Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a type of learning whereby students work together in a small group to achieve a common goal. This form of learning has become increasingly popular as a feature of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) with benefits that include increased students interest due to the quick pace of cooperative tasks, improved critical thinking ability and the opportunity to practise both productive and receptive skills in a natural context. 

According to scholars, an array of benefits extends beyond increased language learning to include increased self-esteem and tolerance of diverse points of views. As students learn that their success depends on working together interdependently, they are individually accountable while achieving group goals. They support and assist one another in realising the success through face-to-face interactions. They also develop social skills by cooperating and working together. As members of a group, students have an opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of working together. 

Cooperative learning creates a friendly environment for students to learn language and simultaneously develop their capabilities for collaborative communication and solving problems. They can reap all of these benefits by working cooperatively in the classroom. As teacher of English language learners, we often forger that many of the strategies that our discipline embraces, as the most  appropriate means for reaching out to students are, in fact, culturally specific and driven by assumptions about communication. 

Often there are cultural elements that determine how English learners should interact in groups, depending on students' familiarity with those norms. Interactions may have varying degrees of success. For example, not all students are used to working in group to accomplish a task, especially if they are accustomed to a more teacher-cantered form of instruction. In addition, students have cultural-specific communication style that can impede cooperation within a group. 

As an English language teacher, in my 10th-grade classroom, I often find that it is crucial to recognise cultural and individual differences to manage needs of my diverse students, who belong to different ethnic communities. The cooperative learning mechanism allows students to learn both from and with each other. It provides a natural context for students to explore language, enrich vocabulary and identify problems associated with leaning a language. Being language instructors, teachers can create discussions that overlap and build upon students' ideas by providing a simple "what if" statement to initiate discussion. This type of question prompts students to explore vocabulary that they may not otherwise have heard or used. 

Besides, students develop their oral language skills and critical thinking skills by challenging each other through discussions built upon their own interwoven ideas. By changing the culture of the classroom, students will have a chance to use the skills of cooperation, tolerance, and multi-group discussions that are very valuable while participating in cooperative learning. Teachers must make an effort to improve the condition of low-level students by applauding them in public and recognition for specific skills. 

The teachers can help students understand that everyone has important skills to continue in the classroom by stating specific observations to the class. We have all witnessed occasions when highly intelligent students dominate group activities while less intelligent ones tend to withdraw from the activity or defer to bright students. The idea is that each student has a particular status determined by the expectations created by themselves and their peers within their group before they even have the opportunity to attempt a task.