The Effect of Cooperative Learning Activities on Enhancing the Writing Skills of Syrian EFL Learners at Arab International University
This paper aims at enhancing writing skills by using cooperative learning strategies since recent methodologies in foreign language teaching have deviated the shift of focus from traditional teacher oriented classes to more learner centered contexts. Among the methods endorsed in teaching writing is the application of Cooperative Learning (CL) The use of CL has become an increasingly popular method to improve the learner's linguistic, social and communicative competence. This research investigated the effects of CL to improve the writing skill of AIU students. A questionnaire was done to spot their problems and weak points. The quasi experimental design was used, with pre test and post test of two different kinds of essay as an instrument. Two different kinds of studies were employed qualitatively and quantitatively to analyze the data. The students' writing was scored on the five writing components which were content, vocabulary, organization, grammar and mechanics see (Yusuf, Jusoh, Yusuf, 2019) After analyzing the results of the post test, it was noted that there was a significant increase in the scores of students' writing in comparison with their marks of the pretest as a result of implementing cooperative learning. Subsequently, the results lent credence to the positive effects of cooperative learning in enhancing writing performance and teachers were able to involve more students to participate and the class environment was very encouraging and intriguing. EFL participants in a cooperative learning ambience managed to foster the linguistic competence that they need to acquire which was also tackled in the paper.