Developing cooperative learning in efl contents. Introduction

Informal Cooperative Learning
It is a type of CL where students work cooperatively to fulfil a common goal on a precise task explicitly instructed and which requires a specific product (for example, a written answer). The groups are formed temporarily, i.e., they last from a few minutes to a single class session. Johnson and Johnson³⁵ (1999; cited in Gillies et al., 2008) believe that the aim of structuring this type of team learning is to make students focus more on the material to be learnt, help them expect what the lesson will be about, guarantee material cognitive processing and rehearsal, summarise previous knowledge to facilitate the next session, and finally provide closure to an instructional session.
Informal CL is regarded as a practical method because the groups can be organised at any time in a class of any size in order to check the students' understanding and to afford opportunities for practice.
Researchers (like Johnson and Johnson, 1999) state that the major role of the teacher in implementing Informal CL is to keep students as much as possible actively involved in the process of learning. That is, students engage in pre- and post-lesson discussions as well as in pair discussions throughout the lesson. In order to obtain satisfactory results from this type of instruction, teachers should follow this procedure:
a. They divide the class into groups of two or three members and ask students to react to questions that require four to five minutes reflection to reach an agreed answer. The discussion that occurs between students helps them build knowledge and have an idea about the lesson content. Teachers choose to work with pairs or triads to ensure individual accountability.
b. They arrange the time of the session by segmenting it into 10-15 minutes parts. After each segment, the pairs engage in cooperative work to answer a specific question that requires about three minutes discussion. During these three minutes, each student answers the question, shares it with his/her partner, and integrates it with his/her group-mate's to come up with a consensus answer. After that, the teacher may ask students to reveal their findings to the whole class to ensure individual accountability. Then, s/he may structure group processing and reward learners for their efforts.
c. At the end of the lesson, they assign tasks of four or five minutes in which students summarise what has been studied, or prepare for homework.