The effect of the learning together model of cooperative learning on second foreign language achievement and academic self-esteem

النوع : Mémoire

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of using the learning--together model of cooperative learning method in improving second foreign language--achievement and enhancing academic self-esteem of71h grade students learning English--as a second foreign language. Two intact classes (n=52) were randomly assigned to--control and experimental groups and a pretest-posttest control group design was--employed. Specifically, learners in the experimental group and the control group studied--the same content. The treatment lasted for seven weeks at the rate of four sessions each--week. Each session lasted for 5 minutes during which the participants studied the same--content and skills using the same books, but followed different procedures. The control--group lesson plans focused on learning according to the instructional procedures of their--textbooks and in a whole-class instruction setting. The lesson plans for the experimental--condition were based on the dynamics of the learning together model. Data were--collected through a general reading proficiency pretest, an achievement posttest--specifically designed for the purpose of the present study. The learners' academic self-esteem--was measured at the beginning and conclusion of the study using a five-point--Likert scale adopted from Johnson & Johnson (1996). The study addressed two questions. The first and second questions were--whether the learning together model is more effective than whole-class instruction on--second foreign language achievement and academic self-esteem, respectively.--Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and a Multivariate Analysis of--Co-Variance (MANCOVA) test were used to answer the second and third questions.--Results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the mean--scores of the control and the experimental groups. This suggests that the learning--together model and whole-class instruction were equally effective based on the data of--this study, However results showed that there was a statistically significant difference--between the posttest academic self-esteem mean scores of the control and experimental--groups. The learning together model was proved to be more effective than whole-class--instruction on the academic self-esteem of7lh grade students. Finally, several--implications and suggestions for future research were discussed.