CORRECTING STUDENTS’ WRITTEN GRAMMAR MISTAKES THROUGH COOPERATIVE LEARNING: A CASE-STUDY.

Error correction is an important part of the teaching process, being a moment in which students are not only helped in their learning process, being offered negative evidence, but they are also encouraged, as they are made aware of their learning steps. However, correcting students’ mistakes in the classroom can be quite a difficult task, because teachers must find a type of correction which is suitable to their class and to their objectives, and both effective and useful for students. What makes this task harder is that in traditional error correction activities (like revision of grammar rules, examples, additional exercises) students are usually rather passive, being more interested in the mark they receive in their test rather than in understanding the mistakes they have made.
In this study Cooperative Learning has been used as a new method of error correction, as an alternative to traditional methods. Cooperative Learning is a teaching strategy in which small mixed-ability teams are involved in a learning activity to improve their understanding of a subject. Cooperative Learning activities usually increase the students’ attention, motivate them and encourage them learning from each other, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.
Four parallel classes, having the same teacher and textbooks and on the same school year, in two different Italian secondary schools have been involved in the study. The four classes have been given the same grammar explanation on the grammar topics under consideration in the study (Saxon genitive, possessives, personal pronouns) and the same activities and exercises have been made. Pre-tests, tests and post tests have been given to students in both groups but two classes have been corrected through traditional methods, while the other two through Cooperative Learning. Data show that the classes corrected through Cooperative Learning achieved better results than the ones through traditional methods, especially in the long term.
Also students appreciated being corrected through Cooperative Learning, as they wrote in anonymous questionnaires given to them after the study: they liked working in groups and found Cooperative Learning useful and beneficial for their learning.