Increasing the EFL learners opportunities to improve their vocabulary though cooperative learining

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using cooperative learning as a teaching strategy to improve and maximize second year English students’ vocabulary proficiency, and to determine whether students acquire more vocabulary knowledge when teachers use such a pedagogical strategy. The research methodology adopted in this study is a descriptive one. That is, it aimed to describe the relation between two main variables: cooperative learning as an independent variable and vocabulary proficiency as a dependent variable. To verify the validity of our hypothesis which stated that if second year teachers use cooperative learning effectively, they will help their students to improve their vocabulary proficiency; two questionnaires were administered to second year LMD students and to teachers who have taught oral expression, written expression and language for specific purposes (LSP) modules at the department of English, Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University, Jijel. The results obtained from this study showed that both teachers and learners consider cooperative learning as an effective pedagogical strategy to enhance students’ vocabulary proficiency. On the basis of these results the hypothesis we put forward was confirmed