Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning on English Communicative Ability of 4th Grade Students in Bhutan

This study examined the effectiveness of cooperative learning (CL) in enhancing the English communicative abilities (ECA) of 4th grade students in a remote Bhutanese school in South-west Bhutan. Traditionally, teaching in Bhutan has been by the rote method where students learn the material primarily to pass tests and have limited opportunities or follow through with application of language skills in real life. Although Bhutan has been using English as the medium of instruction for more than 5 decades, most Bhutanese students are found to have a very low ECA. CL is an accepted strategy in other countries for teaching with the application of skills. The study involved teaching the modalities of listening, reading, writing, and speaking with CL techniques to students not familiar with the CL approach The study was conducted with 19 grade four students at a school located in a remote and scarcely populated area which is common for all rural schools in Bhutan. Pre and post testing (one group pretest-posttest design) was administered to assess increases in skills. The study revealed that the CL teaching style was effective in enhancing ECA. Therefore, cooperative learning may well be an effective teaching strategy to increase ECA in Bhutan.