The effect of using enjoyable cooperative learning supported educational activities on students self-efficacy skills, self-regulation strategies, metacognitive strategies, motivation and academic achievement in English language teaching

This study aims to determine the effects of using enjoyable cooperative learning supported educational activities on students? self-efficacy skills, self-regulation strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, motivation and academic achievement in English language teaching. It also aims to reveal both students? and teachers? observations with regard to the experimental process. The study was conducted on experimental group and control group of students from Elazığ at Namık Kemal Primary School during the 2011-2012 academic year. Each group consisted of 34 students. While the experimental group used enjoyable cooperative learning supported educational activities, the control group used traditional teaching methods. The experimental process included units entitled My Favourite Activities, Farm Life, Cartoon Characters, Personal Possessions, Health Problems, Fun at the Park and Help in terms of English language teaching. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this study. Research data were collected through the use of achievement tests, listening skill evaluation tests, writing speaking skill evaluation tests, speaking skill evaluation forms, self-efficacy, self-regulation, meta-cognition and motivation scales, and interviews and observation forms. The quantitative part of the study was conducted using an experimental design involving a pretest-posttest control group. In addition, in the qualitative part of the study, students selected from the experimental groups and teachers were interviewed after the experiment. Besides, observations were done during the experimental process by two observers and the applicator teacher. The achievement test prepared by the researcher is composed of 45 questions. The mean difficulty of the test whose analysis were done using TAP: Test Analysis Program (version 2007a), was calculated to be .57 and the KR-20 reliability coefficient was found to be .88. The general Content Validity Index (CVI) of the listening skill evaluation test was found to be 90.7% [CVI > CVC (90.7>0.49)]. In the evaluation of writing skills, five evaluation criteria proposed by Jacobs et al. (1981) were used. These were Content, Organization, Vocabulary, Language Use and Mechanics. For the evaluation of speaking skills, the CVI value was found to be 85% [(0.85>0.56) KGİ>KGÖ]. The five-point Likert-style self-efficacy belief in English language learning scale consisted of 30 items and was developed by the researcher. The KMO value of the scale was measured at .943; the Bartlett?s test measure was found to be 6794.830 and the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was calculated at .921. The other quantitative data collection instrument was the scale of self-regulation strategies in English language learning which was developed again by the researcher. The KMO value of the five-point Likert-style scale was .936; the Bartlett?s test was 5545.861 and the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was calculated at .897. The other two data collection instruments were ?the Form of Meta-cognition Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents? translated into Turkish by Irak (2011) and ?the Scale of Motivation in Education? translated into Turkish by Kara (2008). While the SPSS.15 statistical program was used to analyze quantitative data, N-VIVO-8 was used to analyze qualitative data. The study results revealed that the achievement levels of the experimental groups which used enjoyable cooperative learning supported educational activities and those of the control group that used traditional methods increased. However, the experimental group was seen to be more successful than the control group. Significant differences were found between both groups in terms of achievement and retention. Moreover, it was recognized that there were statistically significant differences among the groups in terms of post-test and retention. Retention scores of the experimental groups was seen to be higher compared to the the retention test of the control group. Furthermore, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference among the groups in terms of their total listening, speaking and writing scores, but the difference of all three tests was considered to be in favour of the experimental group. The qualitative results of the research including interviews with students and observations by observers revealed many themes. These related to the benefits of the use of songs and games on English language learning, their effects on the learning environment, cognitive and the negative effects of this process. It was concluded from the research results that both quantitative and qualitative data were consistent with and supported each other; thus the results of the study were in parallel with each other. It is proposed that enjoyable cooperative learning supported educational activities should be used more in primary education. Similar studies should also be conducted in other stages of education and in different class levels, and it is suggested that the results obtained from such studies be compared with each other. Key Words: English lesson, game, song, self-efficacy, self-regulation, meta-cognition, motivation, language skills, cooperative learning.