Co-operative Learning as a Pedagogical Strategy for Enhancing ESP Students’ Formative Language Knowledge: A Quasi-Experimental Study in Banking English

Abstract

This study investigates the effectiveness of co-operative learning as a pedagogical strategy for enhancing ESP students’ formative language knowledge in Banking English courses. Formative language knowledge is conceptualized as learners’ developing ability to use specialized vocabulary, grammar-in-use, and discourse-pragmatic resources during ongoing learning processes rather than in summative assessments.

Adopting a quasi-experimental design, the study involved 300 second-year non-English-major students, who were assigned to an experimental group (co-operative learning) and a control group (traditional instruction). Data were collected through pre- and post-tests, questionnaires, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests and effect size measures, while qualitative data were thematically coded to capture interactional patterns and learning processes.

The results indicate that students in the experimental group significantly outperformed those in the control group in overall formative language knowledge and its sub-components, with a large effect size. Qualitative findings further reveal that peer scaffolding, negotiation of meaning, and collaborative problem-solving played a crucial role in promoting learners’ engagement, confidence, and disciplinary language use.

The study contributes to ESP pedagogy by providing empirical evidence for the pedagogical value of co-operative learning in discipline-specific contexts and offers practical implications for the design of formative-oriented ESP instruction in higher education.