Perceived Enhancement of College Students’ Communication Skill through International Co-Teaching for Globally Competitive Markets

Abstract

Co-Teaching is defined as two teachers (teacher candidate and cooperating teacher) working together with groups of students; sharing the planning, organization, delivery, and assessment of instruction, as well as the physical space. The study determined the impact of one (1) international co-teacher working with six Filipino teachers on college students’ communication skill at Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology, Calapan City, Philippines. The respondents of the study were 150 using purposive sampling. The study used interviews; and questionnaires were the data instrument in the study. The study found out that students increased their language competency in English as well as gain knowledgeable content for their field of study using international co-teaching. One of the benefits of co-teaching in the tertiary level is that two teachers can learn from each other because of the teaching experience they both have. For instance, in Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology, a teacher who is a native Filipino can interact with the students because they share a common culture; on the other hand a teacher who is native English speaker can provide another perspective a new dimension of teaching English. Both teachers can collaborate with one another when it comes to planning, instruction and evaluation of the teaching and learning process. The idea of being handled by two instructors who have different cultural background, with different nationalities can provide a more engaging discussion and classroom interactions for the students. Thus, the main concern of this study is to identify the impact co-teaching between native English speaker and Filipino speakers on the student learning outcomes.