The Implementation of Cooperative Learning Strategy to Teach

English to Students with Different Learning Style

By
Bintang Hemas Widyanita
2201413079

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
SEMARANG STATE UNIVERSITY
2015

Introduction
In this globalization era, English has become a global language. Therefore, many
people learned English as a need to communicate broadly. In Indonesia, students
start to learn English at early ages. They are supposed to master the four skills in
English, such as: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Some additional
English language components also need to be learned; they are grammar,
vocabulary,and pronunciation. Those components are important because they are
the keys of understanding utterances spoken or written by English speaking
people.The way in which they learn English is different from one another. Brown
(2000) defines learning styles as the manner in which individuals perceive and
process information in learning situations (quoted from Brown 2000 in
Pourhossein, Abbas Gilakjani 2012:2). There are three types of learning styles:
Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. Student who learns through visual means they
learn by looking. They enjoy looking at graphics, watching a demonstration,
reading, or seeing pictures. Auditory learners learn through listening. They work
well with spoken instructions and learn quickly by listening to stories and
songs.Kinesthetic learners learn physically by moving around. They are response
well to movement activities and song with gestures.
It is not an easy task for the teacher to teach English to their students since they
have different style in learning. Moreover, English is a foreign language which
rarely used when they have a conversation in their community. In the foreign
language classroom, Cooperative learning is believed as an appropriate teaching
method which can increase target language use, improve communication skills,
build confidence and stimulate learner autonomy. Cooperative Learning is an
instructional strategy in which small groups of students work together on a
common task. The teacher sets up a small group for the students to discuss and
argue about the material. Through this small discussion, they are expected to use
English as a communicative language so they can improve their communication
skill. In fact, while the students have a small discussion, they do not speak in

English. Naturally, they speak in their mother language. Instead of discuss the
materi, the students are enjoy to talk about another things which out of the
content. Therefore, teacher have struggle to implement cooperative learning to
teach english to students with different learning style.
Notions of Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is described by Kagan (1994) as a communal activity in
which learning is carried out through the mutual exchange of information. Within
this framework, group members are responsible for their own construction of
knowledge, as well as for facilitating the learning of the other group members
(quoted from Kagan 1994 in Celik, Servet et al 2012:3).
Another definition comes from Abrami, Poulsen & Chambers (2004) define
Cooperative Learning (CL) as an instructional strategy in which students work
actively and purposefully together in small groups to enhance both their own and
their teammates learning (quoted from Abrami, Poulsen & Chambers 2004 in
Ahmad Zaher and Mahmood, Nazir 2010:2).
In addition, Johnson and Johnson (1994) outline five features of cooperative
learning:

Positive interdependence each member of the group is responsible for the

success of the group as a whole and is assigned a fair share of work.

Face-to-face interaction students work in close physical proximity, which
enables them to communicate easily and provides opportunities for oral

practice.
Individual accountability every student is accountable for carrying out his
or her assigned tasks; all members are aware that every individual has a

role to play in completing the activity.

Group processing throughout the course of an activity, group members are
aware of their learning on a metacognitive level. Group processing
provides students a chance to give and receive feedback and enhances the
skills of each group member.

Social skills group learning activities provide an opportunity for

communication and interaction. Leadership, decision-making, and conflict
management are an integral part of group work, and teachers should
encourage students to use these skills in the classroom.

Furthermore, Richards and Rodgers (2001:199) emphasize that learners in a

cooperative context are encouraged to take charge of their own learning
throughout the process of planning, monitoring and assessment, nothing that
learning is something that requires students direct involvement and participation.
So, Cooperative Learning is an instructional strategy in which small groups of
students work together on acommon task. In cooperative learning the students' and
teachers' roles in classrooms are changed.The ownership of teaching and learning
is shared by groups of students,and it is no longer the responsibility of the
teacher.Students have moreopportunities to actively participate in their
learning,question and challenge each other, share and discuss their ideas, and
internalize their learning.
Development of Cooperative Learning
Over the past twenty-five years, the use of small-group learning has greatly
increased. Informal collaborative projects have grown into structured, cooperative
group work. Cooperative learning became especially popular in the early 1980s
which shown in the table 1 Modern Methods of Cooperative Learning.
Table 1
Modern Methods of Cooperative learning
Researcher-Developer
Johnson & Johnson
DeVries & Edwards
Sharan & Sharan
Johnson & Johnson
Aronson & Associates
Slavin & Associates

Date
Mid 1970s
Early 1970s

Method
Learning Together (LT)
Teams-Games-

Mid 1970s
Mid 1970s
Late 1970s
Late 1970s

Tournaments (TGT)
Group Investigation (GI)
Constructive Controversy
Jigsaw Procedure
Student Teams
Achievement Divisions

Cohen
Slavin & Associates
Kagan

Early 1980s
Early 1980s

(STAD)
Complex Instruction
Team Assisted Instruction

Mid 1980s

(TAI)
Cooperative Learning

Structures
Cooperative Integrated
Reading & Composition
Associates
(CIRC)
Kagan
Early 1990s
Three-Step Interview
Kagan
Late 1980s
Inside-Outside Circle
(Quoted from Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000 in Liang, Tsailing 2002: 35)
Stevens, Slavin, &

Late 1980s

One evolving aspect of cooperative learning involves how the educational

community approaches the composition of the small groups. Debates still exist on
this topic. Researchers differon the make-up of groups and the most effective size
for small groups. They argue mainly about whether to group students according to
their ability, or to mix them so that stronger students can help the weaker ones
learn and themselve learn from the experience of tutoring. Radencich and McKay
(1995) conclude that grouping by ability does not usually benefit overall
achievement and can lead to inequalities of achievement. Within that argument,
most teachers make decision based on their objectives, or they simply alternate.
Sometimes they group according to the strengths or interests of students, and
other times they mix it up so that students can learn to work with different types
of people. About the most effective size for small groups, Slavin stated that
having two or three members per group produces higher achievement than groups
with four or more members (Slavin, 1987). In addition, Antil argue that most
teachers prefer pairs and small groups of three and four (Antil et al, 1998).
Cooperative learning differ from traditional teaching approaches because students
work together rather than against with each other individually. In cooperative
learning, students become active and participate in teaching and learning process,
while in traditional approach, students become passive and do not participate well.
Cooperative learning can take place any time students work together, for example,

when they help each other with homework.Mixed-skill groups can be especially
helpful to students in developing their social abilities.The skills needed to work
together in groups are quite distinct from those used to succeed in writing a paper
on one's own or completing most homework or "seatwork" assignments. In a
world where being a "team player" is often a key part of business success,
cooperative learning is a very useful and relevant tool.Because it is just one of a
set of tools, however, it can easily be integrated into a class that uses multiple
approaches. For some assignments individual work may be most efficient, while
for others cooperative groups work best.
Implementation of Cooperative Learning
Teachers are often afraid to implement cooperative learning in the classroom
because it requires them to give up some control. However, this method of
instruction has been shown to increase student communication skills and
academic achievement if done correctly. Here are tips for effectively
implementing cooperative learning into the instructional program. Kagan (1989)
recommends that teachers use the structural approach to cooperative learning,
which involves content-free ways of organizing social interaction in the
classroom. Kagan explains that structures require a series of steps to be
implemented into the group dynamic. Kagan lists well-known structures that have
been successfully used in multiple grade levels and subject areas:

jigsaw

student teams achievement divisions

think-pair-share

numbered heads together

three-step interview

co-op

round robin

inside-outside circle

roundtable

Teacher can implement one of those cooperative learning technique in classroom.

In this essay, I will give an illustration of using round robin. In this round robin
case, the teacher presents a category Schoolmeans everything which related to
school. First of all, the teacher divides their students into some groups, one group
consists of three or four students. Then, the teacher asks the first group to mention
of stationary, second group mention of room in the school, and so on. The game is
started from the first student (Ani) say I go to stationary store to buy a book.
Then, second student says Ani goes to stationary store to buys a book and I go to
stationary store to buy pen. The third student will say the same thing and name
his own stationary, so do another student and the other group.
In the round robin structure, each student takes turns sharing something new with
members of the cooperative group. Round robin offers students the opportunity to
express ideas and opinions while learning more about their teammates . Through
this technique, students are trained to speak in English so they can improve their
speaking skill, and gain more vocaburalies.
Roles of the Students Learning Style in TEFL
There are three main learning styles; visual, auditory, and kinesthetic in which
students take information. The definitions of these learning styles are as follows:
1. Visual
Visual learners think in pictures and learn best in visual images. They depend on
the instructors or facilitators non-verbal cues such as body language to help with
understanding. From the illustration of round robin, student who learn through
visual or in other word visual learner can learn Kind of Stationary by looking at
the real thing in front of them one by one.

2. Auditory
These individuals discover information through listening and interpreting
information by the means of pitch, emphasis and speed. These individuals gain
knowledge from reading out loud in the classroom and may not have a full
understanding of information that is written. In the round robin illustration,
students who belong to auditory learners can learn kind of stationary by listening
the name of stationary which spoken by the teacher and other students.
3. Kinesthetic learner
Individuals that are kinesthetic learn best with and active hands-on approach. In
round robin illustration, kinesthetic learners can learn it by touching the shape of
stationary itself. They can differentiate the shape of pen, pencil, book, and etc by
touching it.
These different intelligences reflect a pluralistic panorama of learners individual
differences; they are understood as personal tools each individual possesses to
make sense out of new information and to store it in such a way that it can be
easily retrieved when needed for use. The different intelligences are of neutral
value; none of them is considered superior to the others. In their basic form, they
are present to some extent in everyone, although a person will generally be more
talented in some than in others. Each of these frames is autonomous, changeable
and trainable and they interact to facilitate the solution of daily problems (Quoted
from Gardner 1999 in Pourhossein, Abbas Gilakjani 2012:3).
Benefit and Weakness of Cooperative Learning
Research suggests that cooperative learning bring positive results such as deeper
understanding of content, increased overall achievement in grades, celebration of
diversity, improved self-esteem, and higher motivation to remain on task. On the
other hand, cooperative learning also has some weakness, such as: loss of control
over the class, it is difficult for the teacher to be sure that the groups are
discussing the academic content rather than something else, higher ability students

may not experience the stimulation or challenge that they would with other higher
abilitystudents, lower ability students may feel perpetually in need of help rather
than experiencing the role of leader or expert relative to the others in their group.
Conclusion
From the explanation above, I can conclude that Cooperative Learning is
aninstructional strategy in which small groups of students work together on
acommon task. In cooperative learning the students' and teachers' rolesin
classrooms are changed.The ownership of teaching and learning is shared by
groups of students,and it is no longer the responsibility of the teacher.Students
have moreopportunities to actively participate in their learning,question and
challenge each other, share and discuss their ideas, andinternalize their
learning.Teacher can use round robin as a cooperative learning technique to teach
English to their students whom have different style in learning.
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