Cooperative Pair Work and EFL Learners' Performance on a Form-focused Task

Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of pair work on a cloze elide task in two EFL classes. To this end, sixty-three adult learners formed an experimental and a comparison group. Both groups performed the same task in pairs. However, the nature of their pair work was different. While the participants in the experimental group were instructed to do the assigned task through the formulate-share-listen-create cooperative learning structure by receiving some training, the participants in the comparison group did the pair work without any training. Results of the data analysis indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the given task. This suggests that dividing learners into pairs and giving them a task to do is nothing but pseudo pair work unless it is informed by cooperative learning conditions.