Cooperative learning activities to improve the speaking skill

Abstract

The time of the Covid-19 Pandemic and virtual teaching affected the learning of the English language, especially in speaking skills of English language, since the students did not have direct interaction with the teacher and their classmates because they were behind a computer. This has caused the children to develop a certain degree of shyness at the time of developing the teaching-learning process, being left behind in the skills of speaking in English. Therefore, the main objective of the research during the whole process was to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative activities for the development of speaking skills. The study population consisted of twenty-four students between boys and girls in the sixth year of general basic education at La Salle Educational unit in Riobamba city, Ecuador. The methodology was a quasiexperimental design in which quantitative data were collected through different tools such as a pre-test and post-test at the A1 level, based on Cambridge A1 starters (YLE starters), these instruments showed that the speaking skills were developed effectively through cooperative learning activities. In the same way, the research had theoretical support, based on different research developed through time, which evidences that cooperative activities are effective for the development of speaking skills in the students. The results showed that cooperative learning activities such as dialogues, role-playing, gamification, and shared reading generate positive interdependence in the group of students, individual and group responsibility in the development of tasks, motivation, interaction, and social skills in the group of pupils. The findings of the investigation also showed that cooperative learning activities significantly improve students' speaking skills, specifically in fluency, accuracy, pronunciation, and vocabulary expansion in the English language, all thanks to cooperative activities.