COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN THE ENGLISH CLASS: HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' ENGAGEMENT IN A CHILEAN CONTEXT, 2019.

Abstract

Abstract Situated on an observational, descriptive, and experimental quantitative approach, this study shows the results of a five-week intervention in a local school in Chillan, where students worked collaboratively on a didactic reading-based unit. Collaborative learning instruction was used to measure high school graders’ engagement in the English class. The sample comprised 132 male and female students, from different classes, ranging from 15 to 17 years old. To gain pre-intervention data on learners’ engagement in the English class, a 19-item survey was applied to each participant. During the intervention, the participants worked collaboratively in groups of 4-6 accounting for a specific role (organizer, speaker, assistant, summarizer, recorder and elaborator). After the intervention, participants were surveyed again to test their engagement. The results revealed significant effects on learners’ engagement using collaborative-based instruction. Future studies may specify whether the use of collaborative learning tasks, over a longer period, would maintain an active engagement in the English classroom.