Cooperative Learning Versus Communicative Thai Teaching of English as a Second Language for Prathom (Grade) 6 Students Taught in Thailand

Authors

Russell Waugh, Edith Cowan University
Margaret Bowering, Edith Cowan University
Sutaporn Chayarathee, Rajabhat University Muban Chombung

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publisher

Nova Science Publishers

Faculty

Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences

School

School of Education

RAS ID

3154

Comments

Waugh, R. F., Bowering, M. H., & Chayarathee, S. (2005). Cooperative Learning versus Communicative Thai Teaching of English as a second language for Prathom (Grade) 6 Students taught in Thailand. In R. Waugh (Ed.), Frontiers in Educational Psychology (pp. 221-232). New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers. Available here

Abstract

A controlled experiment in teaching English as a second language was implemented. The experiment involved 96 students from three primary schools in Ratchaburi, Thailand. The students from each school were randomly assigned to an experimental group (N=48) and a control group (N=48). The experimental group was taught by using cooperative learning and the control group was taught by the Thai communicative method. Great care was taken to ensure that students were treated the same in all respects, except the method of learning, in both the experimental and control groups. Pretest and posttest measures were administered and significant differences tested using ANOVA (SPSS). There were four main findings. (1) Students improved their English reading comprehension under both the cooperative learning and Thai communicative group methods of teaching. (2) Students improved their English reading comprehension under the cooperative learning method significantly more than under the Thai communicative group method. (3) Students improved their attitude and behaviour towards learning English as a second language under both the cooperative learning and Thai communicative group methods of teaching. (4) Students improved their attitude and behaviour towards learning English as a second language significantly more under the cooperative learning method than under the Thai communicative group method of teaching.