Enhancing student engagement of a university EFL class through cooperative learning: an action research

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the incorporation of cooperative learning (CL) with an action research (AR) methodology facilitated student engagement of an EFL course at a Chinese university in one semester. This paper first introduces the background and identified problems of the class. Then it describes the cyclical processes of AR that transform students' learning attitudes through CL. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, including group tasks, interviews, classroom observations and questionnaire. Based on data analysis, the paper reveals the progress that students made through this approach, such as increased classroom participation, a stronger learning motivation and better task performance. Then it further discusses issues related to improving student engagement and concludes with suggestions for teachers to conduct AR.