The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the cooperative learning instructional approach on Taiwanese ESL students' motivation toward learning English and their English listening, reading, and speaking competencies. The participants (100), who had already received an average of six years of English education were selected from the student body of Chen-Shiou University of Technology. These participants were divided into two general education English classes of low, moderate and high achievers during the eight-week teaching experiment.
This research effort was of a quasi-experimental design. Both the experimental and control groups were given pre-tests using the motivation questionnaire (Language Learners' Orientation Scales) and the GEPT (General English Proficiency Test) listening, reading, and speaking tests. These were followed by an eight week academic period where the control group was instructed utilizing the traditional grammar translation methods and the experimental group was instructed utilizing the cooperative learning approach. This period of instruction was then concluded with the second administration of the motivation questionnaire and the GEPT listening, reading and speaking tests. The results of the two tests were then compared.
The analysis of the test results indicated that those students who initially had little motivation toward English language study remained unmotivated to learn. The cooperative learning instruction had modest effects on both groups' extrinsic motivation--external regulation, introjected regulation and identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation--knowledge, accomplishment, and especially stimulation. However, these types of increased motivation showed no direct correlation with students' listening, reading, and speaking scores. The cooperative learning approach, however, did positively correlate with an increase in students' listening and speaking scores.
The implication arising from the results of this study indicate that language acquisition may be enhanced through the interaction of the student with other students, teachers and others inside and outside of the classroom. Therefore, an interactive approach to instruction such as the cooperative learning approach that requires students to work cooperatively rather than competitively is suggested for implementation in the Taiwanese EFL context. Since the teaching experiment was conducted for a limited period of time, the results and analyses of this study may not be generalizable to all foreign language learners or even to other language programs in Taiwan. It is recommended that further research implement a longer period of cooperative learning instruction to see if results differ. It is also recommended that similar research be conducted in other cultural settings for purposes of comparison.
s