The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of cooperative learning on the motivation and achievement of middle school English learners of different abilities. The subjects for this study were 142 1st grade students selected from a middle schoo...
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of cooperative learning on the motivation and achievement of middle school English learners of different abilities. The subjects for this study were 142 1st grade students selected from a middle school located in Busan. The research tasks were as follows:
First, would English education through cooperative learning be effective to the motivation of middle school English learners of different abilities(high achievers, middle achievers, low achievers)?
Second, would English education through cooperative learning be effective to the achievement of middle school English learners of different abilities(high achievers, middle achievers, low achievers)?
The subjects were pretested before experiment, and classified into two groups(Experimental group: cooperative learning group, Control group: whole-class learning group). The lessons were given three hours a week according to differentiated method, and a term of this experimental study was nine weeks from 6th March to 1st May. For cooperative small group work, the class was divided into small groups of 4 members who were arranged to face each other. In an effort to manage the groups effectively, each member of groups was given his/her own role(leader, material monitor, checker, quiet captain) In order to verify the results, motivation survey and achievement test were used and their results were analyzed by t-test using SPSS 10.0 program.
The results were as follows:
First, there was significant difference between motivation of middle school English learners of different abilities in cooperative learning group and in whole-class learning group.
Second, there wasn't significant difference between high achievers' and middle achievers' achievement in cooperative learning group and in whole-class learning group, but there was significant difference between low achievers' achievement in cooperative learning group and in whole-class learning group.
According to the results, it can be concluded the method of cooperative learning is meaningful for the improvement of English learning motivation and it is effective for the improvement of low achievers' English learning achievement.