THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS : A Case Study in an EFL Writing Class in a State University in Banten.

T AB LE O F CO NT ENT
Page:
APPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................................................. i
DECLARATION ......................................................................................................... ii
PREFACE .................................................................................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................... iv
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... vi
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................ viii
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study ...................................................................................... 1
1.2 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 3
1.3 Purpose of the study ............................................................................................. 3
1.4 Scope of the study ................................................................................... 4
1.5 Significance of the study ...................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Notions of Cooperative Learning on Language Learning ................................ 6
2. 1.1 Constructivism ............................................................................................ 8
2.1.2 Humanistic psychology .................................................................................. 9
2.2 Notions of Cooperative Learning ......................................................................... 11

2.3 Notions of Cooperative Learning Method ............................................................ 13
2.4 Elements of Cooperative Learning ....................................................................... 15
2.4.1 Heterogeneous Teams ................................................................................ 16
2.4.2 Promote face-to-face interaction ................................................................ 17
2.4.3 Interpersonal and small group skills .......................................................... 17
2.4.4 Group Processing ....................................................................................... 18
2.5 Types of Cooperative Learning .................................................................... 20
2.5.1 Formal learning groups .............................................................................. 21
2.5.2 Informal learning groups ............................................................................ 22
2.5.3 Base learning groups .................................................................................. 23
2.6 Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) ................................................. 24
2.7 The principle of Cooperative Learning ............................................................... 25
2.7.1 Positive Interdependence ........................................................................... 25
2.7.2 Promoting Interaction ................................................................................ 26
2.7.3 Interpersonal Skills .................................................................................... 26
2.7.4 Individual Accountability ............................................................................ 27
2.7.5 Developing Positive Attitudes and Relationship
Amongst Group Members .......................................................................... 28
2.8 Relationship between Cooperative Learning and Students' Achievement ......... 28
2.9 Teaching Writing in General ............................................................................... 29

2.10 Argumentative Essay ......................................................................................... 30
2.11 The Function of An Argumentative Essays ....................................................... 31
2.12 Argumentative Essay Assessments .................................................................... 32
2.13 Expository Text .................................................................................................. 36
2.14 The Process of Academic Writing ...................................................................... 37

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2.15 Students' Response ............................................................................................. 38
2.16 Concluding Remark ............................................................................................ 40
CHAPTER III: METHODOLODY OF THE RESEARCH
3.1 Research Design .................................................................................................... 42
3.2 Research Setting and Participants ........................................................................ 44
3.3 Data Collection Procedure .................................................................................... 45
3.3.1 Documentation of the Students' Texts ........................................................ 45
3.3.2 Questionnaires ............................................................................................. 46
3.3.3 Classroom Observation ............................................................................... 47
3.3.4 Interview ..................................................................................................... 48
3.4 Data Analysis ....................................................................................................... 49
3.4.1 Documentation of the Students' Texts ........................................................ 50

3.4.2 Questionnaires ............................................................................................. 50
3.4.3 Classroom Observations .............................................................................. 51
3.4.4 Interviews ................................................................................................... 52
3.5 Concluding Remark .............................................................................................. 53
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Data from Students' Texts .................................................................................. 54
4.1.1 Evidence from the Students' Texts ............................................................ 55
4.1.2 Data from questionnaires ............................................................................ 72
4.1.3 Data from Observations .............................................................................. 80
4.1.4 Data from Interviews .................................................................................. 82
4.1.5 Concluding Remark .................................................................................... 88
4.2 The Students' Response Towards Cooperative Learning ................................... 89
4.2.1 Evidence from Individual Interview .......................................................... 89
4.2.1.1 The Students' Understanding about Cooperative Learning and Its
Effect to Their Writing ................................................................... 90
4.2.1.2 The Students' Response About Work in a
Team in Writing Projects .............................................................. 91
4.2.1.3 The Effect of Cooperative Learning in Improving
Students Writing Competence ...................................................... 93
4.2.1.4 The Difficulty in Cooperative Learning ........................................... 93

4.2.2 Concluding Remark ................................................................................... 95
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 96
5.2 Suggestions ...................................................................................................... 100
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 101

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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 : The Example of Student's Individual Test .............................................. 59
Appendix 2 : Questionnaire Sheet Completed by Students ........................................ 110
Appendix 3 : Observation Sheet ................................................................................. 112
Appendix 4 : List of Questions for Interview ............................................................. 113
Appendix 5 : Interview Transcription ........................................................................ 135
Appendix 6 : The Evidence of Student's Texts From The First Individual
Test ........................................................................................................ 188
Appendix 7 : The Evidence of Student's Texts From The Second
Individual Test ...................................................................................... 204
Appendix 8 : The Evidence of Student's Texts From The Third
Individual Test ...................................................................................... 215

Appendix 9 : The Evidence of Student's Texts From The Third
Individual Test ...................................................................................... 225

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 : Response in Learning English ............................................................. 114
Table 4.2 : Response in Cooperative Learning ....................................................... 115
Table 4.3 : Observation Sheet I .............................................................................. 116
Table 4.4 : Observation Sheet II ............................................................................ 119
Table 4.5 : Observation Sheet III ........................................................................... 122
Table 4.6: Observation Sheet IV ........................................................................... 125
Table 4.7 : Observation Sheet V ............................................................................ 128
Table 4.8 : Observation Sheet VI ............................................................................ 130
Table 4.9: Observation Sheet VII ........................................................................... 131
Table 4.10 : Observation Sheet VIII ....................................................................... 133
Table 4.11 :Data from Lowest Achievers (Individual Test) .................................. 257
Table 4.12 :Data from Average Achievers (Individual Test) ................................ 258
Table 4. 13 :Data from Highest Achievers (Individual Test) ....................................... 259
Table 4.14: Data from Highest Groups (Group Projects) .......................................... 260

Table 4.15 :Data from Average Groups (Group Projects) ..................................... 261
Table 4.16 :Data from Lowest Groups (Group Projects) ........................................ 262

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This section presents introduction of this study which include Background of the
Study which covers the idea to conduct this study, Research Questions as
guidance of this study, Purpose of the study which are related to the research
questions, Scope of the Study which content of the aims for this study,
Significance of the Study which may contribute to provide significant information
1.1Background of the Study
Writing is one of the four language skills particular emphasis in second
language learning. The mastery of writing skills is crucial since students’
evaluation is conducted to gauge students’ acquisition of their writing skills based
on their writing performances. Although, from the four fundamental language
skills in the language learning process, English writing frequently accepted as
being the last language skill to be acquired for native speakers of the language as

well as for foreign/second language learners” (Hamp-Lyons and Heasly, 2006: 2),
but for a number of EFL learners, English writing appears to be challenging,
(cited from www.ccsenet.org/elt).

Moreover, when EFL learners are success in producing English a written
text, it brings them benefits not solely in their English learning but also in their
life-long careers as (Glazier 1994: 3 cited from www. ccsenet.org/ elt). Then, in

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the end of learning, hopefully the students are able to master a set of competence
in own self (attitude, knowledge, capability, personality, principles, values,
interest and conviction, and skill) passing process of active learning, creative,
pleasant and effective that can be used in their future.

In relation to the requirement of the students’ skill development, to ensure
that the students excel in writing, an English lecturer should make choices about
methods, materials, and procedures to be applied in the writing class and elaborate
them in the classroom (Hyland, 2003:xv-2). Therefore, one of the methods
recommended in teaching writing is the interaction in a group through cooperative

learning (Kagan, 2002). Since interaction in a group as a main feature of
cooperative learning that can be one of the effective ways to generate ideas and
meet their personal goals by working in a small group where students can share
ideas of information with group members (Brown, 2001:349). Moreover, to
generate ideas and meet their personal goals, one student should help their friends
from the same group members to succeed and more importantly to encourage their
group members to exert maximum efforts through cooperative learning.

Many studies have been done to investigate the effectiveness of
cooperative learning in language teaching in order to increase students’ academic
achievement (Salvin, 1995; Kagan, 1994, Stenlev 2003 and Seng, 2005, Maspeke
2009). Therefore, in accordance with the effort in developing students’ writing, it

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inspires the researcher to conduct the research on investigating the effectiveness
of cooperative learning in students’ argumentative essays.

1.2 Research Questions
Related to the problem above, the researcher is interested in raising the

following questions:
1. What are the chances of implementing cooperative learning principles in a
writing class?
2. How does the teacher cope with the problems, if any, when
implementing the principles?
3. What are the effects of cooperative learning method on students’
performance in writing argumentative essays?
4. What are the students’ responses to the implementation of cooperative
learning method in a writing class?

1.3

Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to find out the teacher’s implementation of

cooperative learning’s principles in writing class, the effectiveness of cooperative
learning method on students’ argumentative essay and to describe students’
responses of cooperative learning in the writing class.

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1.4

Scope of the Study
This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative learning

as has been developed by Slavin (1995) i.e Student Teams Achievement Division
(STAD) since STAD as one of the parts of cooperative learning that allow
students to work together in groups, aids each other in completing academic tasks,
and provide each other with feedback in order to improve their subsequent
performances, one of them is in form of writing performance. Dealing with
writing, the research will be focused on argumentative writing since it is one of
the genres that must be learned by fourth grade students of English Education
Program of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University in academic year 2010/2011.

1.5

Significance of the Study
The significance of this study can be explained to the following aspects.

First, the aspect of theoretical basis for writing text in English, it emphasizes the
effectiveness of Cooperative Learning to develop students’ argumentative essays.
The finding of this study hopefully as a feedback for improving the practices of
writing especially to beginners in understanding and applying cooperative
learning to develop students’ argumentative essays. Moreover, since the study will
investigate the effectiveness of cooperative learning to develop students’
argumentative essays, it is very likely that the findings will serve as a reference

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for future development for pedagogical practice in writing class of setting of this
study.
Second, the aspects of teaching writing in the class room context. It
suggests that teaching writing should put some emphasis on the employment of
cooperative learning on written text especially argumentative essays. In this case,
this study explained how the lecturer guides students to write argumentative
essays. That is how she invited the students to use appropriate language in writing
argumentative essays. Finally, it is expected that this may provide college students
with the knowledge how to improve skill in writing argumentative essays.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

This section deals with some important aspects related to the methodology of the
study covering research design as a plan of what data to gather in this study, data
collection as a research instrument term that

used to describe a process of

preparing and collecting data in this study, research setting and the participants as
a site and members in this study, and data analysis as a process for supporting
decision making in this study. Moreover, this study used a qualitative design by
employing a case study. Four instruments of data collection techniques, namely:
documentation of students’ argumentative essay, questionnaire, classroom
observation and interview were conducted to collect the data and information to
answer the research questions.

3.1 Research Design
Since this study investigated the effectiveness of cooperative learning in
argumentative essays, to find the effect of cooperative learning method on the
students’ argumentative essays, the design that used was largely qualitative and
descriptive analysis, by implementing some characteristics of a case study. The
case study is chosen for several reasons. Firstly, case study is a bounded system or
a defined individual or entity within its real-life context that researcher wishes to
explore (Meriam 1988; Yin 2003) cited in Hood (2009: 68). It means, the site in

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this study was focused to the classroom interaction and all the content features
(like classmates, course content, assignment) that intersect with those individuals.

Secondly, case study research means single and multiple case studies, can
include quantitative evidence, relies on multiple sources of evidence and benefits
from the prior development of theoretical propositions (Yin,1993, Freebody,
2003, Emilia, 2005 as cited in Mulianda 2009:32). It was focused on the case
study, it was about the effectiveness of cooperative learning to develop students’
argumentative essays. Then in form of quantitative evidences, it was taken three
times both for students’ texts from their quizzes and students’ texts from their
group projects, students’ opinions, feelings or experiences that analysed by
statistical and added by descriptive analysis from questionnaires.

Then, another characteristic, this study used multiple sources of evidence or
multiple data collections (Yin, 1993 and Freebody, 2003, Emilia, 2005:74 cited in
Mulianda 2009:32) including classroom observation, questionnaires, interviews
and students’ text. To describe lecturer’s understanding of Cooperative learning,
this study used interview as a main instrument to collect the data. Meanwhile, to
find out kinds of Cooperative learning the four techniques of data collection were
used,too. Moreover to draw a picture of students’ problem that encountered in
argumentative writing, the data gained from questionnaire, classroom observation,
interviews, and the students’ argumentative writing (Mulianda, 2009:32-33).

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3.2 Research Setting and Participants
The research was conducted at a state university in Serang city, exactly
at Jl. Jakarta Km.4, Serang city. Basically, there were some reasons about the
place of the research. First, this university is located in the same town with the
researcher’s office where she works. This would not give many problems to the
researcher to manage the time in doing the research. Second, the researcher is the
English lecturer in that faculty. This was expected to promote the feasibility of the
study in gaining the data. Third, since the researcher has been involved in the
English teaching in the research site, the result of the study would give valuable
information on the students’ responses of Cooperative learning method in writing
class especially in producing argumentative essays.

The participants of this study were the students of English department from
fourth semester of the university. However, considering time, place, funds, energy
and efforts, the present study was used the purposive sampling (Alwasilah,
2007:72). It was also a strategy in which particular settings, persons, or events are
selected deliberately in order to provide important information that cannot be
gotten as well from other choices (Maxwell. 1996:71). Therefore, one class that
consisted of 39 students asked as the participants in this study. All of the students
were asked to fill the questionnaires. Then, nine students (male and female
students) were chosen as the interviewees, they were divided into three levels,
they were: low achievers, average achievers and high achievers. The selection was
based on in their level in English competence and writing scores started from the

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first until the third semester. For confidentiality, throughout the thesis all of the
students’ names were written in pseudonyms.

3.3 Data Collection Procedure
As stated in the previous paragraph, this study employed a qualitative
research and applied several techniques of collecting data which conducted not
only as the conclusion of the study but also ongoing way (Fraenkel &
Wallen,1993:383). Moreover, this study used four procedures of collecting data
including collection the students’ argumentative text, classroom observation,
interview, and questionnaires. Each technique was elaborated in the following
sections.

3.3.1 Documentation of Students’ Argumentative Essay
Documentation, according to Alwasilah (2006:155) as cited in Fiftinova
(2010:27) is something which is written or documented without deliberately
requested by the researchers. Documents analyzed in this study were students’
texts. The students’ writing as their assignments during the lessons collected and
documented to support the data gathered from the interview and questionnaires.
This step conducted to see the effectiveness of Cooperative learning to the
students’ argumentative essays taken from six argumentative texts. Those texts
were taken from upper, middle and upper group from the argumentative writing
classroom’s projects. Moreover they were used in order to answer the second
question from the research question. This is also in line with Killer’s claim

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(1998:85) that Cooperative learning can increase students’ depth of understanding
of course content by having them explore it and discuss their understanding with
other students.

Then, the students’ texts were analyzed based on Toulmin’s

Model as proposed by Saito (2010:20).

The students’ texts both from individual and group projects were given
between May 23rd, 2011 until July 11th, 2011. The specific time for individual
projects were conducted on: Monday/ May 23rd, 2011 : Test I (Individual Test);
Monday/ June 20th, 2011: Test II (Individual Test); Monday/ July 11th, 2011: Test
III (Individual Test). On the other hand, the schedule for group projects were
given on: Monday/ June 6th, 2011 Group Project I (Group Project); Monday/June
13th, 2011: Group Project II (Group Project); Monday/ July 4th, 2011: Group
Project III (Group Project).

3.3.2 Questionnaires
Questionnaire is one of the way of getting information which is widely
used by many researchers. Questionnaire is used to learn about the distribution of
characteristics, attitude or beliefs, Raharjo (2009:35). In line to this study, the
purpose of giving questionnaire was because the researcher wanted to know about
the students’ opinions, feelings or experiences in writing class during the research
conducting. It was conducted in order to answer the third question and the fourth
from the research questions. The questionnaires was open-ended types, in order to
allow greater freedom of response (Oppenheim, 1982; Nunan,1992). They were

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consisting of 20 questions and also by putting mark of categories, 1: Strongly
Disagree, 2: Disagree, 3: Uncertain, 4: Agree, 5: Strongly Agree. Moreover, those
questions about students’ opinions, feelings or experiences were evaluated by
statistical intrerpreted and also strengthen by descriptive explanation.

3.3.3 Classroom Observation
The observation was needed to get more information directly from the
classroom respondents. Through the process of classroom observation, the
researcher investigated how the students implement the cooperative learning
strategies in doing their argumentative writing projects with their team. Moreover,
the activities observed were students’ interaction when they shared their
understanding of the projects given, checking for understanding, discussing
concepts being learned, and connecting present with past learning. For each
activities were structured into group task directions and procedures.
The classroom observation was conducted eighteen times or in two months
started from May 23rd – July 11th , 2011. It was conducted by writing
phenomenons that proved to the first research question, i.e. the chances of
implementing cooperative learning principles in writing class and the second
research questions, i.e. the problems that commonly occurs when the students
make the argumentative writing. This is in line with Frankel&Wallen, (2002:384)
as cited in Abdulmanan, (2008: 31) who propose that certain kinds of research
questions can be answered by observing how people act and how things look.
Then, each observation lasted 80 minutes (2x 40 minutes). In the classroom

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observations, the researcher played a role as non-participant observer, to
investigate what were done and what were said by participants, the students,
during teaching argumentative essays.

To obtain a clear picture of the activities in each classroom observation,
video-taping and photos of classroom activity were carried out. Video-taping and
photos of classroom activity were helpful for the researcher to describe the class
and record her reflection. The used of reflection in this parts means that the
researcher wanted to know whether the students’ activities in their group followed
the principles of cooperative learning’s principles. And also, the researcher took
recording observation notes during classroom activities after each section and
joined it with video-taping and photos. This is in line with Van Lier, (1988:241)
as cited in Suzanna (2008: 34) that . the memory of the observation is still fresh.

3.3.4 Interview
Interview is one of the data collection techniques in this research. It was
used to obtain specific information or very useful data when we could not gain the
data about people’s feelings or opinions which are not accessible through
observation, as suggests by Maxwell (1996) and Merriam (1998) as cited in
Werimona (2010). These could provide additional information that probably
missed in observation and could not used to check the accuracy of the
observation.

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Then, interview with the students were conducted to answer the second and
the fourth research questions. The interview was conducted in Bahasa Indonesia
which were intended to obtain clear understanding what was uttered by the
participants. The interviews was conducted individually by using semi-structured
interview due to the researcher might be flexible to extant the questions. It was in
line with Marriem (1988:73) that the questions of semi structured interview are
more flexible worded. Then, the interview was given to the students as the
participants in this research one time and conducted after the teaching-learning
process ended. The questions that given were about the technique that commonly
used by the lecturer in teaching writing, problems that commonly encountered by
the students in producing the argumentative writing and also the steps of lecturer
in giving the writing materials especially argumentative writing. It was held
involving students represented the low, average and high achievers students from
individual quizzes and three students represented the low, average and high
achievers students from group projects .

3.4 Data Analysis
In this research, data analysis was carried out during and after data
collection. It was conducted simultaneously with ongoing activities related to
investigating the cooperative learning to develop the students’ argumentative
essay. In order to gain valid data, the triangulation data was used because of to
attempt to get a ‘true’ fix on a situation by combining different findings in terms

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of documentation of students’ argumentative text, class room observation,
interview and questionnaires.

3.4.1 Documentation of students’ text

Students’ written texts were collected both from individual texts and group
projects. Then they were analyzed to reveal the students’ argumentative essays.
All students’ texts were taken from the individual quizzes and group projects and
analyzed by using discourse analysis. In the analysis the of students’
argumentative essay, the Toulmin’s Model was applied. The Toulmin’s Model
was used to assess, to teach, and study both debate and argumentative writing.
This model was also used to analyse the writing of unskilled writers and they
presented the basic argument, too. It is in line with Yeh (1998) in Saito (2010:20).
The argument's claim, reasons, and evidence, and to evaluate the effectiveness of
them were identified by using The Toulmin’s Model, as suggested by Connor
(1996)., Yeh (1988) in Saito (2010:20).

3.4.2 Questionnaires
Questionnaires in form of closed-response items was used to identify and
classify students’ need, preference and the results were used as the guideline in
developing the students’ argumentative essay. The questionnaires were consist of
20 questions that divided into two parts. First part was about response in learning
English and the second part was about cooperative learning. And also in the

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questionnaires consist of five categories they were, 1: Strongly Disagree, 2:
Disagree, 3: Uncertain, 4: Agree, 5: Strongly Agree

The answers of

questionnaires in form of closed-response items was analyzed by using statistical
analysis. It is intended to identify and classify the effectiveness of cooperative
learning to develop students’ argumentative writing.

3.4.3 Classroom observations
The analysis of data from the observation conducted was also carried during
the data collection. One of the considerations was in order to answer the first and
the second question from research questions. Having finished conducting the
research, the video recording of the lessons were watched for many times and
analysed. It was intended to get deeper information and clearer picture to answer
the first and the second research questions. With reference to the first research
question, observation was done by taking notes of the effectiveness of cooperative
learning to develop students’ argumentative writing. Moreover, all notes about to
find out the students progress in argumentative writing through observations were
interpreted.

In line with the first and the second research question, the data from the
observation was analyzed by following several steps. First, all of the notes
concerning the teaching and learning activities in developing students’
argumentative writing were transcribed. Second, the transcribed data categorized
based on the themes. Third, the categorize data were interpreted to answer the

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research questions. Additionally, the activities to see the investigation of
effectiveness of cooperative learning to develop students’ argumentative writing
was summarizing. Finally, the data were interpreted based on the principles of
cooperative learning.

3.4.4 Interview
Interview with the students

as the participants was conducted in this

research. This is intended in order to identify kinds of cooperative learning to
develop students’ argumentative essay. Interviewing the students was conducted
at the end of teaching learning process. This was done in order to know the
students progress and the activities that potentially led to investigation of
cooperative learning to develop students’ argumentative writing.

The results of interview were categorized and transcribed into each theme.
The results of these interviews was interpreted and described to support the
findings for the second research question. Moreover, the validity of data from
interview was obtained through member checking. The researcher transcribed the
interviews result and it was shown to the participants to check whether the
transcriptions match with what they mean. This was intended to clarify the results
of interview and minimized bias and avoid misinterpretation to respondent when
being interview. Moreover, interview were particularly useful for getting the story
behind a participant’s experiences. Since the interviewer can purse in-depth
information around the topics.

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3.5 Concluding Remark
A discussion of methodology has been present in the previous section
including the research question, research design, research site and participants,
data collection, and data analyses. Concerning the research questions, elicited data
through four kinds of instruments: interview, observation, questionnaire and
students’ texts were analysed. The data collected were analyzed and validated
through triangulation process to answer the research questions. Finally, the data as
the findings of this study were interpreted. Then, based on the findings of this
study, conclusions, proposed suggestions and recommendation for the further
study were given.

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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter consists of two sections, conclusions and suggestions. The
conclusions cover the results which are drawn from the data of tests,
questionnaire, observation, interview and some suggestions are given to both
further researchers and practitioners.
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the data in the previous chapter, there are several general
findings that can be concluded from this study. First, in relation to the chances in
the cooperative learning implementation, it can be stated that the students liked to
share their ideas, opinion and suggestions with other students through their
argumentative essays projects with their team.
Second, in terms of the problems when implementing the cooperative
learning faced by the teacher it can be stated that the problem occured since there
were two facts about the condition. First, the students had differences in terms of
education background. Second, length of learning English which did not show a
significant difference in terms of degree of mastery of requesting in the target
language. This gives evidence that cooperative learning has challenges.

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The next finding reveals the improvement of students’ texts in the writing
argumentative essays both for individual quizzes and for group projects. It can be
said that students made a good progress during cooperative learning for their
individual quizzes and group projects.

The last finding was about the responses from the students about
cooperative learning that was implemented in their writing class. The responds
given were positive since they got many advantages when the teacher applied this
method in the writing class.
On the basis of the general findings above, several conclusions can be
proposed. The first conclusion is served as the answer to the first research
question about the chances of implementing cooperative learning principles. This
study shows that the students’ progress, both from individual quizzes and group
projects, can be seen from the changes of their attitudes and behaviors. Since in
the observations, the students’ attitudes have become more active, more confident,
and more supportive to have good interaction for sharing ideas, suggestion and
information among students.

The second conclusion is connected to the second research question
dealing with the problems of implementing the principles of cooperative learning.
These research findings show related the implementation of cooperative learning,
for examples giving feedback and providing suggestion to their friends. When the

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students had similar level in their knowledge. There was no other perspective for
their projects. However by having the more class activities conducted in writing
class, the students started to read from more sources, so they many references for
their writing projects in order to build their argumentative essays projects.

The third conclusion deals with the effect of cooperative learning method
on students’ performance in writing argumentative essays. This fact gives
evidence to the statements that in cooperative learning students help each other to
become better writers.

The fourth research question is related to the students’ responses to the
implementation of cooperative learning method in a writing class. Through
sharing their ideas, opinion and suggestions, students developed their confidence
and comfort. These facts prove that cooperative learning gave positive effects to
the writing class. Finally, this study supports the research that emphasizes the
importance of explicit teaching of the structures of written genres, particularly in
argumentative essays.

Then, Toulmin’s Model has been proved to be effective as a model for
assessing the students’ argumentative essays texts. By using Toulmin’s Model,
this study shows that not all elements from Toulmin’s Model were used by the

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students in their argumentative essays. Only three elements used in writing
argumentative essays namely, claim, data, and warrant. They are considered to the
essential components of practical arguments, while the second triad, qualifier,
backing, and rebuttal, may not be needed in some arguments.

To be able to create more structured cooperative learning, teachers need
adequate time and methods in this study. These become the limitation of this
study. Due to the time constraint and method that were used in this study, the
actual time needed and method for each activity had to be shortened and this
might have effects on the outcome of the lessons conducted. Therefore, for further
research, longer time for class activities and other methods should be conducted in
order to achieve the objective of cooperative learning.

Furthermore, this study only used argumentative writing as the main
genre. Therefore to see the comprehensive result, further research should involve
other kinds of genres, i.e expository, narrative, etc.

Another limitation of this study is the number of sample class. In this
study, the sample of the participants was limited to one class of the fourth
semester students of English department. In order generate more evidence on the
effect of cooperative learning in language teaching, more classes and participants
in different contexts are recommended.

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5.2 Suggestions
From the conclusion and the limitation presented above, some suggestions
are given here concerning with to the study of cooperative learning. First, for the
next research in the same area, there are some matters to be noted. This study will
be more comprehensively described if there are also other methods that used and
longer observations that are conducted in classrooms to observe the teaching
learning activity especially teaching of writing using the technique of cooperative
learning.

Second, the teacher also have to master another kind of genres in writing,
such as expository, narrative, and many others. This view means that the more
genres of writing that mastered by the teacher the better writing texts that can be
produced by the students in the writing class since the teacher can give many
point of view for the improvement of the students’ texts.

In this study the analysis from Toulmin’s Model was seen as the most
feasible research instrument. It is used since Toulmin’s Model was also used to
analyse the writing of unskilled writers and they presented the basic argument
only. Therefore for the future research, as the last suggestion the teacher must
conduct the assessment for students’ texts based on another analytical framework,
i.e. Systemic Functional Linguistics.

100

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