choose their own groups
3-1-1-3- Not carefully monitoring the groups while they are working
3-1-2- Teachers’ preparation
3-1-2-1- Preparing students to work in cooperative groups
3-1-2-2- Planning cooperative lessons with care
3-1-2-3- Not always assuming that students can handle complex tasks
3-1-2-4- Not emphasizing task completion as a group goal
3-1-2-5 Setting up a clear learning goal
3-1-3- On students’ interaction
3-1-3-1 Teaching appropriate interaction skills.
3-1-3-2-Doing cooperative activities often enough
3-1-3-3 Teaching the students how to work successfully together
3-1-3-4- Teaching social skills
3-1-3-5-Giving fair group grades
3-2-EXPERIMENTATION
EXPERIMENTATION I
EXPERIMENTATION II
EXPERIMENTATION III
EXPERIMENTATION IV
EXPERIMENTATION V
3-3- SUGGESTED LESSON PLANS
SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN I
SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN II
SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN III
SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN IV
SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN V
CONCLUSION TO PART THREE
GENERAL CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES