Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning on Students’ Achievement in English Language

Language learning is the attainment of proficiency in a target language (TL) through formal instruction. Effective teaching strategies require students and not the teacher to do the conceptualizing, organizing, and theorizing about the subject matter. There are many teaching and learning methods used in teaching and learning English. The objective of this study was to compare effectiveness of instructional methods used on achievement in English among students taught English through cooperative learning approach and conventional teaching methods in mixed day sub-county public secondary schools in Kathiani Sub-County. The study was founded on cognitive-developmental, social-cognitive, behavioural-learning and social interdependence theories which support the use of cooperative learning. The study applied an experimental research design. It targeted all 1665 form two students and 54 English language teachers from 14 public mixed day sub-county secondary schools in Kathiani Sub-County where the respondents were the form two students and English language teachers. Sample size was 273 students and eight English subject teachers. In sampling for the schools, students and teachers, simple random sampling technique was applied. Data was collected using learners’ questionnaires which were administered to both the experimental groups and the control groups, interview schedules which were administered to teachers of English in the sampled schools and Learners’ English Language Achievement Tests which were administered as pre-tests before the treatment to one experimental group (E1) and one control group (C1) and a post-test was administered after one week of treatment to the four groups (E1, C1, E2 and C2) to measure students’ achievement. A pilot study was conducted in Machakos sub-county to test validity and reliability of the research instruments. These instruments were also validated by experts from the university. Reliability of the achievement tests was established through a split-half method and a correlation coefficient of α=0.86 was obtained. Test re-test method was used to establish reliability of the questionnaire and the interview schedule. A correlation coefficient of α=0.807 for the questionnaire and α=0.806 for interviews was obtained and the Cronbach alpha coefficient of the tools was higher than the minimum acceptable alpha value of 0.70 or above hence, the research tools were considered reliable. Data was analyzed using both descriptive analyses (percentages, mean scores and standard deviation) and inferential analyses (a t-test and ANOVA) and presented in tabular form while the Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis majorly thematic analysis. The study revealed that the mean gain (M = 15.34) of the Experimental group was significantly different from that of the control group (M = 11.67). Experimental groups (E1 and E3) had higher mean scores than the control groups (C2 and C4). This implies that the treatment (CL) enhanced students’ achievement on English test among students in mixed day sub-county public secondary schools in Kathiani Sub-County. Experimental groups were taught through cooperative learning (CL), which may imply that the method resulted into higher achievement than the conventional teaching methods. The differences between the mean scores were statistically significant at the 0.05 level implying that the treatment given to the experimental group had some effects on students’ motivation and that the treatment (CL) enhanced students’ motivation. The hypothesis stating that there is no significant difference in instructional methods used on achievement in English among students taught English by cooperative learning approach and conventional teaching in Kathiani Sub-County was rejected. Teachers of English in secondary schools need to embrace student-centered teaching approaches during instruction since they are associated with efficiency in the acquisition of linguistic skills.