Teachers’ Perceptions on and Practices of Collaborative Learning in Developing Speaking Skill

Abstract

The present research study entitled “Teachers’ Perceptions on and Practices of Collaborative Learning in Developing Speaking Skill” aimed to find out the teachers’ perceptions on and practices of collaborative learning in developing speaking skill.To meet the objectives of this research study, I purposively selected 20 secondary level English teachers from 20 schools of Taplejung district as sample for this study. One secondary level English teacher from each school was selected for this study.Questionnaire and Classroom observation checklist were used to collect the data for this study. The findings of this study showed that collaborative learning provided opportunities for learners to develop successful learning and communication strategies.Similarly, seventy percent teachers agreed that working in pairs and groups students could increase their fluency and command over speaking skill.Although collaborative learning is important in developing speaking skill, it was found that only 66.67% English teachers were interested in creating environment of collaboration for teaching this skill.Likewise, it was found that teachers rarely used collaborative games in developing speaking skill of the students. This thesis is organized into five chapters. The first chapter deals with the background of the topic, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study and operational definition of the key terms. The second chapter includes review of related theoretical literature,review of related empirical literature, implication of the review for the study and conceptual framework. The third chapter covers all the areas of methodology. Likewise, the fourth chapter presents the analysis and interpretation of results and the fifth chapter includes conclusions and recommendations at three different areas (policy related, practice related and further related).