Effects of Implementing the Learning Together Method on EFL

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2016 in the subject Pedagogy - School Pedagogics, , course: TEFL, language: English, abstract: The target of this research was to examine whether or not the effects of implementing the learning together method improved eleventh graders' paragraph writing skills in terms of content, vocabulary, layout, grammar and mechanics. The research also examined the extent to which the implementation of the learning together method brought about changes on social skills in relation to communication, leadership, group management and conflict resolution skills. The quasiexperimental research was employed and the sample population was taken from two sections of eleventh grade. The learning together method was implemented in the experimental group after the students had been made to have awareness about it whereas in the control group, the students were taught their lessons through the same method in which the elements and theoretical perspectives of the method were not used. Data were collected through tests, questionnaire, structured nonparticipant observation checklist, focus group interview and semi-structured interview. Dependent t-tests were employed to test whether or not there were significant intra-group differences in paragraph writing and social skills at 0.05 risk levels whereas independent samples t-tests were used to check if there were significant inter-group differences in paragraph writing tests and social skills questionnaire at 0.05 alpha levels. The analyses of paragraph writing pre-test and social skills pre-questionnaire of the inter-groups showed that both groups had similar backgrounds in writing paragraphs and practicing social skills at the initial stage of this research. Nevertheless, after the treatments had been given to the experimental research participants, the analyses of the data indicated that the experimental group outscored significantly (p<0.05) the control group on paragraph writing post-test and social skills post-questionnaire. This indicates that the implementation of the learning together method based on social interdependence, motivational and cognitive perspectives, and the elements of the method, i.e. positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual and group accountability, collaborative skills and group processing brought about changes on the experimental group. Therefore, the major findings of this study reveal that the method enabled the participants in the experimental group to show improvements in paragraph writing and social skills.