Cooperative Learning: A Way to Continuous Professional Development for the English Language Teacher

Anamika Shukla

Abstract


Language educators need to take a wider approach to the changes in profession. Most importantly, by attempting to implement change in a holistic way, the chances of success greatly increase. Perhaps the best-known and most painful example of the failure to implement holistic change in English language teaching is that in many cases while teaching methodology, it has become more communicative, testing remains traditional, consisting of discrete items, lower-order thinking and a focus on form rather than meaning (Brown, 1994). This creates a backwash effect that tends to pull teaching back toward the traditional, even when teachers and others are striving to go toward the new. Cooperative learning (CL) connects with learner autonomy because group activities help English language students become less dependent on teachers. Curriculum integration is facilitated by CL because language students can pool their energies and knowledge to take on cross-curricular projects. CL fits with an emphasis on meaning, as groups provide an excellent forum for students to engage in meaningful communication in their English language. Diversity is highlighted in CL when students form heterogeneous groups and use collaborative skills to bring out and value the ideas and experiences of all the group members. This paper suggests that professional development has been ignored in the field of English. It is must for a language teacher &can be achieved through means like cooperative learning etc

Keywords


Cooperative learning (CL); Peer coaching; continuing professional development (CPD); Professionalism. Reflective and exploratory practice; formally monitored; Curriculum design

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References


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