School General English Achievement and Group-Work: An Investigation among Iranian Junior High School Students

The present study investigated school general English achievement and group work among Iranian junior high school students. The main question this study tried to answer was whether group work could enhance a higher general English achievement among junior high school students. To answer this question, 60 female learners were divided into experimental and control group randomly with 30 members in each after administering a general English test to 100 Junior high school females to release qualified intermediate learners. Then, the experimental group was broken into 6 groups including 4 learners in each to work cooperatively while the control group went on working conventionally. Firstly, each group received general English test such as reading, listening, writing, and speaking as pretest to figure out their current level. Then as treatment, experimental group took practices in all skills in group while the control group received a placebo. The students were asked to do the posttest. The average was taken to indicate students overall English language achievement of method of instruction in the general English course. By analyzing the scores of each single group on their posttest (Independent samples T-test) and also analyzing pretest to posttest scores of experimental and control group (Paired sample T-test), the null hypothesis of the study was rejected. It meant that the group work had a better performance in terms of the general English posttest.