Essay On Cooperative Learning

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Recommended: English speaking difficulties

For many English language learners (ELLs) in today’s schools, learning can be overwhelming and difficult. The sole process of learning another language is a challenging undertaking and it can take a student anywhere from four to seven years to become proficient in another language (Carhill, Suarex-Orozco, and Paez , 2008). When you consider some of the additional factors, such as cultural distinctions, history of individual and family education, academic and social language barriers, peer and teacher social limitations, and individual learning differences, it becomes clear why many ELLs are struggling to keep up in the classroom (Wright, 2010).
As teachers work to support ELLs, there is an increasing need for effective and reliable teaching strategies to ensure these students have the best outcomes. One teaching strategy that is important for learning is teaching background knowledge and reviewing information. This strategy, formally called Preview/Review, is described as the teacher giving a preview of the lesson in the students native language, then teaching the lecture content in English, and lastly reviewing lecture content again in the native language (Herrell & Jordan, 2012). In the preview
Cooperative learning is the progression made by a group of students who work together to accomplish a task (Herrell & Jordan, 2012). The group task should not have a fixed answer but rather be open-ended allowing students to explain their solutions with a variety of reasoning, practice problem solving techniques, and increase their verbal interactions (Herrell & Jordan, 2012). Cooperative learning also allows ELL’s to work along side of peers who have stronger English proficiency. These group-learning tasks give students sufficient opportunity to extend interaction, clarify misconceptions, and gain knowledge specific to classroom content and overall English language (Arnett,

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