Abstract:
This study was aimed at investigating the EFL teachers' awareness and practice of cooperative language learning methods in teaching speaking skills. To this end, 30 English language teachers of grade ten and 265 students of the same grade level were randomly selected and involved in the study. A mixed-method research approach was used to collect the data. The questionnaires, classroom observations, and grade ten English student text book analyses were employed for data collections. The quantitative data were analyzed through frequency, percentage and mean while the qualitative data were analyzed in words. The results of the quantitative data were triangulated with the qualitative data and analyzed based on their categories. The findings of the study revealed that teachers had conceptual awareness of the advantage of cooperative language learning method in enhancing students' spoken language proficiency through interaction. However, the results of the implementation of CLL analysis revealed that teachers' level of awareness could not match with the actual implementation of the method. In other words there is little use of the techniques of CLL; many of the elements of cooperative language learning are not yet practiced. The commonly revealed factors for the low implementation of cooperative language learning principles were rushing to cover the contents of the portion, teachers' incompetency in CLL principles, students' unwillingness to cooperate with each other and teachers' communicative language incompetency were mentioned. Thus, English teachers have to facilitate effective use of English for communicative purpose rather than focusing on language from through cooperative method. Accordingly, it is recommended that teachers have to work hard to improve their interactive teaching skills, and to give greater opportunities for students by using cooperative work in line with CLL principles. In doing so, the mismatch between awareness and practice of cooperative language learning method would be resolved.
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