EFFECTS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AND TEACHER’S VIEW TOWARDS THE APPROACH AT FASILEDES GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOL, GONDAR CITY

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to find out the effects of cooperative learning on students’ speaking performance and teacher’s view towards the approach using quasiexperimental design. Two different sections of grade 9 out of 26 were selected at Fasiledes General Secondary School, Gondar City via simple random sampling technique. One section was randomly assigned to a control group while the other was allotted to an experimental group, each group consisting of 30 students. Both pre-andpost tests and interview were employed to generate data. The pre-test result indicated that the experimental and control groups were similar in their speaking performance at the commencement of the intervention, t(58)=-.03, p (.977) > .05. However, their posttest scores revealed that there was a statistical significant difference between the experimental and control group students’ speaking performance t(58)=-2.52, p (.014) <.05. In the same test, the mean value of the experimental group was 32.87 and it was 26.93 for the control group. This indicates that the implementation of cooperative approach enabled the students to perform better in speaking test than that of individualistic approach. During the interview, the experimental group teacher replied that the cooperative learning helped the students develop a better understanding of the materials being learnt. The implications drawn from the findings suggested that teachers need to implement the cooperative learning as an approach in the EFL speaking classrooms.