Naila Sakhawat (MS Scholar) & Syed Waqar Ali Shah (Lecturer),
English Language Development Center, Faculty of Science, Technology and Humanities, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan
The growing knowledge in applied linguistics has informed the ELT practitioners about emerging teaching methodologies that impact L2 proficiency. With a paradigm shift in theory and practice in English language teaching, L2 leaners are taken as active participants in learning English as a foreign language. In Pakistan, CL is considered essential in developing L2 learners’ target language proficiency. The aim of the present study is to explore EFL learners’ perceptions about collaborative learning in L2 classrooms and its impact on L2 proficiency. Drawing on the qualitative inquiry, the present researchers have conducted semi-structured interviews EFL students in a public sector university in Pakistan. The findings of the study reveal that the students find collaborative learning in speaking and reading skills very interesting and useful in improving their L2 proficiency. Learners find themselves in a conducive environment as compared to the traditional grammar translation method; where they can use the target language with their peers which acts as a ‘scaffolding’ in Vygotsky’s terms. The study suggests that CL improves the L2 proficiency and thus it should be implemented in the rest of the schools where the ELT is limited to older forms of teaching English as a foreign language.
Keywords: Collaborative Learning, L2 Interaction, Target Language, GTM, L2 Proficiency
The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Sixth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.LLLD.IR), 9-10 October 2021, Ahwaz.