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Jette Stenlev Lecturer, MA (English and Russian) The Copenhagen Day and Evening College of Teacher Training

Cooperative Learning in foreign language teaching

‘It is impossible to single out just one explanation for why cooperative learning works so well on so many dimensions. Cooperative learning is a teacher’s dream but a researcher’s nightmare.’ So writes one of the leading figures within cooperative learning in USA, Spencer Kagan1, in an article from 2001, and this is perhaps the shortest way of saying that cooperative learning is a complex entity: a form of teaching that challenges students at the intellectual as well as the social level and that combines various levels of simultaneous learning processes in an ingenious way. Cooperative learning is learning in small groups where interaction is structured according to carefully worked-out principles. The method, which was developed in USA, arose among other things out of concern that the traditional school was creating far too many losers, destroying the spontaneous joy of learning in many young people and failing to develop one of the most important things one will need in later life, i.e. the ability to cooperate with others. Cooperative learning can be used at all age levels, from kindergarten to university. It is much more than just a bag of tricks to make teaching run more smoothly. It is a different way of conceiving teaching. Research within cooperative learning shows impressive results in terms of subject knowledge. But apart from this, there is also positive spin-off from cooperative learning in the form of an increase in the individual’s self-esteem and a noticeable reduction of bullying2. The last-mentioned is due to the fact that the students eventually come to work together with everyone across the classroom, which breaks down prejudices and insecurity. The high level of activity also prevents boredom and off-task behaviour. Cooperative learning has not been specially developed for foreign...