EFL Students’ Standpoints on the Application of Cooperative Learning Techniques to Reduce Oral Communication Anxiety

Abstract

The present dissertation attempts to explore EFL students’ perspectives about the impact of Cooperative Learning (CL) as a useful teaching approach implemented to overcome English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ oral communication anxiety. Anxiety is a psychological phenomenon that commonly exists in EFL classroom, which may lead the learners to face some hurdles when speaking. In light of this, there is a growing interest to understand the nature of CL as an instructional approach applied in lessening learners’ apprehension when interacting orally with their classmates. Accordingly, the research aims at raising the students’ awareness towards the significant role played by CL techniques in ameliorating classroom oral performance and creating an anxiety-free learning setting. For the foregoing reasons, this study makes use of a quantitative research method that was manifested through the instrumentality of a students’ questionnaire, administered to Third year students (N=70 taken out from 146) at the Department of English, University 8 Mai 1945-Guelma. In this respect, the collected data presented a positive correlation between the two variables which confirms the research hypothesis that indicates the students’ recognition of CL effectiveness in creating an atmosphere that reduces the levels of EFL speaking anxiety. The findings revealed the students’ acknowledgment that CL techniques encourage them to get involved in oral communication activities comfortably and largely improving classroom speaking performance.