The Comparative Effect of Student Team-Achievement Division and Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition on EFL Learners’ Speaking Complexity

Zeinab Ghasemi,Abdollah Baradaran

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.3p.67

Abstract

The effectiveness of complexity acquisition to enhance intermediate learners’ speaking complexity, is particularly the focus of the present study. The participants of the present study, were 60 female EFL learners, who were selected from a larger population of 90 EFL learners based on their performane on a sample piloted PET test in Zabansara Language Institution. The total of 60 participants were divided into two experimental groups of 30. The experimental group of STAD (Student Team-Achievement Division), and the experimental group of CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition), which were both regarded as cooperative methods. The 10-session treatment, included focusing on complexities using STAD cooperative method instruction in one experimental group, and CIRC in the other. A post-test was administered to both groups at the end of the treatment,after applying the mentioned cooperative methods. The statistical analyses were conducted, and the gained results of the study indicated that CIRC had a significant influence on learners’ complexity learning. It concluded the importance of applying appropriate complexities in EFL context to developing speech naturalness.

Highlights

Speaking as the real means of communication, includes variety of factors such as colloquial language, performance variables, reduced forms, redundancy clusters, rate of delivery, stress, rhythm and intonation (Brown, 2001)
The experimental group of STAD (Student Team-Achievement Division), and the experimental group of CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition), which were both regarded as cooperative methods
There is a significant difference between the posttest scores of the two experimental groups and the speaking complexity scores, means, minimum, and maximum scores for the CIRC Group are noticeably higher than the STAD Group regarding the posttest of speaking complexity

Summary

Introduction

Speaking as the real means of communication, includes variety of factors such as colloquial language, performance variables, reduced forms, redundancy clusters, rate of delivery, stress, rhythm and intonation (Brown, 2001). According to Richards (2008), as language learners move from lower-intremediate to upper-intermediate and advanced level, there is a need to equip students with sufficient grammar knowledge, vocabulary, accuracy and fluency, and the characteristics of natural speech. There is a need to motivate learners to produce word combinations and native-like structures by recalling high-frequency complexities, which lead to communication, as the real definition of language learning. The used method in the context of an English class, with specific accentuation on naturalness and cooperation, takes a vital role. The world of language teaching, has witnessed different methods and models, the one, which has attracted considerable attention and become popular among language teachers and learners, is Cooperative Learning (CL).

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion