Problem
Some pupils are willing to speak English, but they do not seem to know how to initiate or develop a conversation and can only answer simple questions, often with isolated words. It seems that this is because they lack the opportunities to speak English. Co-operative learning was a completely new idea to the pupils as they rarely talked to each other in English, let alone doing group work in English. Because of the lack of chance to communicate in English, the pupils did not have the vocabulary and skills to establish a conversation with the others.
Aims of research
We aimed to provide an English-speaking environment where children can develop their speaking skills in a relaxing and interesting way. Games were chosen as the pupils expressed that they enjoyed playing games very much; therefore, the speaking activities were designed in a way that the pupils get to speak up and exchange their ideas in order to play the games.
Approach of study
The Team-Games Tournament approach to co-operative learning involves three steps, starting with input from the teacher, then group work, followed by a tournament (Slavin, 1990).
When the pupils worked together for the game, the volunteer teacher walked around and offered help only if necessary. The instructor tried not to intervene but acted as an observer during the game and let the pupils run the game and do most of the talking.
Implications
Learning speaking through games seems to be an effective way to develop speaking skills for young learners. Not only are games an important part of their everyday life, the game setting also allows children to co-operate and interact, a natural way for developing speaking skills. When the children speak to prepare and run the games, they are not just answering questions or asking questions, but interacting with the others by making suggestions, responding to others’ suggestions, asking questions and evaluating the answers from the others.
Conclusion
At present the young learners still need to be taught the phrases and expressions for the interaction, which explains why the theme of our speaking activities is “towards co-operative learning”. It is hoped that the pupils will, in the end, develop their speaking through co-operative learning as they continue to learn and become better speakers.