穨Review. Pdf

1.2 Purposes of the Study 
Concerning the educational problems mentioned above and based upon 
Brown’s (1994) belief that “cooperative learning is embraced within a 
communicative language teaching framework (p.80),” this study features the 
task-based and activity-oriented techniques of cooperative learning in an English 
program, hoping to transform the traditional knowledge-based English class to a 
more communicative and humanistic learning context. The present study attempts 
to answer the following research questions:
1. 
What are the effects of cooperative learning on the improvement of the 
EFL learners’ language learning in terms of oral communicative 

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competence and the school monthly achievement tests? 
2. 
What are the effects of cooperative learning on the EFL learners’ 
motivation toward learning English as a foreign language? 
3. 
What are the effects of cooperative learning on the high/low achievers 
in a heterogeneous class? 
1.3 Perspectives of the Study
 
This study brings together the fields of cooperative learning, second language 
acquisition, and second/foreign language teaching to create optimal schooling 
experiences for the EFL junior high school learners. The present research integrates 
cooperative learning with the theories from the second language acquisition, i.e. the 
comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985), the comprehensible output (Swain, 1985), and 
the interaction in context (Kagan, 1995), as well as the affective domain of motivation 
(Dörnyei, 1994; Gardner, 1985) during the process of implementation. It is hoped 
that this empirical study can provide a close link between cooperative learning and the 
communicative approach and, at the same time, propose guidelines for EFL teachers 
who wish to implement cooperative learning to enhance their students’ language 
learning as well as development of motivation toward learning English as a foreign 
language.
By carrying out this study, the researcher hopes that cooperative learning can 
receive more attention and enjoy more popularity among EFL teachers at all grade 
levels, so that English education in Taiwan can actually equip our students with 
communicative competence. Educating nationals with adequate English 
communicative skills is important to our country, especially now, when Taiwan is 
striving to join the world by trying to be one of the members in this global village. 

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