MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRANING

HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

ASSIGNMENT ON BACKGROUND TO
ELT METHODOLOGY
_ COOPERATIVE LEARNING _

INSTRUCTOR: Nguyễn Thị Mai Hương

STUDENT: Lê Thị Minh Châu

CLASS: K69A2

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2020-2021

Hanoi – April 14th 2021

 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................ 2
PART 2: COOPERATIVE LEARNING........................................................................................................ 3
2.1. Literature review................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1.1. Definition......................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1.2. Origin............................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1.3. Use of cooperative learning.............................................................................................................. 4
2.1.4. The essential components of cooperation......................................................................................... 5
2.1.5. Advantage........................................................................................................................................ 7
2.1.6. Disadvantage.................................................................................................................................... 7
2.2. Methodology.......................................................................................................................................... 8
2.2.1 Application in English language teaching.......................................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Survey.............................................................................................................................................. 8
2.3. Result and analysis................................................................................................................................ 9
2.3.1. Result............................................................................................................................................... 9
2.3.2. Analysis.......................................................................................................................................... 15
PART 3: CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 16
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................... 17

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION
In today's modern society, students not only need to have enough specialized
knowledge but also need to equip soft skills to help work more effectively and easily
succeed in later life. Among essential soft skills, cooperative capacity is considered one
of the most important human competencies in today's society.

“Without the cooperation of its members society cannot survive, and the society of man
has survived because the cooperativeness of its members made survival possible….  It
was not an advantageous individual here and there who did so, but the group.  In human
societies the individuals who are most likely to survive are those who are best enabled to
do so by their group.”

(Ashley Montagu, 1965)

The fact shows that, when recruiting employees, the companies pay attention to the
cooperative capacity of their employees. Besides, according to statistics, these companies
often spend an enormous amount of capital on improving employees' soft skills,
especially cooperation skills.

Therefore, developing cooperative capacity in schools has become an educational trend

in the world. Among the active teaching methods, cooperative teaching has been
interested by many educators because the characteristics of this teaching are that through
learning activities, students are formed and develop social skills such as communication,
language, the ability to cooperate, work together, share experiences, and knowledge.
From that, students can develop thinking, the ability to detect and solve problems and
acquire knowledge of lessons and social knowledge. That is the foundation for the
formation, development, and training of life skills for students.

Cooperative learning has become so popular that it is no longer thought of as a novel

educational concept. At all stages of education, it is now an approved and widely
recommended instructional method. Cooperative learning is presently used in schools and
universities in every part of the world, in every subject area, and with every age student.

This report will analyze more explicitly cooperative teaching methodology as well as its
application in English language teaching for students today. When do we use cooperative
teaching and how will it increase learning efficiency in practice?

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PART 2: COOPERATIVE LEARNING
2.1. Literature review
2.1.1. Definition
In an easily understanding way, cooperation is described as two or more people working
together to achieve a common purpose. Individuals pursue results that are advantageous
to them in cooperative activities, and small groups are used so that students work together
to optimize their own and each other's learning. Cooperative learning, also known as
small-group learning, is an educational technique in which small groups of students
cooperate on a shared goal.

After receiving instruction from the instructor, class members are divided into small
groups. Then they work on the task until everybody in the community has a good
understanding of it and has completed it. In some cases, each group member is personally
responsible for a portion of the task; in others, group members collaborate without having
formal roles assignments.

Participants of cooperative activities strive for a shared benefit such that all community
members benefit from each other's efforts (I gain from your success, and you gain from
mine). Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive (students compete against
one another to achieve an academic objective such as an “A” that only one or a few
students can achieve), cooperative learning allows students to take advantage of one
another's resources and skills, like asking one another for knowledge, assessing one
another's ideas, observing one another's work, and so on. In addition, the teacher's
function shifts from providing information to assisting students in their learning. When
the community succeeds, everybody succeeds.

2.1.2. Origin
The origin of Cooperative Learning dated back at least 100 years ago, and even
thousands of years ago, but little research was made until the 1960s (Jacobs et al.,
2002:2). Since then, it has awakened much attention and has constantly been a hot topic
in education.

Cooperative learning was practically unknown and generally overlooked by educators in

the mid-1960s. Competitive and individualistic learning influenced elementary,
secondary, and university education. Social Darwinism, with its assumption that students
must be trained to live in a "dog-eat-dog" society and the myth of "rugged individualism"
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underlying the use of individualistic learning fueled cultural opposition to cooperative
learning. Individualistic learning, based on B. F. Skinner's work on programmed learning
and behavioral change, was challenging the dominance of competition in educational
thinking.

Educational practices and thought, however, have changed. From the 1960s to the
present, great importance has been attached to the term Cooperative Learning. For
instance, in the mid-1960s, Johnson and Johnson contributed much for cooperative
learning in the training of teachers at the University of Minnesota. Then, it progressed till
the early 1970s where researchers like David DeVries and Keith Edwards at Johns
Hopkins University built up Teams-Games-Tournaments and other researchers like
Shlomo and Yael Sharan in Israel developed the group investigation procedure for the
Cooperative Learning groups.

Nowadays, cooperative learning has grown in popularity to the point that it is no longer
considered a new idea in education.

2.1.3. Use of cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is a rewarding method, but it is only used when appropriate:

- Only activities that require the coordination of individuals to complete tasks more
quickly and effectively than individual activities should use this method.

- Group teaching is often used to deepen, practice, and reinforce a previously learned
subject, as well as to learn a new one.

Before using cooperative learning, teachers should answer the following questions to see
if it should be used:

+ Is the topic suitable for group teaching?

+ Do groups work with the same or different tasks?

+ Do students have enough knowledge about the conditions for group work?

+ How should group work be presented?

+ Which criteria should be divided into groups?

+ How to organize the working room, table, and chair?

Why do we use Cooperative learning?

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 Cooperative, collaborative, and individualistic efforts have also been the subject of
extensive study. Nearly 600 experimental and over 100 correlational studies have been
performed since the first scientific study in 1898. (see Johnson & Johnson, 1989 for a
complete review of these studies). Achievement/productivity, supportive relationships,
and psychological wellbeing are the three main categories of outcomes studied.
According to the study, cooperative efforts usually result in higher achievement and
efficiency, more loving, compassionate, and dedicated relationships, and greater
psychological wellbeing, social competence, and self-esteem as compared to competitive
and individualistic efforts. Cooperative learning is one of the most beneficial resources
educators have because of the beneficial impact it has on so many critical outcomes.

2.1.4. The essential components of cooperation

Positive interdependence, face-to-face pro-social engagement, individual and
community responsibility, interpersonal and small-group skills, and group processing are
all important components of cooperation (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1993).
Cooperative activities can be ensured and cooperative learning can be implemented in a
disciplined manner for long-term results by systematizing certain essential elements into
group learning situations.

There are five important elements in a cooperative learning structure:

 First, positive interdependence: the most important element in structuring

cooperative learning, positive interdependence is effectively structured when team
members recognize that they are intertwined in a way that no one will succeed
until everyone succeeds. Team members are necessary and invaluable to the
group's success, and each team member contributes to the joint effort in their
unique way. It is the only way to ensure the success of both the team and oneself.
Cooperative learning focuses on this as well. Without active interdependence,
there cannot be cooperation.
 Second, promotive interaction, preferably, face-to-face: Students need to
collaborate, share resources, and support, promote, and value one another's efforts.
Students can only advance each other's learning when they engage in critical
cognitive tasks and interpersonal dynamics. As a result, cooprative learning groups
will serve as a learning support system and even an individual support system.
Members become personally dedicated to each other as well as to their common
interests by encouraging each other's learning.

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  Third basic element, individual and group accountability: The group must be
held accountable for accomplishing its goals, and each member must be held
responsible for contributing their fair share of the work. Individual accountability
occurs when each individual's output is evaluated, and the outcomes are
communicated to the community and the individual to determine who requires
additional learning assistance, guidance, and motivation. The goal of cooperative
groups is for each member to become a better individual in their own right.
Students work together to achieve individual competency.
 Fourth, teaching students the required interpersonal and small group skills:
Students must be taught social skills with the same precision and care as academic
skills. Students can effectively handle both team and individual work by
developing teamwork, decision-making, confidence building, communication, and
conflict management skills. Since collaboration and conflict are inextricably
linked, processes and skills for effective conflict management are critical to
learning groups' long-term success. What do you think about a team that does not
have a leader or communicates effectively? There will be friction between these
two parties.
 The fifth basic element of cooperative learning is group processing: When team
members discuss how well they accomplish their goals and establish constructive
working relationships, this is known as team processing. Members' activities
should be classified as helpful or unhelpful, and groups should make decisions on
which practices should be maintained or changed. Continuous process
development yields learning outcomes by examining how team members
cooperate and finding ways to increase team performance.

*The following are some of the most common cooperative learning methods:

- Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD

- Teams Games Tournaments (TGT)

- Jigsaw II

- Circles of learning

- Group Investigation

- Complex instruction

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- Team accelerated instruction (TAI)

- Cooperative integrated reading and composition (CIRC)

- Structured dyadic method

2.1.5. Advantage
Teachers use group work, and thus cooperative learning, often for a variety of reasons:

 Cooperation is an essential skill that students can need even after they finish
school. Cooperation is one of the most important aspects of a workplace, and we
need to prepare our students to cooperate, be responsible and accountable, and
acquire other interpersonal skills for them to be effective in their careers. Student's
self-esteem, motivation, and empathy have all been shown to improve when they
participate in cooperative learning.
 Motivates students thus encouraging active learning
 Improves academic achievement
 It is a great way to instill a sense of shared obligation.
 Encourages the development of literacy and language skills.
 Students learn to be polite, caring, and less critical.
 Variety in the instruction is helpful, and students will retain more knowledge.
 Cooperating with others has a significant and constructive impact on students'
thoughts and learning-through cooperative learning activities are well-executed,
students also gain a deeper understanding of the assigned material. Students
engage in thoughtful debate, consider various points of view, and learn to disagree
productively.
 Cooperative learning also changes students' and teachers' roles as teachers become
facilitators of learning, and students take on more responsibility for their learning.

2.1.6. Disadvantage
Despite the fact that cooperative or collective learning has been used in teaching methods
for decades, this approach has some disadvantages at times.

 Certain students are unable to function in this manner.

 Loners have a hard time sharing their answers, while aggressive students try to
take over and smart students have a tendency to be arrogant.
 It is a burden in making the students responsible for each others learning.
 Easily conflict and disagree among group members.

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  Students do not focus on task, easily distract attention by talking to each other.

2.2. Methodology
2.2.1 Application in English language teaching
Through understanding the theoretical basis of the cooperative teaching method, the
process of formation and development of this method, we can clearly realize the high
effectiveness and feasibility when applying the teaching method cooperation in education
in several countries around the world as well as the education of Vietnam at all
educational levels.

When it comes to teaching and learning foreign languages, particularly English, the
minimum requirement for the teacher is how to get the learner excited and intoxicated to
love learning foreign languages. So how do learners promote positive, bright thinking
create, take the initiative of students to improve efficiency and quality in the process of
teaching?

Students' basic four language skills can be improved using a cooperative learning
approach. Traditional competitive and four individual learning strategies with lockstep or
traditional learning group structures are used by the majority of teachers in government
schools. As a result, current instructional methods in schools, especially in government
schools, need to be improved.

Cooperative teaching methods are gradually being applied in classrooms, especially

classes with large numbers of students. In English, cooperative learning is a good way to
improve communication skills as well as reading and writing skills. Thereby, students
have the opportunity to hone their friends' vocabulary and skills.

2.2.2. Survey
The renewal of teaching methods is exceedingly crucial and urgent to keep up with the
changing times, the current state of the world, and the educational requirements. The use
of group teaching methods, especially in foreign language teaching, would benefit
students' learning of foreign languages in general and English in particular.

The goal of the study is to explore the effectiveness and benefits of a cooperative
learning approach to today's students' English speaking-listening-reading-writing skills as
well as what they need to focus on when learning cooperation.

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Below is a link to a small survey I created to evaluate how cooperative learning affects
the English learning of today's young people.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeb1oiSIcdPhmKtnX8_b_D1mcLHAZNf6LLAnL-
RU_c7TvKwFg/viewform?usp=sf_link

2.3. Result and analysis

2.3.1. Result
After inventory and data processing, we obtained the following results from the survey:

What stands out from the result is that all survey participants have studied in groups, of
which 55.6% use this method regularly. The majority of people who have used
coorpeative learning methods believe it is very useful and essential, while others believe
it is not. There are a variety of explanations for their decision, but the majority of them
see cooperative learning as having advantages such as increased engagement and
enhanced skills. By studying in groups, teachers created for students communication
skills, helping students form new language, enriching vocabulary to apply in everyday
life situations. The teacher is the organizer, the guide for groups of activities. Students
correct pronunciation words, how to apply learned words to sentence patterns, and quick
reflexes in English communication in each group. With this approach, the class has
become more exciting and interesting for all students. Since then, it creates confidence
for students who are not good at hearing and speaking in groups. Because they have the
opportunity to exchange and learn from each other.

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2.3.2. Analysis
We can see that the organization of students studying in groups not only promotes the
activeness, self-awareness, creative initiative in cognitive activities of students, creating

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conditions for everyone to participate and share experiences, learn from each other,
prepare for the division of workers to cooperate in the community through which many
social skills are formed and developed. In addition, when organizing group learning,
teachers also have the opportunity to take advantage of learners' opinions and
experiences.

While there are several different perspectives on the advantages of cooperative learning,
everyone acknowledges that it is an effective approach in many respects. Many people
believe that speaking and listening skills will develop if members share English on a
regular basis, but that you shouldn't be in a community for writing and reading because
personalization will be more successful. But, in truth, team learning will increase reading
and writing significantly because studying with more people will provide more
experience, make it easier to correct errors, and provide a larger vocabulary than
traditional learning.

* Through research and survey results, we have some notes when organizing group
activities:

- Effective cooperation and balance of work and tasks of each individual; The members
should not rely on, just as the leader should not only do his own thing but also have to
discuss and listen to the other members' opinions; More importantly, it is the
responsibility of each team member to cooperate.

- Everyone learns in the spirit of initiative, efficiency and positive comments need to
know to support each other, remind each other and urge each other to improve
willingness to cooperate and contribute from group members.

- It is not just about dividing the class into small groups group cooperation. The
effectiveness of the group activities depends on a lot of the teacher's preparation.
Teachers, not only preparing the facilities but also need to have a broad and relevant
knowledge of discussion issues, can lead the students to function well. Need to keep
participants in the mood for group discussion to do this well, teachers need to remind
students carefully when choosing a topic.

- If the classroom is too crowded and crowded, the teacher should use small groups
between children at the same table or children at two consecutive tables but pay attention
to fix the members of the same group.

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 - In the learning process of students, teachers must guide, help, evaluation, and
encouragement. In the process of group activities, teachers must find out students'
abilities and needs by collecting information about students, choosing knowledge goals,
skills to be achieved when working in groups.

- Groups must complete the work well, need the help of teachers, teachers so that
students of each group can participate in contributing ideas.

- Before the end of the activity, the teacher needs to assess the sense of work of the
groups and state the next work.

PART 3: CONCLUSION
Through the theoretical basis and data collected during the study, we can conclude that
cooperative learning method has had positive effects on student learning and interaction,
especially in English. We find that the cooperative learning method is more effective as
an English-teaching technique for an overcrowded classroom, and students in the
cooperative group perform better at acquiring knowledge than students in traditional
learning situations.

Using the cooperative teaching method will increase students' interest in learning, assist
them in comprehending the lesson's knowledge more deeply, and encourage them to
participate more actively in the acquisition of knowledge. Student interactions that reveal
many aspects of students are of paramount importance in teaching and learning.

Besides, we can summarize some experiences to maximize the effectiveness of

cooperative learning techniques in learning English:

- In addition to arranging the appropriate interaction between the student and the
document or the teacher, the teacher must spend time structuring the student
interaction pattern.
- The techniques of the method need to be combined cleverly with other methods
such as music, pictures, movies, and movement games to increase the vividness
and attractiveness of the lesson.
- Furthermore, teachers need to explain clearly, comprehensible, and illustrate so
that students can understand how to perform learning activities.

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 - Finally, teachers need to pay attention to the conditions of the class including
facilities, size, student learning, etc. to select and adapt cooperative learning
method that is appropriate for the class.

The pedagogical implications of the findings suggest using the dynamics of the Student
Thematic Achievement Division (STAD) of cooperative learning model to teach English
since it engages learners in constructive interaction in a supportive classroom setting.
This is an ideal environment for learning English.

REFERENCES

 Theoretical Background to ELT Methodology (Compiled and edited by

Nguyen Thi Mai Huong, Hanoi National University of Education)
 McCafferty, S. G., Jacobs, G. M., & DaSilva Iddings, A. C. (2006).
Cooperative learning and second language reaching. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
 http://www.co-operation.org/what-is-cooperative-learning
 https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-cooperative-learning-2081641
 https://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/the-history-of-cooperative-
learning-education-essay.php
 Kato, Bolstad, & Watari: Cooperative and Collaborative Learning in the
Language Classroom
 An experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of cooperative learning
versus traditional learning method (SHAFQAT ALI KHAN, 2008, PhD thesis
at Islamabad International Islamic University; Faculty of Social Science,
Department of Education)

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