People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research ...

68 Pages·2006·0.29 MB·English

People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Abderrahmane Mira University-Béjaia
Faculty of Languages
Department of English
Learners' Perceptions towards Using Cooperative Learning in Oral Sessions
TheCaseofThird Year LMDStudents ofEnglishat AbderrahmaneMira Universityof
Béjaia,
Subject: Oral Expression
Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS in the Didactics of English at Bejaia University.
Submittedby: Miss.AminaBenkhelouf Supervisedby: Ms.NadiaAHOUARI-IDRI
June,2013
BoardofExaminers:
President: Ms.NouaraTOUCHE
Supervisor: Ms.NadiaAHOUARI-IDRI
Examiner: Mr.SofianeMAMMERI
June,2013
Dedication
To my ‘mother’
You are the ideal mother a daughter could ever ask for!
To my sister Asma
Without you I can’t even move
To my friends: ‘Aicha, Mounia, Fatiha,Fatima, Karima, Seddik,
Adel and Roukaya’. Thank you so much for your support. I will never
forget you; you make my days at University memorable.
I
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank ALLAH for giving me courage and health to
accomplish my work;
My special thanks and gratitude for my supervisor Mrs. Nadia
AHOUARI-IDRI for her help and insightful advice and guidance, thank you so
much Ms.
I would like to thank Mr. Sofiane MAMMERI and Ms. Noura TOUCHE
foracceptingtoread my work and beingmembers of jury.
II
Abstract
The present research is an endeavour to find out how EFL students perceive
Cooperative Learning use in oral sessions and how do they think it affects their
interaction as well as their oral production. We hypothesised that if third year LSD
students possess positive perceptions towards Cooperative Learning use during oral
sessions in their EFL classes, this will facilitate the production of more output and
will give more opportunities to interact. In a trial to confirm our hypothesis, we
resort to the use of a Questionnaire as a tool to collect data. We worked on 150 EFL
students at Abderrahmane Mira University of Bejaia. Descriptive and arithmetic
analyses were used as methods of data analysis. Results showed that students have
positive perceptions towards using Cooperative Learning in oral sessions. They
revealed that students appreciate the idea of using Cooperative Learning in oral
sessions and claim its benefits on them. Hence, most of third year LSD students
suggest working cooperatively in all the modules and acknowledging the fact that it
gives them more opportunities to interact; they feel motivated to speak and take part
inclass discussion.Accordingly, ourresearch hypothesis is validated.
Key words: Cooperative Learning (CL), learners’ perceptions, interaction and oral
production.
III
List of Abbreviations
CL: CooperativeLearning
CLT: CommunicativeLanguage Teaching
EFL: English as aForeign Language
FL: Foreign Language
FLL: Foreign Language Learning
LMD:Licence-Master-Doctorate
LSD: Language Sciences andDidactics
L2: SecondLanguage
SL: SecondLanguage
SLA: SecondLanguage Acquisition
SLL: SecondLanguage Learning
IV
Listof Tables
Numberofthetable Titleofthetable Pagenumber
Table01 NumberofHandedandReturnedCopiesoftheQuestionnaire 27
Table02 Students’InterestsinEnglishlanguageSkills/Sub-skill 28
Table03 Students’ Ranking for Language Skills/ Sub-skills according 29
totheirImportance
Students’justificationforchoosingb,forg
Table04 30
Students’WillingnesstoimprovetheirSpeakingSkill
Table05 31
Students’StrategiesforImprovingtheirSpeakingSkill
Table06 31
Students’likeofParticipationintheClassroom
Table07 32
Frequencyofparticipationintheclassroom
Table08 33
Table09 Students’preferencesofworkingduringoralsessions 33
Table10 Students’ frequency of working in small groups during oral 34
sessions
Table11 Students’Feelingwhenworkinginsmallgroups 35
The language(s) Used by Students when Working in Small
Table12 35
Groups
Table13 Students’PreferencesofActivitiesinoralexpressionsessions 36
Students’Agreementonusinggroupworksinoralsession
Table14 37
Learners’ Attitudes towards the Effects of CL on their
Table15 37
Performance
Students’ Justifications for their agreement about the effects
Table16 38
ofCLontheiroutputandinteraction
Students’ Attitudes towards the Effects of CL on their
Table17 39
performance
V
Table of Contents
Dedication...........................................................................................................................I
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................II
Abstract...............................................................................................................................III
List ofAbbreviations...........................................................................................................IV
List ofTables.......................................................................................................................V
Tableofcontent...................................................................................................................VI
Definitionofterms .............................................................................................................VII
General Introduction.......................................................................................1
1.Statement oftheProblem...........................................................................................1
2.Research Questions………………………………………………………….....1
3.Hypothesis.................................................................................................................2
4.Aims oftheStudy......................................................................................................2
5.Significance oftheStudy...........................................................................................2
6.Designand Procedures ofData Collection................................................................3
7.DescriptionoftheStudy............................................................................................4
Chapter One: Theoretical Background......................................................6
Introduction.........................................................................................................................6
1.Students’Beliefs andPerceptions...................................................................................6
1.1.Definitions ofLearners’ Beliefs andPerceptions.............................................6
1.2.Attitudes, Perceptions andBelief.....................................................................8
1.3.Importance of Learners’ Beliefs.......................................................................9
1.4.ResearchintoBeliefs inFLL............................................................................9
2. UsingCooperative Learning...........................................................................................11
2.1.Definitions ofCooperativeLearning................................................................11
2.2.CooperativeLearning inEFLClassroom…………………………………….12
VI
2.2.1.TheInput Hypothesis…………………………………………………..12
2.2.2.TheInteraction Hypothesis…………………………………………….12
2.2.3.TheOutput Hypothesis…………………………………………………12
2.3.Aspects ofCooperative Learning......................................................................13
2.3.1.PositiveInterdependence........................................................................13
2.3.2.Face-to-Face Interaction........................................................................14
2.3.3.Individual Accountability......................................................................14
2.3.4.Collaborative/Social Skills....................................................................15
2.3.5.GroupProcessing...................................................................................15
2.4.Grouping……………………………………………………………………….15
2.4.1.Types of Grouping..................................................................................16
2.4.2.GroupSize..............................................................................................17
2.5.CooperativeLearning Tasks andActivities......................................................17
3.Motivation,AnxietyandBeliefs toward usingCooperativeLearning............................19
3.1.MotivationandLearners’ Beliefs.....................................................................19
3.2.Anxietyand Learners’ Beliefs..........................................................................20
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………21
Chapter Two: Research Methods, Results and Discussion ......................22
Introduction.........................................................................................................................22
1.Theme’s FeasibilityandPilot StudyoftheQuestionnaire..............................................22
1.1.Theme’s Feasibility..........................................................................................22
1.2. Pilot Studyof theQuestionnaire.......................................................................23
2.Designand Procedure ofthe Study.................................................................................24
2.1.Design...............................................................................................................24
2.2.ResearchVariables...........................................................................................25
2.3.ResearchSubjects.............................................................................................25
2.4.DataCollectionTool........................................................................................26
VII
2.5.DescriptionandtheQuestionnaire...................................................................26
3.Analysis ofthe Questionnaire.........................................................................................27
4.DiscussionoftheResults andPedagogical Recommendations......................................40
4.1.DiscussionoftheResults..................................................................................40
4.2.Pedagogical Recommendations………………………....................................42
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................43
General Conclusion...........................................................................................................44
ScopeandLimitations oftheStudy………………………………………………………45
References …..…………………………………………………………………………….46
Appendices
VIII