46 Cooperative Language Lear Background ; Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) is part of a more general instruc. 7 ive Learning (CL). Cooperative +h also known as Collaborative i Lane aen oan to teaching that makes maximum use of cooper- ative activities involving pairs and small groups of learners in the clags- room. It has been defined as follows: Cooperative learning is group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners oy inc Which each learn for his or her owi learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others- (Olsen an ‘agan Cooperative Learning has antecedents in pr sals for peer-tutoring and Peer-monitoring that go back hundreds of years and longer. The early “twentieth century USS. educator John De: ey is usually credited with Promoting the idea of buil ding cooperation in lear ig into regular class- fooms on a regular and systematic basi Rodgers $988), It was more generally promoted and developed in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s as a response to the forced integration of Public schools and has been substantially refined and developed since then, Educators were con- cerned that traditional models of classroom learning were teacher- fronted, fostered competition rather than cooperation, and favored i - jority students. They believed that minority tees ‘might fall behead higher-achieving students in this kind of learning eee Fos fT ii i fonment . \- tive Learning in this context sought to do the followin, t. Coopera ~ raise the achievement of all students, including those w . academically handicapped _ — ho are gifted or ~ help the teacher build positive relationships among students — give students the experiences they need for healthy Social, psychologi cal, and cognitive development ae : » Psychologi- — replace the competitive organizational structure o most ef id schools with a team-based, high-performance or, . ae structure (Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec 1994; 2) Bi 192 ae Escaneado con CamScannerv Cooperative Langu, a : Re Lea _eveachings CL (where itis of 2 a-CLL) has been embr, tion in the classroom a, t - en referred to pearnit y or sroach to teaching f D ‘ A Seater classroom methods. In language tes : a B0als ate : : sppartunities For naturalistic second laggy aide © vse of interactive pair and group activitie the Urs with a methodology to enabl ABE acquisition % ech le the '™ to achieve this can be applied in a vari ne that ¢ a np cnet ety of curriculum Settings and oe pased, foreign language classrooms; Mainstreaming) ont cr . ; eee focused attention to particular lexical items, | ANguage struc ‘ent Md communicative functions through the tse of interactive ot ade oP ortunities for learners to develop successful learning and peo a =i ro ph nication strarcBics sn om ance Hearne motivation and reduce learner stress and to create a ~ nn fiective classroom climate posit bthus an approach that crosses both mainstream education and ust . i “these can” be-regarded-as the overall ‘Objectives of CLL. More specitic objectives will derive from the context in which it is used, The syllabus CLL. does not assume any particular form of language syllabus, since activities from a wide variety of curriculum orientations can be taught via cooperative learning. Thus we find CLL used in teaching content classes, ESP, the four skills, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, What r) 5 Escaneado con CamScanner2 Current communicative approaches sstematic and carefully planned use of prow defines CLL rching as an alternative to teacher fronted te procedures in te D-binse, aching, Types of learning and teaching activities Johnson et al, (1994: 4-8) de scribe firee HRD cooperative learning 16 1. Formal cooperative learning groups, These ast from one class periog to several weeks, These are established for a specific task and involy students working together to achieve shared learning goals Informal cooperative learning groups. These are ad-hoc jroups thay last froma few minutes to a class period and are used to focus student attention or to facilitate learning during direct teaching, Cooperative base groups. These are long term, lasting for at least a year and consist of heterogeneous learning groups with stable mem. bership whose primary purpose is to allow members to give each other the support, help, encouragement, and assistance they need to succeed academically, ‘The success of CL is crucially dependent on the nature and organization of group work, This requires a structured program of learning carefully designed so that learners interact with each other and are motivated to increase each other's learning. Olsen and Kagan (1992) Propose the fol- lowingey clement of successful group-based learning in CL: ~ Positive interdependence ~ Group formation ~ Individual accountability ~ Social skills ~ Structuring and structures Positive interdependence occurs when group members feel that what helps one member helps all and what hurts one member hurts all. [tis created by the structure of Cl, tasks, and by building a spirit of mutual FS at van the group) ian example, a group may producewsingl ee ets ee averaged, © Members of a group may Group formation is pendence, Factors invol Nn important factor in cre, ved in setting UP groups = decid ' in on the sizeof the groups This will depend on the tasks the! Me Be of the learners, and time limits for the lesso" tee A and time 's for the le Typical group size is from two to foun ime limit = assign ) 196 Hing students to groups: Groups can be teachersclected, ram ‘ating, positive interde include: Escaneado con CamScannerUe ISEB BS UN d, altho ic eee g create Groups that are heterogeneous on such co de 8° achievement, ethnicity, or sex. roups? Each group member has a specific role to play jh as noise monitor, turn-taker monitor, recorder, or 1 accountability involves both group and individual perfor- dul ‘ample, by assigning each student a grade on his or her — ts fF es m project or by calling on a student at random to share sat ane class, with group members, or with another group. at “ails determine the way students interact with each other as coat Usually some explicit instruction in social skills is needed to am ycessful interaction. eeacturing and Structures refer to ways of organizing student interac- ~sand different ways students are to interact such as Three-step inter- av ot Round Robin (discussed later in this section). ‘Yumerous descriptions exist of ai y types that_can be used with CLL. Coelho (1992b: 132\describes three major kinds of cooperativ xaing tasks and their learning focus, eac of which has many vatiations. > 1. Team practice from common input - skills development and mastery ~ All students work on the same material. - Practice could follow a traditional teacher-directed presentation’of new material and for that reason is a good starting point for teachers and/or students new to group work. ~ The task is to make-sure that everyone in the group knows the answer toa question and can explain how the answer was obtained or under- stands the material, Because students want their team to do well, they coach and tutor each other to make sure that any member of the group could answer for all of them and explain their team’s answer, ~ When the teacher takes upithe question Or assignmenty/anyone in a 8roup may be called on to answer for the team. ~ This technique is good for review and for practice tests; the group takes the practice test together, but each student will eventually do an assign: Ment or take a test individually. a ~ This technique is effective in situations where the composition of the groups is unstable (in adult programs, for example). Students can form New groups every day. * ; ; m- y 2. Jigsawedifferentiated but predetermined input ~ evaluation and sy! a fh facts and opinions . i ion. ch group member receives a different piece of the info! 197 Escaneado con CamScannerce ectaiwe Language Learning " ar-selecteds although teacher-selected is reco; t seo Je so as to create groups that are hetero ee as the me xs past achievement, ethnicity, or sex, ous OM such tt roles i BrOUPS! Each group member has a specific role a gr0UP> such as noise monitor, turn-taker monitor, ee 5 cq i2e% i ccountability i indivi inva ac He ty involves both group and individual perfor- att for example, by assigning each student a grade on his or he ane . r ton of a team project or by calling on a student at random to share Fh the whole class, with group members, or with another group Social skills determine the way students interact with each other as eammates. Usually some explicit instruction in social skills is needed to ensure successful interaction. Structuring and Structures refer to ways of organizing student interac- tion and different ways students are to interact such as Three-step inter- view or Round Robin (discussed later in this section). Numerous descriptions exist of activity types that can be i f used with CLL. Coelho (1992b: 132) describes three major kinds of cooperative learning, tasks and their learning focus, each of which has many variations. 1. Team practice from common input - skills development and mastery of facts ~ All students work on the same material. ~ Practice could follow a traditional teacher-directed presentation’of new material and for that reason is a good starting point for teachers and/or students new to group work. ~ The task is to make-sure that everyone in the group knows the answer to a question and can explain how the answer was obtained or under- stands the material. Because students want their team to do well, they coach and tutor each other to make sure that any member of the group could answer for all of them and explain their team’s answer. — ‘When the teacher takes"upithe question oF assignment, anyone ina group may be called on to answer for the tea —eenee chirique is good for review and for practice tests; the group takes the practice test together, but each student will eventually do an assign- ment or take a test individually. - _ This technique is effective in situations where the composition of the groups is unstable (in adult programs, for example). Students can form ew groups every day. 2 ifferentiated but predetermined input — evaluation and syn thesis of facts and opinions ' thesach group member receives a different piece of thi i Bi .e information. 197 Escaneado con CamScannerCooperative Language Learning selected although teacher-selected is recommended as the 0804 @ 30 as £0 create groups that are heterogeneous on such “ual mn ‘as past achievement, ethnicity, or sex. Mtb es in groups: Each group member has a specific role to play oe ss such as noise monitor, turn-taker monitor, recorder, or in nate a ability involves both group and individual perfor- by assigning each student a grade on his or her ect ot by calling on a student at random to share ne whole class, with group members, or with another group. cial skills determine the way students interact with each other as smmates- Usually some explicit instruction in social skills is needed to am successful interaction. . ucturing ‘and Structures refer to ways of organizing student interac- son and different ways students are to interact such as Three-step inter- view or Round Robin (discussed later in this section). Numerous descriptions exist of activity types that can be used with CLL. Coelho (1992b: 132) describes three major kinds of cooperative laming tasks and their learning focus, each of which has many variations. 1. Team practice from common input — skills developmer of facts ~ All students work on the same material. «Practice could follow a traditional teacher-directed presentationof new material and for that reason is a good starting point for teachers and/or students new to group work. Thetatk is to make-sure that everyone in the group knows the answer nn et and can explain how the answer was ‘obtained or under- coach) pe ate) Because students want their team to do well, they could canary each other to make sure that any member of the group ~ When th er for all of them and explain their team’s answer. rou te teacher takesuupithe:question oF assignmentyanyone in a ~ up maybe called on to answer forthe team. nique is good for review and for practice tests; the group takes eventually do an assign count pat fg team proj nt and mastery the: mentor ot! test together, but each student wi > This ech ea test individually. | Broups une is effective in situations where the composition of the new oy unstable (in adult programs, for example). Students can form PS every day. rn thesis of lifferentiated but predetermined input — evaluation and sy" ~ Bagh! facts and opinions h . i Broup member receives a different piece of the information. 407 Escaneado con CamScannerere his Current communicative approache i ic groups (expert groups) Composed oF p,, ~ Students regroup in prastiee ths material and prepare to vena ie with the same piece to mas = Students return to home groups (Jigsaw groups) to sh ion with each other. oe Seana ae size the information through discussion, ~ Each student produces an assignment of part of @ BFOUP project, o, takes a test, to demonstrate synthesis of all the information Presented , ember - Thin hee Of organization may require team-building activities for both home groups and topic groups, long-term group involvement, and rehearsal of presentation methods. ; ~ This method is very useful in the multilevel class, allowing for both homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping in terms of Enplish proficiency. ae ~ Information-gap activities in language teaching are jigsaw activities in the form of pair work. Partners have data (in the form of text, tables, charts, etc.) with missing information to be supplied during interacti n with another partner. > 3. Cooperative projects: topics/resources selected by students ~ discovery learning ~ Topics may be different for each group. — Students identify subtopics for each group member. ~ Steering committee may coordinate the work of the class as a whole. ~ Students research the information using resources such as library refer- ence, interviews, visual media. ~ Students synthesize their information for a group presentation: oral and/or written. Each group member plays a part in the presentation. ~ Each group presents to the whole class, ~ This method places greater emphasis on individualization and stu- dents’ interests. Each student’s assignment is unique. ~ Students need plenty of Previous experience with more structured group work for this to be effective, Olsen and Kagan (1992; 88)descrbes te folowing examples of CLL activities: Three-step interview: (1) Students are in pairs; one is interviewer and the other is interviewee. (2) Students Teverse roles, (3) Each shares with team member what was learned during the two interviews. — , Roundtable: There is one piece of Paper and one pen for each team. (1) One student makes a contribution and (2) Passes the paper and pen to the student of his or her left, (3) Each st Aper and p a done orally, the structuye ip called Rese ntkes contributions in turt — Think-PairShare: (1) ‘Teaches 7 ae s ea ally a lo consensus question). (2) Students think of IN ronoraat a Nsatdens discuss 198 Escaneado con CamScannernse with a partner. (4) Students share their partner’s response 7 ainshare: (1) Teacher poses a problem (a low-consensus or sts 1 that may be resolved with different strategies). (2) ents WOTK out solutions i individually, (3) Students explain how they the problem in Interview or Round Robin structures. sred Heads: (1) Students number off in teams. (2) Teacher asksa — ayestion (usually high-consensus). (3) Heads Together - students literally pute heads together ind make sure everyone knows and can explain the answers (4) Jher calls a number and students with that number heir hands to be called on, as in traditional classroom. aise € Leamer roles ner is as a member of a group who mitist work The primary role of the | p members. Learners have to jearn They are taught to plan, their own learning, which ig viewed as a compilation of lifelong learning skills. Thus, learning something that requires students’ direct and active involvement and par- ticipation. Pair grouping is the most typical CLL format, ensuring the maximum amount of time both learners spend engaged on learning tasks. Pair tasks in which learners alternate roles involve partners in the role of tutors, checkers, recorders, and information sharers. Teacher roles The role of the teacher in CLL differs considerably from the role of teachers in traditional teacher-fronted lesson. The teacher has to create @ 994), An important role for the teacher is that of his or her role as clping students and facilitator, the teacher must move around the class h groups as needs arise: During this time the i g, reachesprefocusessauestionss ® ‘eupports, expands © izes. Depending on what problems _ aioe, the following supportive behaviors XY vtilized, Facilitacors are siVing ‘Tecdback, redirecting the group with questor ‘encouraging the BrouP FO 4. its own problems, extending activity, encouraging thinking, rmanagis conflict, ‘Sbserving students, and supplying resource (Harel 1992: 1 eset ae students for the tasks they questions to challenge thinking, they prepare ao ee Escaneado con CamScannerCurrent communicative approaches ‘ ith the leaening tasks, and they, he carry outpahmnasiannin mposing, less Me clinary control (Harel 1992)! Th teacher may also have the task of restructuring lessons so that stuga® can wotk on them cooperatively. This involves the following step, cording to Johnson et al. (1994: 1, Take your existing lessons, curriculum, and sources and Structure , our unique instructional ircumstances, curricula, subject areas, ane Sue, li 3. Diagnose the problems some students may ave in working together and intervene to increase learning groups’ effectiveness. Needs, The role of instructional materials Materials play an important part in creating ‘peannitiendonepsiomeny swork.cooperatiey ‘The same materials can be used as are used in oth types of lessons but variations are required in how the materials are used, For example, if students are working in groups, each might have one se of materials (or groups might have different sets of materials), or each group member might need a copy of a text to read and refer to. Materials may be specially designed for CLL. learning (such as commercially sold iigsaw and information-gap activities), modified from existing materials, or borrowed from other disciplines. A Procedure Johnson et al. (1994: 67-68) net al. (1 Bive the following example of how a col laborative learning lesson wo uld be carried out when students are re- ecpa igns students to pairs with at least one good reader it 2. Student A describes what he or she is planning to write to Student : 4 set of questions, and outlines ives the written outline to Student A: » With Student B describing what he or she who listens carefully, probes wi Student A's ideas, Student Bet? 3. This procedure is reversed, 200 Escaneado con CamScannert LOOPETANVE LANguage Learning ae and Student A listening and completing an outline of which is then given to Student B. $e individually research the material they need for their ats ‘yeeping, an eye out for material useful to their partner, ts work together to write the first paragraph of each com- ca ensure that they both have a clear start on their sitions. . eee madents write their compositions individually. st appen the students have completed their compositions, they proofread ~ T hother’s compositions, making corrections in capitalization, punc- cation, spelling, language usage, and other aspects of writing the wacher specifies. Students also give each other suggestions for revision. «. The students revise their compositions. 3, The students then reread each other’s compositions and sign their names to indicate that each composition is error-free. Daring this process, the teacher monitors the pairs, intervening when 2ppropriate to help students master the needed writing and cooperative Z Ya Conclusions v The use of discussion groups, group work, and pair work has often been advocated both in teaching languages and in other subjects. Typically, such groups are used to provide a change from the normal pace of class- room events and to increase the amount of student participation in les- Sons. Such activities, however, are not necessarily cooperative. In Cooper- ative Learning, group activities are the major mode of learning and are Part of a comprehensive theory and system for the use of group work in ‘caching. Group activities are carefully planned to maximize students’ ‘nteraction and to facilitate students’ contributions to each other’s learn- 'ng- CLL activities can also be used in collaboration with other teaching methods and approaches. Unlike most language teaching proposals, CLL has been extensively tesearched and evaluated and research findings are generally supportive (see Slavin 1995; Baloche 1998), although little of this research was con- lucted in 1.2 classrooms. CLL is not without its critics, however, Some ave questioned its use with learners of different proficiency levels, sug- fEsting that some groups of students (e.g., intermediate and advanced sners) may obtain more benefits from it than others. In addition, it jiped considerable demands on teachers, who may have difficulty adapt- e i tress that it enhances (ew foles required of them, Proponents of CLL s o 201 rm Escaneado con CamScannerBibliography and further reading Baloche, L. 1998, The Cooperative Classroom. Englewood Cliffs, Ny. p, Hall. ; / :Prentc Bloom, §. 1956, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: p McKay. / : Davg Brody, Cand N, Davidson (eds). 1998. Professional Development for ¢, tive Learning. New York: State University of New York Press, “°°Pera. Christison, M., and §, Bassano, 1981. Look Who's Talking. San Fransis emany Press. ; C0: Al. E, 1992a. Cooperative learning: Foundation for a communicative Curtic. Coelho, E. ulum. In C. Kessler (ed.), Cooperative Language Learning: A ‘Ty Resource Book. New York: Prentice Hall, 31-51. vO Neacher's . 1992b, Jigsaw: Integrating language and content. In C. Kessler 129 Coelho, 18 Coelho, : boroueh. Ont.: Dishon, D., and P. Leary. 1998. A Guidebook for C it Holmes Beach, Fa: Leaning Publications, (or Cooperative Lean » and C. Kessler, 1992. Cooperative langua; ing ii ; C ge learn cnc MR, Antal Review of Applied Linguistics 13: 127-140, 0" “hoot eemer oa gic and conversation. In P. Cole and J. Morgan (eds.) Syn antics, vol 3, Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press. 41- Harel, Y. 1992. Teacher talk ii i i fea Coen fp a pcoberauve learning classroom. In C. Kessler Yorks Poe vias i earning: A Teacher’s Resource Book. New Jacobs, G. M., G. Lee, and J. Bali i Conpurate Vas ming a Ball les Learning Cooperative Learning via Johnson D. R Jonoen™®, Si 4 Pore egional Language Centre. Classroom, Alene va ie lubec, 1994. Cooperative Learning in the sagen » Ya. Association for Supervision and Curriculum in, 5. 1992. Cooperatin i i : operative Leaner /e Learning. San Juan Capistrano, Calif: Kagan Co- essler, C, 1992 (ed.). Cooperative La i eto New York Prentice Hall, nguage Learning: A Teacher's Resource ¥ M. 1989, The benefits of i ond Inguage instruc on of cooperative learning arrangements in sec tJ. WB 1978 iCanimanicere meee 13(2) (winter): 127-143. ro " orarters g iviti Olsen and § eeranaico: Alemany Peed Other Activities for the ESL Cooperative Langua, e ia About q opera Prentice Hall, 1-39, @7™"8 A Teach, Palms, Av and T. Rodgers. 1986, Back evelopment, Fray * ACR and Forth; Pai ivitic ig J 1865 i ANH: Aaya Atos for Lana Publishing Co, Be and Thought of the Chi tichards, J., and R, Schmidt, 1993, Mt Of the Child, New York: World Longman. * S4Nguage and Communication. Londo™ Escaneado con CamScanner %, 1994, Learning Together in the Multicultural Cl ippin. ‘4SS7O0M. Scar. oO" tive learning. In C, Kessler (e4.) er’s Resource Book. New York: