Using Group Activities to Teach English to Tribal Students

The present research studied and used the principles and approaches of cooperative learning to teach English language to the students of high schools located in the tribal Tahsils of Maharashtra state of India. The research was carried out by observing classroom situations and investigating the strategies in cooperative learning to test its effectiveness in the students’ participation in learning English language. The data for the research was obtained through classroom observation. The research was experimental in nature based on control group and experimental group of students. Six lesson plans were prepared for this lecture. Total number of students selected for this study was 50 from ten different schools in the area selected. Students were randomly divided into two groups (control and experimental). Cooperative learning methodologies were used to teach to experimental group and traditional teaching methods were used to teach to control group. Time for teaching to these groups was 40 minutes on daily basis. The research concluded that students from experimental group shown active involvement in classroom activities and group activities but the students from the control group remain silent and not participated much during the classroom activities.