ERIC Number: EJ1404473
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0965-0792
EISSN: EISSN-1747-5074
Enhancing Student Engagement in Large ESL Classes at a Pakistani University
Educational Action Research, v31 n5 p964-980 2023
This study addresses lack of student engagement in large English as a second language (ESL) classes at a Pakistani university, using cooperative learning within the framework of participatory action research. A reconnaissance of the literature and thorough situation analysis led to an initial plan based on two cooperative learning strategies: Student-Teams-Achievement-Divisions and Think-Pair-Share. Over a semester, a second-year undergraduate compulsory ESL class was delivered as a series of mini action-research cycles refining this plan. The intervention was evaluated using classroom observation, student questionnaires and semi-structured group interviews. The results indicate that cooperative learning enhanced students' behavioural, cognitive, and emotional engagement relative to their previous experience of learning in lecture-style classes. In addition, the study demonstrates that action research can be used by individual practitioners in even highly problematic teaching environments as a way of emancipating themselves and their students from the helplessness associated with institutional and cultural constraints.
Descriptors: Learner Engagement, Large Group Instruction, Second Language Learning, English (Second Language), College Students, Foreign Countries, Cooperative Learning, Action Research, Lecture Method
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Pakistan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A