Cooperative Learning & Listening Comprehension

Haridas, P. (2008). Cooperative learning and metacognitive awareness in listening comprehension (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://libris.nie.edu.sg/

Background

The author highlighted that listening was the skill given the least attention in schools and which teachers professed least pedagogical content knowledge in. The teaching of listening skills has also been more product-based than process-based, although the latter has been shown to help increase listening proficiency.

Aims

This study investigated whether cooperative learning (a form of group work) during listening tasks enhanced primary school students’ reported strategy use. It also compared the types of metacognitive knowledge used by the students who experienced cooperative and the non-cooperative (working individually) learning approaches.

Sample

Two classes of high ability Primary 5 students (n=40) participated in the study. One class was the experimental and the other the control class.

Method

In the intervention, the students worked on listening tasks in groups of four. Before commencing, the students predicted what ideas and words might emerge in the texts. The students listened to the texts and discussed possible answers with their group members. The students listened to the whole text once more before the teacher gave the right answers and the class discussed and evaluated their answers. Other data collected included pre- and post-treatment questionnaires on metacognitive strategies, and reflection journals.

Findings

Results from the questionnaires showed an increase in reported strategy use by the experimental students, especially in strategic and person knowledge, which could have been due to the interaction students experienced during cooperative learning. The control students reported a decrease in reported strategy use. However, the findings suggested that the experimental students’ focusing ability and attention span were affected by cooperative learning. They also allowed discussions with their peers to affect their decisions.

The experimental students had a good impression of cooperative learning and some of them thought that it helped them evaluate their thoughts. They also thought that group work was necessary for the proper and successful execution of a listening task. However, some students thought that cooperative learning disrupted their thoughts and made them more anxious and fearful.

Implications

The author recommended that teachers and curriculum specialists adopt the process-based method of teaching listening skills explored in the study.

Original article retrieved from NIE Digital Repository.