MAKING EFL INSTRUCTION MORE CLT-ORIENTED THROUGH INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Abstract

This article attempts to add to the literature supporting Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) by proposing the use of Cooperative Learning (CL), specifically focusing on the enactment of a key principle of CL, i.e., individual accountability. It illustrates how to train students on CL and its individual accountability work and demonstrates how activities involved in individual accountability, i.e., individual students’ performance(s) and peer interaction, can accommodate the teaching of the four language skills and components. We argue that these activities promote learners’ use of and meaning making in English and thus recommend teachers, especially those new to CL, follow the procedure of CL techniques exactly as described so that language learning in their classrooms goes in the direction of attaining improved communicative competence—the goal of CLT.

Full text

236
MAKING EFL INSTRUCTION MORE CLT-ORIENTED
THROUGH INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
IN COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Puji Astuti
(puji.astuti.ssu@mail.unnes.ac.id)
Universitas Negeri Semarang
Kampus Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, Jawa Tengah, Indonesia
Jayne C. Lammers
(jlammers@warner.rochester.edu)
Warner School of Education, University of Rochester
500 Joseph C. Wilson Blvd, Rochester, New York, USA
Abstract: This article attempts to add to the literature supporting Communica-
tive Language Teaching (CLT) by proposing the use of Cooperative Learning
(CL), specifically focusing on the enactment of a key principle of CL, i.e., indi-
vidual accountability. It illustrates how to train students on CL and its individual
accountability work and demonstrates how activities involved in individual ac-
countability, i.e., individual students’ performance(s) and peer interaction, can ac-
commodate the teaching of the four language skills and components. We argue
that these activities promote learners’ use of and meaning making in English and
thus recommend teachers, especially those new to CL, follow the procedure of CL
techniques exactly as described so that language learning in their classrooms goes
in the direction of attaining improved communicative competence—the goal of
CLT.
Keywords: EFL, communicative language teaching, cooperative learning, indi-
vidual accountability
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15639/teflinjournal.v28i2/236-259
Think back: how did you learn English in your classroom? Did you and your
peers act out a given dialog? Or, did you mostly listen to your teacher and re-
peat after him or her? Despite the fact that Communicative Language Teaching

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 237
(CLT) – which emphasizes student engagement in language learning – has
been long advocated for as an effective means of language instruction (see e.g.,
Richards, 2002) and that this method is written into policy documents guiding
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, literature shows that the an-
swer to the last question, in many cases, is yes.
In Indonesian EFL instruction, for example; despite the fact that CLT has
been prescribed to teachers since the 1980s (Lie, 2007), it remains only a slo-
gan, as evidenced by the prevalence of teacher-centered instruction in formal
English classes. Indonesian students largely learn English by doing repetition
and substitution drills (Alwasilah, 2012; Lie, 2007; Mattarima & Hamdan,
2011; Musthafa, 2009). A number of reports detail the following challenges
faced by Indonesian EFL teachers in implementing CLT: the inconsistencies
found in the mandated curriculum, which dictates teaching the four language
skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and language components
(e.g., grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary) but assesses English largely based
on reading skills (Intansari, 2010); the students’ insufficient amount of expo-
sure to real-life English use (Musthafa, 2001); the lack of support for teachers
(Musthafa, 2001); and teachers’ low level of English proficiency and mastery
of CLT teaching methodology (Alwasilah, 2012, 2013; Madya, 2007).
Throughout this article, we highlight the importance of addressing the last chal-
lenge—EFL teachers’ mastery of CLT methods— by building a case for a par-
ticular teaching method to make EFL instruction more CLT-oriented.
The goal of CLT is to get students to use the target language to communi-
cate, build learners’ communicative competence, or “the ability of language
learners to interact with other speakers, to make meaning” (Savignon, 1991, p.
264). Hence, the use of the target language and student-student interaction are
at the heart of CLT, as delineated by Richards (2002) in his summary of CLT
principles. These principles include: a) learners learn a language by using it to
communicate, b) authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal
of classroom activities, and c) communication involves the integration of dif-
ferent language skills (p. 6). Classroom activities using CLT, as Larsen-
Freeman (2012) highlights, usually have the characteristics of students working
on information gaps. She goes on to describe:
…the speaker knows something the listener doesn’t. The speaker must
choose the appropriate form through which to convey this information. The
speaker receives feedback from the listener on what the listener has under-

238 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
stood. After considering this feedback, the speaker can revise the form of the
message if such revision is necessary. In essence, then, students learn how to
communicate by communicating. (p. 34)
Larsen-Freeman (2012)’s description of an information gap activity suggests
that CLT favors student-student interaction (see also Larsen-Freeman, 1986) in
which there are exchanges of information as well as feedback giving and re-
ceiving activities; together with their peers, students make meaning in the tar-
get language.
In addition to the information gaps activity described above, other com-
municative activities in which students have opportunities to use the target lan-
guage a great deal include: games and role playing (Li, 1998). In Holliday’s
(1994) view, however, these activities do not seem to reflect the CLT class-
room. Holliday stresses that when learning in CLT, rather than communicating
with each other, students collaborate and help each other to solve language
problems. In other words, Holliday underlines the importance of students learn-
ing about how language works in discourse, which amounts to more than lan-
guage practice.
To put CLT into practice, in a way that accommodates both stances, i.e.,
communication functions-oriented—meaningful and authentic language use
(Larsen-Freeman, 1986, 2012; Richards, 2002) and discourse-oriented—
making sense of the target language (Holliday, 1994), teachers can use cooper-
ative learning (CL). CL consists of group learning activities in which individu-
al students’ contribution to the learning is realized through their performance or
presentation, which is beneficial not only for their own learning but also for
their peers’ learning and the group’s goals (Astuti & Lammers, 2017).
It should be noted that some have identified potential limitations of CL
teaching methods. Those include individual students who present challenges in
teams (Vermette, cited in Cohen, Brody, & Sapon-Shevin, 2004), diffusion of
responsibility (Jacobs, Power, & Inn, cited in Wei & Tang, 2015), having
vague lesson objectives and lacking time for learning individually (Wei &
Tang, 2015), short-changing individuals because of their orientation toward
groups (Matthews, cited in Antil, Jenkins, Wayne, & Vadasy, 1998), efficacy
for various types of learners (Anderson, Reder, & Simon; Biemiller; Druckman
& Bjork; O'Connor & Jenkins; Tateyama-Sniezek, cited in Antil, et al., 1998),
and students experiencing interpersonal problems with other members of the
group (Smith, 1987).

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 239
In addition to the above limitations, we should keep in mind that students’
use of first language during their interaction with their peers in CL groups
might be inevitable. For example, in the first author (2016)’s study, the use of
Indonesian and Javanese languages—either language was the first language of
the student participants—was prevalent during students’ peer interaction. One
of the students explained that the reason for using their first language was to
make their meanings and messages more clear.
The study also showed that the student participants tended to use their first
language more during conventional group work than in CL group work. In the
latter, they were required to communicate in English (i.e., through peer interac-
tion and individual accountability performances) with other group members
and to the whole class to share what they had learned. Such requirement (i.e.,
the use of English for communication) might be present in most EFL class-
rooms given the goals of CLT. However, the structure of interaction facilitated
by CL—with both learning materials and peers—may be absent when students
are working in conventional group work or in commonly introduced learning
activities, such as free conversation. Finally, the issue of first language use in
students’ interaction in their CL groups may not inhibit second language learn-
ing, as studies show the advantages of using the first language in EFL learning
(e.g., Kagan & McGroarty, 1993; McGroarty, 1989).
Notwithstanding its limitations and the issue of learners’ use of their first
language during student-student interaction, CL has been shown to provide
benefits to EFL learners. For example, through its required individual students’
presentations or performances (or individual accountability) and structured peer
interaction, CL maximized opportunities for learners to use the target language,
which benefitted them in attaining improved communicative competence (As-
tuti, 2016). Other research literature has shown that using CL increased English
as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ achievement in the four language skills
and promoted EFL learners’ mastery of language components (e.g., Alghamdi,
2014; Almuslimi, 2016; Bejarano, 1987; Ghaith, 2003; Liang, 2002; Sachs,
Candlin, & Rose, 2003, Wei & Tang, 2015). Thus, we believe that CL works in
harmony with the aims of CLT.
However, other studies on the use of CL in EFL classrooms did not show
the expected outcome of increased achievement of EFL learners. These results
were due to a number of factors, such as: 1) the short period of investigation
and CL intervention (e.g., Ghaith, 2003), 2) various time and curriculum con-
straints (e.g., Sachs, et al., 2003), 3) the need to train students on how CL

240 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
works (Chen, 2011), and 4) the need to connect the how (of CL techniques) to
accommodate the what (teaching content) (Bejarano, 1987). The last two fac-
tors will be addressed in this article.
CL promotes individual students’ accountability in their learning and in-
teraction with peers. Literature suggests that this benefit of CL is possible due
to the occurrences of its principles—defining elements of CL—which include
positive interdependence, individual accountability, equal participation, and
simultaneous interaction (see e.g., Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Kagan, 1989; Ol-
sen & Kagan, 1992; Slavin, 1995). Johnson and Johnson (1999) define the first
two principles as the following: Positive interdependence occurs when individ-
ual students’ success (e.g., mastering the assigned material) depends on their
peers’ success. Individual accountability happens when individual students
learn on their own and then interact with their peers to perform higher as indi-
viduals. Kagan and Kagan (2009) offer the following definitions of equal par-
ticipation and simultaneous interaction, respectively: “Participation is not vol-
untary; everyone must participate about equally” and “…not only are students
participating about equally, they are participating frequently; many students
participate at once” (p. 5.11).
When CL’s defining elements or principles are enacted, cooperation
among students takes place, and effective implementation will likely be
achieved (see Chen, 2011; Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Olsen & Kagan, 1992;
Slavin, 1999). Literature also suggests that CL’s principle of individual ac-
countability differentiates it from conventional group work and, when enacted,
learners gain numerous benefits (Bruffee, 1995; Panitz, 1999). Nevertheless,
little research has been conducted to investigate how CL principles—
particularly individual accountability—enhance learning in EFL learning set-
tings. Therefore, based on the first author’s qualitative case study that focused
on individual accountability in CL (Astuti, 2016), this article proposes the use
of CL, specifically the enactment of its individual accountability principle to
make EFL instruction more CLT-oriented.
To do so, we offer illustrations of the enactment of individual accountabil-
ity in EFL classrooms through the use of CL techniques for teaching the four
language skills and language components. The CL techniques described are
mainly those from Kagan and Kagan (2009) because they incorporate the prin-
ciple of individual accountability in their development of CL techniques, or
structures—content-free ways of organizing student interactions with content
and with each other (see Olsen & Kagan, 1992). This article also demonstrates

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 241
how ensuring students perform individual accountability can help teachers to
train their students on how CL works. Additionally, we show how knowing in-
dividual accountability activities in CL techniques can help teachers to connect
the how (of CL) to the what (teaching content) of language learning. Finally,
we offer teachers some points to consider when using CL techniques to pro-
mote their students’ EFL learning.
INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN CL
Individual accountability in CL requires presentation or performance by
individual students in front of their CL peers, making their performance public,
to complete a task in their EFL learning (Astuti & Lammers, 2017). For exam-
ple, when students learn through a CL technique named RoundRobin (Kagan &
Kagan, 2009), described in greater detail later in this article, they perform their
individual accountability when they state a response or solution to a question or
problem posed by the teacher. When this presentation or performance is missed
or skipped, not only do students lose an opportunity to use the target language,
there might also be students who do not have their answers ready. If this hap-
pens, the benefit of CL for promoting EFL learners’ communicative compe-
tence may not be reaped.
Through a qualitative case study, Astuti (2016) explored the roles of indi-
vidual accountability—a key principle of and one of the activities in CL— in
enhancing EFL learning in Indonesian secondary schools. Constructivist
grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014) was employed to guide data collection—
through participant observations, in-depth interview, and document analysis—
and data analysis. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström,
2000; Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy, 1999; Leont’ev, 1978; Yamagata-Lynch,
2003, 2007, 2010) and Interaction Hypothesis (Long, 1996) were utilized as
theoretical frameworks to analyze the data. CHAT was employed because an
implementation of CL symbolizes an activity system and Interaction Hypothe-
sis was used to look at how CL, particularly its activities of individual account-
ability, enhances EFL learning.
The study identified four levels of individual accountability in CL: 1) in
pairs, 2) in home (base) groups, 3) in other groups, and 4) to the whole class.
The study also found that between two performances of individual accountabil-
ity (e.g., between a performance in front of a peer and a performance in front of
members of other groups or the whole class) peer interaction usually took

242 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
place. Furthermore, the study identified a number of important roles that indi-
vidual accountability had for the EFL learners, including, among others: 1) al-
lowed them to give and receive vocabulary help, 2) gave them access to their
peers’ pronunciation, and 3) allowed them to gain confidence to speak in Eng-
lish. To elaborate on the first role, through peer interaction that usually took
place between two performances of individual accountability (initial and higher
levels), the EFL learners gave and received vocabulary help from their peers.
This vocabulary help contributed to their performance of higher level(s) of in-
dividual accountability, such as in other groups and to the whole class. In these
later performances, EFL learners communicated or elaborated on what they
learned from peers using English vocabulary relevant to the given tasks.
With regard to access to pronunciation, because of the availability of per-
formances of individual accountability in their classroom, all EFL learners
gained access to their peers’ pronunciation. For example, one learner in the
study noticed English words that his peers inaccurately pronounced in their in-
dividual accountability performance, and this served as a reminder for him not
to repeat the same mistake in his own performance of individual accountability.
Moreover, because of the nature of individual accountability in CL, i.e., re-
quired performances and the use of English in these performances, the EFL
learners gained confidence to speak in the target language.
The following section will present illustrations of how to train students on
CL techniques, specifically by familiarizing them with the activities of individ-
ual accountability. In our illustrations, we unpack each of the chosen CL tech-
niques and discuss their imbedded activities of individual accountability–an
endeavor that we believe adds to the knowledge base about CL in a unique
way. At the end of our illustrations, we present our recommendation for how to
introduce students to more complex CL techniques, i.e., ones that have more
than one level of individual accountability. Altogether, the following section
describes four CL techniques, which we chose because they share the same
characteristic, i.e., having the level of individual accountability in home
groups, for reasons discussed in more detail below.
TRAINING STUDENTS ON HOW CL WORKS
Taking into consideration the benefits of CL, especially the roles of its in-
dividual accountability in EFL learning as the first author’s study has revealed,
we recommend teachers whose students are new to CL to train them how CL

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 243
works, including activities of individual accountability. There are four levels of
individual accountability in CL, hence, students need to know about and expe-
rience performing in each of the levels. Moreover, as identified by the first au-
thor’s study, most CL techniques set peer interaction to take place between two
levels of individual accountability. Thus, students also need to know what is
expected of them during this interaction, such as becoming the audience of
their peers’ performance of individual accountability, the audience of their
peers’ practice for the next performance, and the feedback provider (e.g.,
providing help on vocabulary). Teachers can start with simpler CL techniques
that have one level of individual accountability, such as Fan-N-Pick and
RoundRobin (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). We focus on these two here because
they have the level of individual accountability in home groups. If missed, this
particular level of individual accountability, and the peer interactions such ac-
countability encourages, might create an unfavorable situation in the imple-
mentation of CL in which students may not present their share of the work or
may perform without adequate preparation (Astuti, 2016).
In Fan-N-Pick, each group receives a set of question cards. Students and
their group members play a card game to respond to questions, and roles rotate
with each new question. The complete procedure of this CL technique com-
prises the following steps: 1) student #1 holds question cards in a fan and says,
“Pick a card, any card!” 2) student #2 picks a card, reads the question aloud,
and allows five seconds of think time, 3) student #3 answers the question, 4)
student #4 responds to the answer, and 5) students switch roles. Fan-N-Pick
can also be played in pairs: 1) student #1 fans, 2) student #2 picks and reads the
question card, 3) student #1 answers, and 4) student #2 tutors or praises, 5) stu-
dents switch roles (Kagan & Kagan, 2009, p. 6.25). Hence, depending on how
a teacher groups the students, in Fan-N-Pick, students’ individual accountabil-
ity performance is carried out either in front of their home group members or in
front of their partner. Since there is only one level of individual accountability
in Fan-N-Pick, peer interaction may only occur in the response phase (step 4 in
each variation of the technique).
In RoundRobin, 1) students sit in teams, 2) teacher poses a problem to
which there are multiple possible responses or solutions, 3) teacher provides
think time, and 4) students take turns stating responses or solutions (Kagan &
Kagan, 2009, p. 6.31). It is clear that in RoundRobin, students perform their in-
dividual accountability in their home groups. Since this CL technique has only

244 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
one level of individual accountability, as in Fan-N-Pick, peer interaction may
not be needed in RoundRobin.
When students already know what to expect from individual accountabil-
ity– that performance is required and to be carried out in the target language of
English– teachers can then introduce them to CL techniques that have more
than one level of individual accountability. The procedures of these techniques
usually include peer interaction that follows an initial performance. This peer
interaction can help students to prepare for the next level of individual account-
ability. Let’s examine two examples of these techniques, Three Step Interview
and Numbered Heads Together. As with our choice of the previous CL tech-
niques, we focus on Three Step Interview and Numbered Heads Together for
our next illustration because they also have the level of individual accountabil-
ity in home groups that facilitates crucial peer interaction and preparation.
In Three Step Interview, students interview their partner and then each
share with their group members what they learned. The steps in this CL tech-
nique include: 1) teacher provides the interview topic, states the duration of the
interview, and provides think time, 2) in pairs, student A interviews student B,
3) pairs switch roles: student B interviews student A, and 4) teacher asks stu-
dents to do RoundRobin (Kagan & Kagan, 2009, p. 6.38). As previously dis-
cussed, in RoundRobin students form groups of four and each student, in turn,
shares with their group members what he or she just learned. When learning
through Three Step Interview, students perform two levels of individual ac-
countability – in pairs and in groups. After the initial level of individual ac-
countability in pairs, they interact with their partner to prepare for their indi-
vidual accountability in groups.
The procedure for the Numbered Heads Together technique comprises the
following steps: 1) students work in groups, 2) each student in the group is as-
signed a number (e.g., one, two, three, or four), 3) teacher poses a problem and
gives think time, 4) students privately write their answers, 5) students stand up
and “put their heads together,” showing answers, discussing, and teaching each
other, 6) students sit down when everyone knows the answer or has something
to share, 7) teacher calls a number, and 8) students with that number answer
(Kagan & Kagan, 2009, p. 6.28). There are two levels of individual accounta-
bility in this technique: individual accountability in home groups (step 5) and
individual accountability to the whole class (step 8). Peer interaction takes
place when students do step five; individual students share their answers, dis-

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 245
cuss their group’s answer, and teach each other so everyone can be a repre-
sentative to share the group’s answer to the whole class.
When expecting students to perform more than one level of individual ac-
countability, such as when they learn through Numbered Heads Together and
Three Step Interview, teachers need to encourage students to do the following.
First, use the given think time to prepare for their performance of initial indi-
vidual accountability. Kagan and Kagan (2009) advocate that think time im-
proves the quality of student responses. In Astuti’s (2016) study, one of the
teacher participants used Numbered Heads Together in a slightly different way.
This teacher provided her students think time for all of the questions she
asked/posed; her students processed all of the questions in the beginning. This
modification worked fine for her students’ EFL learning because what mattered
was that students had think time to prepare for their performances of individual
accountability. Students’ performance of quality individual accountability facil-
itates their responsibility as individual learners.
Second, use the initial individual accountability performance as a verbal
practice for the higher level of individual accountability. Existing studies sug-
gest that the more EFL learners practice using the target language, the closer
they are to the attainment of communicative competence. The first author’s
study revealed this as well. Specifically, it was found that because of the use of
English in students’ performances of individual accountability and during peer
interaction—the availability of opportunities to use the target language—the
EFL learners gained confidence to speak in English (Astuti, 2016).
Third, listen and pay attention to peers’ initial individual accountability
performance. For example, teachers can highlight students’ opportunity to learn
from their peers’ English pronunciation when those peers are performing their
individual accountability to demonstrate students’ responsibility for their own
learning (e.g., recognizing their peers’ mispronunciation or pronunciation of
newly-learned words) and their peers’ learning (e.g., enabling them to later
provide feedback for the performers). As “activity is precursor to learning”
(Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy, 1999, pp. 62-64), through the activities of listen-
ing and paying attention to their peers’ performances of individual accountabil-
ity, EFL learners consciously learned the target language (Astuti, 2016). This,
to some degree, also reflects Holliday’s (1994) notion of students learning
about how the target language works in discourse as a characteristic of CLT.
Fourth, interact with their peers and give feedback to each other to better
perform in the next level of individual accountability. The purpose of CL is “to

246 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
make each member a stronger individual and that students learn together so that
they can subsequently perform higher as individuals” (Johnson & Johnson,
1999, p. 71). From an Interaction Hypothesis lens, it appears that while EFL
learners might realize that they are learning to negotiate meaning (recall the re-
quired activity of peer interaction), they might not be aware that they are “pick-
ing up” (Krashen, 2003, p. 1)—acquiring—English vocabulary during interac-
tions with their peers (Astuti, 2016). As delineated by Larsen-Freeman (1986),
these processes are favored by CLT.
After students get the idea of how CL works, especially the activities in-
volved in individual accountability, teachers can then focus their attention on
which CL techniques are best for helping their EFL learners learn and meet the
lesson objectives. Through its illustration of the use of different CL techniques
for teaching EFL, the next section will demonstrate how teachers can connect
the how of CL and the what or the teaching contents (i.e., the four language
skills and language components).
CONNECTING THE HOW TO ACCOMMODATE THE WHAT
As discussed earlier in this article, one of the challenges faced by Indone-
sian EFL teachers in putting CLT into practice is their mastery of CLT meth-
ods. We present the following illustrations to show teachers how knowing the
activities of individual accountability in various CL techniques can help them
to connect the how and the what, which can create CLT-oriented EFL instruc-
tion.
In light of Larsen-Freeman’s (1986, 2012) concepts of CLT, which em-
phasize on communicative functions and peer interaction for improved com-
municative competence, EFL teachers need to build their students’ interperson-
al skills. To do so, teachers can use CL techniques to build interpersonal func-
tions such as class and team building, and social skills (Kagan & Kagan, 2009).
We believe that through consistent use of these techniques, students begin to
see each other as a resource for their language learning. These techniques ap-
pear to be equally helpful for teachers whose students are new to CL and teach-
ers whose students are already used to CL. Astuti’s (2016) study revealed that
the EFL learners’ familiarity with CL did not guarantee that they regarded all
of their peers as resources. Thus, even with students who are familiar with CL
in their EFL instruction, teachers need to continuously use CL techniques for
building interpersonal skills.

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 247
After the class and the teams or groups reach a certain level of comfort
with each other through the aforementioned techniques, EFL teachers can then
employ CL techniques for communication functions (recall Larsen-Freeman’s
(1986, 2012) notions of CLT). CL techniques under this category seem to be
ones that need to be highlighted more in EFL classrooms for the expected out-
come of learners’ improved communicative competence to be fully realized.
The four CL techniques discussed in the previous section (Fan-N-Pick,
RoundRobin, Numbered Heads Together, and Three Step Interview) can be
used to promote communication skills (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). Astuti’s (2016)
teacher participant in the middle school classroom employed RoundRobin and
Numbered Heads Together for teaching speaking, while the teacher participant
in the high school classroom used Numbered Heads Together for teaching lis-
tening. In other words, the four techniques can be used in teaching all four lan-
guage skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
We now move to providing illustrations of how the four CL techniques are
used in EFL classrooms to teach each of the four language skills. As in our il-
lustrations of training students on how CL works, in this section we unpack the
activities of individual accountability in each CL technique. More specifically,
we highlight how individual accountability is enacted in these CL techniques
and how it benefits EFL learners. We do so to showcase how the individual ac-
countability principle of CL helps enhance EFL learning and make EFL in-
struction more CLT-oriented. We believe that such effort, not made elsewhere
in the CL literature, will build a better understanding of the importance of indi-
vidual accountability in CL implementation to develop EFL learners’ commu-
nicative competence.
Fan-N-Pick for Teaching Reading
After students have finished reading a text, the teacher can ask each of
them to write simple open-ended questions on index cards (or pieces of small
paper) using the 5WH question words: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
The number of questions may depend on students’ level of age and proficiency.
After students finish writing the questions, the teacher collects and shuffles the
cards, and puts students in groups or pairs. Each pair or group receives a set of
question cards and starts Fan-N-Pick. Through the 5WH questions and their in-
dividual accountability in Fan-N-Pick, students practice communicating or pre-
senting their answers to their peers and build their understanding of the text.

248 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
Hence, besides developing their reading skills (e.g., identifying main ideas,
skimming, and scanning), students also practice their writing skills (e.g., writ-
ing the 5WH questions with correct spelling and/or sentence structure) and
speaking skills (i.e., communicating/presenting their understanding of the text).
In these processes, we believe that students make sense of the language being
learned. For example, they realize that writing 5WH questions in English can-
not be done by simply translating the questions—word-by-word—from Indo-
nesian to English because they have to follow, among others, English syntax.
Numbered Heads Together for Teaching Listening and Speaking
After students have learned a text genre—announcements, as an exam-
ple— they listen to a sample spoken announcement and make some notes about
it. Next, the teacher poses comprehension questions, including questions on
how certain words are pronounced and expressions used by the speaker—
learning how the language works in discourse. With their group members, stu-
dents then answer the questions through Numbered Heads Together. This
means that listening activities take place at least twice: when students are lis-
tening to the spoken announcement and when they are listening to the ques-
tions from their teacher. Additionally, because of the nature of individual ac-
countability in Numbered Heads Together, speaking activities also take place:
1) when students are performing their individual accountability in their home
group (i.e., sharing their own answer with their group members), 2) when they
are interacting with each other to reach a consensus, and 3) when they are per-
forming their individual accountability to the whole class (i.e., sharing their
group’s answer with the whole class). Astuti and Lammers (2017) discuss in
greater detail how these required activities of individual accountability in CL
provide EFL learners more opportunities to use English.
As indicated earlier, Astuti’s (2016) teacher participants both in the mid-
dle and high schools employed Numbered Heads Together in their instruction,
in teaching speaking and teaching listening respectively. Although they were
teaching different language skills, the two teachers used Numbered Heads To-
gether mainly to check their students’ comprehension of the target texts, writ-
ten fable (in the middle school classroom) and spoken news (in the high school
classroom). Specifically, to the whole class, the middle school students stated
their answers to the questions about the fable, while the high school students
wrote their answers to the questions about the news. Although the two teachers

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 249
missed one of the steps in the procedure of Numbered Heads Together, i.e., in-
dividual accountability in home groups, it appears that their students communi-
cated with the text—they learned how the target language works in discourse
(fable and news). In other words, their learning activities seem to be within
CLT framework.
RoundRobin for Teaching Writing
When using RoundRobin to teach writing, students take turns stating re-
sponses or solutions (step #3) in written mode, going around the table to allow
each student to contribute, which refers to another CL technique called
RoundTable (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). RoundTable can be used for any stage of
teaching writing. When used at the brainstorming stage, the teacher can, for ex-
ample, ask questions around the day’s topic, such as: “What do you know
about…?” After thinking time, students take turns writing their answer on a
piece of paper—performing individual accountability in groups. The teacher
may ask them not to repeat their peers’ answers. When used at the writing
stage, teachers can, for example, ask students to write a problem or question
they have in their writing process, including questions on vocabulary, tenses, or
sentence structure (making meaning of the language being learned). Next, the
teacher collects the papers containing the problems. The class can then use the-
se problems for individual students’ writing conference, next meeting’s review,
or for a whole-class discussion.
When RoundTable is used at the feedback providing stage, teachers can
ask students to take turns writing their feedback on their group members’
work—another form of individual accountability in groups. The focus of the
feedback can be predetermined, depending on the needs of the class and/or the
teaching content. When each group member finishes writing their feedback or
comments, speaking activities may follow for the students to share what they
learn from their peers’ feedback on their writing.
Astuti’s (2016) teacher participant from the middle school, in one of the
observed lessons, used RoundRobin for teaching speaking. She used this CL
technique to get her students mention one fable title they knew. Although they
did not do it in their home groups (individual accountability in home groups,
recall the procedure of this technique earlier in this section), the middle school
students mentioned one fable title for the rest of the class to hear, which is a
form of individual accountability to the whole class.

250 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
Three Step Interview for Teaching Speaking and Listening
Using Three Step Interview for teaching speaking (e.g., teaching expres-
sions for stating an opinion) might look like the following. After introducing
the many ways of stating one’s opinion, the teacher uses this CL technique for
students to practice using the expressions. A list of topics is written on the
board (e.g., pollution, deforestation, global warming). After all students in each
group finish interviewing their peers’ about their opinion on one topic—
individual accountability in pairs (e.g. Question: “What do you think about…?”
Answer: “In my opinion…”) and reports what they learned in the interview
(i.e., performing individual accountability in home groups, for example: “Ac-
cording to Monica …”), they move on to the next topic. The teacher moves
around the room and encourages students to use different expressions for dif-
ferent topics (thus promoting student learning about how the language works in
discourse) and to help each other to better state their opinions. In the teaching
of speaking skills, listening activities are indeed involved. Through Three Step
Interview, students listen to their peers’ verbal production as they interview
each other and as they listen to their peers’ reports. Hence, they get exposed to
different varieties of the target expressions (communicative functions).
Embedding the Teaching of Language Components
Literature suggests the use of inductive methods for teaching language
components (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and tenses), which is in
line with CLT because it promotes students’ meaning making of the target lan-
guage (Richards, 2002). Specifically, through examples and activities, learners
identify the rules or patterns of the target language, and this demonstrates how
they learn about how the target language works in discourse; a classroom activ-
ity that reflects the CLT approach (Holliday, 1994). In the use of the four CL
techniques illustrated above, the teaching of language components can also be
integrated. For example, in the use of 5WH questions and Fan-N-Pick for
teaching reading, teachers can ask students to include questions on vocabulary
used in the text, which is then discussed in groups or with the whole class. For
example, teachers encourage students to ask questions such as: “What is the
synonym of the word…used by the author in paragraph…line…?” or “What is
the meaning of the word…in paragraph…line…?”
Teachers can also focus on pronunciation in the use of Numbered Heads
Together for teaching listening by asking students questions such as: “How

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 251
does the announcer pronounce this word (showing or pointing to a word used
in the announcement)?” In the use of RoundTable for teaching writing, teachers
can ask students to check their peers’ spelling and provide feedback when nec-
essary before writing their comments on the area of writing determined by their
teacher. Finally, when using the Three Step Interview for teaching speaking,
especially during peer interaction, teachers can ask students to help each other
in putting together their sentences and following correct grammar and tenses.
The above illustrations of CL techniques and how individual accountabil-
ity is enacted in EFL instruction suggests that any CL technique be used for
teaching any EFL content, i.e., for teaching any language skill or component.
For example, in the first author’s study, one EFL teacher participant used
Numbered Heads Together for teaching speaking, specifically for her students
to recall the details of the narrative text they read. The other EFL teacher par-
ticipant used the same CL technique for teaching listening. She used Numbered
Heads Together for her students to recall and write down news-related words—
a vocabulary building activity.
Notwithstanding the compatibility of any CL technique for teaching any
language skill or component, the wider the repertoire of CL techniques a teach-
er has (including having an understanding of individual accountability activi-
ties in each technique), the better he or she can select what best suits their les-
son objectives and their students’ needs. For example, although Numbered
Heads Together can be used for teaching any language skill and component,
teachers whose students are new to CL need to consider choosing a CL tech-
nique that has one level of individual accountability and Numbered Heads To-
gether is not one. RoundRobin is another example. Although this technique, as
Numbered Heads Together and other CL techniques, can be used for teaching
any language skill and component, it best fits speaking lessons because the
procedure requires students to take turns to speak in their group and to the
whole class.
In discussing means-end relationships and thus advocating that researchers
differentiate CL techniques (i.e., categorizing them based on their purposes),
Sharan (2002) proposes a tentative taxonomy, which groups CL techniques ac-
cording to their most outstanding characteristics. We believe these three com-
ponents of Sharan’s taxonomy can guide teachers in choosing the right CL
techniques for achieving particular purposes: 1) techniques for enhancing
achievement and motivation (see Slavin, 1995); 2) techniques for enhancing
social skills and interpersonal communications (see Johnson & Johnson, 1994);

252 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
3) techniques for enhancing intellectual accomplishment, intrinsic motivation
and equal-status interaction (see Cohen & Lotan, 1997; Sharan & Sharan,
1992).
Referring to Sharan’s (2002) taxonomy, we see that the CL techniques il-
lustrated and described in this article (developed by Kagan & Kagan) fall under
the category of the Structural Approach (recall the definition of the word struc-
ture), which can enhance learners’ social skills and interpersonal communica-
tions. These purposes, as we have indicated earlier in this section, are in line
with the tenets of CLT (Larsen-Freeman, 1986, 2012). EFL teachers may then
include CL techniques under the Structural Approach in their working reper-
toire and refer to Sharan’s taxonomy when they seek to achieve particular pur-
poses.
POTENTIAL BARRIERS
The connection between the how and the what discussed in the previous
section suggests that teachers need to master the procedure of the selected CL
techniques and follow them to better facilitate their students’ learning of the
target language skill and/or language components and to eventually achieve the
lesson objectives. The first author’s study found that teachers’ understanding of
CL affects the enactment of individual accountability in CL (Astuti, 2016).
Specifically, in some of the use of CL techniques in the studied EFL class-
rooms, individual accountability in home groups and peer interaction were
missed. One of the identified consequences was that the individual EFL learn-
ers did not present or report what was assigned to them. This might have ham-
pered the attainment of the lesson objectives and the goal of the EFL instruc-
tion because the learners missed the opportunity to use the target language, es-
pecially to talk about what they learned. In what follows, we describe such a
situation using one of the above illustrations, i.e., the use of Numbered Heads
Together for teaching listening.
We see that there are two levels of individual accountability in Num-
bered Heads Together: in groups and to the whole class. If students do not per-
form individual accountability in home groups, they will not share the answer,
which they have thought about, to the questions given by their teacher. In other
words, individual students do not have the opportunity to share with their peers
what they learn from the announcement (the listening materials). The first au-
thor’s study showed that since the EFL learners missed individual accountabil-

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 253
ity in home groups, they also missed the opportunity to interact with their
peers, i.e., having conversations with them to reach a consensus (group’s an-
swer) and teaching each other so that everyone could represent their group (As-
tuti, 2016). As a consequence, they performed their individual accountability to
the whole class—by answering the given questions— without preparation or
any help from their peers. This is not the kind of learning that CL emphasizes
because students do not cooperate with their peers to make them stronger indi-
vidual learners.
To avoid the aforementioned barriers, we recommend that teachers, espe-
cially those new to CL, first use CL techniques developed by CL experts exact-
ly as described (Astuti & Lammers, 2017). Doing so will help them to recog-
nize activities involved in individual accountability in CL and understand how
these activities can contribute to their students’ learning, including maximizing
their participation and contribution. We also suggest that teachers new to CL
look for relevant literature on the variety of CL techniques, their functions,
procedures, as well as their activities of individual accountability so that these
teachers will be able to make informed decisions when selecting ones that suit
their lesson objectives and/or their class/students’ needs. This supports Sharan
(2002)’s recommendations for teachers that they need to choose CL techniques
that are “most suited to the purpose they wish to achieve” (p. 115). Unfortu-
nately, little research has been done to map CL techniques, i.e., studies that re-
veal the connection of the how and the what, which is actually needed by new
CL practitioners. Through this article, we attempt to address this gap in the lit-
erature.
For practitioners of CL, or teachers with experiences in using this teaching
method, based on the first author’s study (Astuti, 2016), we offer the following
recommendation. If they, purposefully or in an impromptu manner, modify CL
techniques by adding the feature of individual accountability to the whole class
(such to RoundRobin or Fan-N-Pick), their students should first perform their
individual accountability in their home groups and/or in other groups. Such ar-
rangement prepares the students so that later they can better perform their indi-
vidual accountability to the whole class. Students utilize each other as learning
tools/resources if we arrange their presentation in home groups or in the other
groups prior to their presentation to the whole class. More specifically, they be-
come the audience of their peers’ performances and feedback providers, work-
ing together to promote their own learning and the learning of their peers.

254 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Learners being responsible for their own and their peers’ learning is the
underlying idea of individual accountability in CL. Learners actualize this re-
sponsibility by doing performance or presentation of their learning in front of
their peers. This is basically the essence of CL. We believe that this article has
illustrated how CL works, with special focus on individual accountability, and
how this key CL principle appears to facilitate EFL learning. More specifically,
we have demonstrated how the enactment of this CL principle can help teach-
ers to facilitate the learning of the four language skills and components and to
promote the learning of how the target language works in discourse.
Starting from an understanding that CLT emphasizes the use of target lan-
guage and interaction among peers, we argue that individual accountability in
CL (i.e., performance or presentation of what is being learned with their peers)
promotes the use of English. The more learners do performances or presenta-
tions and interact with their peers to prepare for these performances, the more
they use the target language (Astuti & Lammers, 2017). The more they use the
target language, the closer they are to achieving their learning objectives, and,
in turn, the goal of learning the language, i.e., learners’ developed communica-
tive competence (Richards, 2002).
The enactment of individual accountability in CL illustrated in this article
also demonstrates that it can help teachers train their students on how CL
works. When students know the required activities of individual accountability
in CL and perform them, not only will they better learn through CL, but they
will also benefit from it. Additionally, we believe that our illustrations have
shown that knowing the activities involved in individual accountability in vari-
ous CL techniques helps them make informed decisions on which techniques
can best meet their students’ learning objectives.
With the goal of developing language learners’ communicative compe-
tence, CLT primarily focuses on helping language learners use or communicate
in the target language in their interaction with their peers and accommodating
these learners to make sense of the target language. In foreign language learn-
ing, including in EFL contexts, getting learners to communicate in the target
language with their peers remains challenging for some teachers. With its re-
quired individual students’ presentation or performance and structured peer in-
teraction (i.e., activities of individual accountability), which breed communica-

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 255
tion and interaction in and about the target language, CL can help teachers
make their EFL instruction more CLT-oriented.
REFERENCES
Alghamdi, R. (2014). EFL learners’ verbal interaction during cooperative
learning and traditional learning (small group). Journal of Language
Teaching and Research, 5(1), 21-27.
Almuslimi, F. (2016). The effect of cooperative learning strategy on English
reading skills of 9th grade Yemeni students and their attitudes towards the
strategy. IMPACT: International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts
and Literature, 4(2), 41-58.
Alwasilah, A. C. (2012, May 19). Redesigning the curriculum for English
teachers. The Jakarta Post. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.
com/news/2012/05/19/redesigning-curriculum-english-tea chers.html
Alwasilah, A. C. (2013, September 21). Improving teacher training colleges.
The Jakarta Post. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/
2013/09/21/improving-teacher-training-colleges.html
Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., & Simon, H. A. (1996). Situated learning and
education. Educational Researcher, 25(4), 5-11.
Antil, L. R., Jenkins, J. R., Wayne, S. K., & Vadasy, P. F. (1998). Cooperative
learning: Prevalence, conceptualizations, and the relation between
research and practice. American Educational Research Journal, 35(3),
419-454.
Astuti, P. (2016). “I can teach them; they can teach me”: The role of
individual accountability in cooperative learning in Indonesian secondary
school EFL classrooms (Doctoral Dissertation. University of Rochester,
New York, USA).
Astuti, P., & Lammers, J. C. (2017). Individual accountability in cooperative
learning: More opportunities to produce spoken English. Indonesian
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(1), 215-228.
Bejarano, Y. (1987). A cooperative small!group methodology in the language
classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 21(3), 483-504.
Biemiller, A. (1993). Lake Wobegon revisited: On diversity and education.
Educational Researcher, 22(9), 7-12.

256 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
Bruffee, K. A. (1995). Sharing our toys: Cooperative learning versus
collaborative learning. Change, 27(1), 12-18.
Charmaz, K. (2014) Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Chen, H. (2011). Structuring cooperative learning in teaching English
pronunciation. English Language Teaching, 4(3), 26-32.
Cohen, E., & Lotan, R. (Eds.). (1997). Working for equity in heterogeneous
classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press.
Cohen, E. G., Brody, C. M., & Sapon-Shevin, M. (Eds.). (2004). Teaching
cooperative learning: The challenge for teacher education. Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press.
Druckman, D., & Bjork, R. A. (Eds.). (1994). Learning, remembering,
believing: Enhancing human performance. Washington, DC: National
Academy Press.
Engeström, Y. (2000). Activity theory as a framework for analyzing and
redesigning work. Ergonomics, 43(7), 960-974.
Ghaith, G. (2003). Effects of the learning together model of cooperative
learning on English as a foreign language reading achievement, academic
self-esteem, and feelings of school alienation. Bilingual Research Journal,
27(3), 451-474.
Holliday, A. (1994). Appropriate methodology and social context. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Intansari, M. R. (2010, November). Implemented curriculum at a school level:
A survey-based case study in junior high schools in Sukabumi. Paper
presented at the 57th TEFLIN International Conference, Indonesia
University of Education, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.
Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (1994) Learning together and alone (4th edition).
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1999). Making cooperative learning work.
Theory into Practice, 38(2), 67-73.
Jonassen, D. H., & Rohrer-Murphy, L. (1999). Activity theory as a framework
for designing constructivist learning environments. Educational
Technology Research and Development, 47(1), 61-79.
Kagan, S. (1989). Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano, CA: Kagan
Cooperative Learning.
Kagan, S., & McGroarty, M. (1993). Principles of cooperative learning for
language and content gains. In D. D. Holt (Ed.), Cooperative learning: A

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 257
response to linguistic and cultural diversity (pp. 47-66). McHenry, IL:
The Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems, Inc.
Kagan, S., & Kagan, M. (2009). Kagan cooperative learning. San Clemente,
CA: Kagan Publishing.
Krashen, S. D. (2003). Explorations in language acquisition and use: The
Taipei lectures. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and principles in language teaching.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2012). From unity to diversity: Twenty-five years of
language- teaching methodology. English Teaching Forum, 50(2), 28-38.
Leont’ev, A. N. (1978). Activity, consciousness, and personality. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Li, D. (1998). "It's always more difficult than you plan and Imagine": Teachers'
perceived difficulties in introducing the communicative approach in South
Korea. TESOL Quarterly, 32(4), 677-703.
Liang, T. (2002). Implementing cooperative learning in EFL teaching: Process
and effects. (Doctoral Dissertation, National Taiwan Normal University,
Taiwan). Retrieved from http://www.asian-efl-
journal.com/Thesis_Liang_Tsailing.pdf
Lie, A. (2007). Education policy and EFL curriculum in Indonesia: Between
the commitment to competence and the quest for higher score. TEFLIN
Journal, 18(1), 1-14.
Long, M. H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language
acquisition. Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, 2(2), 413-468.
Madya, S. (2007). Searching for an appropriate EFL curriculum design for the
Indonesian pluralistic society. TEFLIN Journal, 18(2), 196-221.
Mattarima, K. & Hamdan, A. R. (2011). The teaching constraints of English as
a foreign language in Indonesia: The context of school based curriculum.
Sosiohumanika, 4(2), 287-300.
McGroarty, M. (1989). The benefits of cooperative learning arrangements in
second language instruction. NABE Journal, 13(2), 127-143.
Musthafa, B. (2001). Communicative language teaching in Indonesia: Issues of
theoretical assumptions and challenges in the classroom practice. TEFLIN
Journal, 7(2), 184-193.
Musthafa, B. (2009). English teaching in Indonesia: Status, issues, and
challenges. Retrieved from http://www.oocities.org/upis3/bm/english-
teaching-in-indonesia.htm

258 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 28, Number 2, July 2017
O'Connor, R. E., & Jenkins, J. R. (1996). Cooperative learning as an inclusion
strategy:A closer look. Exceptionality, 6(1), 29-51.
Olsen, R. E. & Kagan, S. (1992). About cooperative learning. In C. Kessler
(Ed.), Cooperative language learning (pp. 1-30). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Panitz, T. (1999). Collaborative versus cooperative learning: A comparison of
the two concepts which will help us understand the underlying nature of
interactive learning. ERIC Clearinghouse. Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ED448443.pdf
Richards, J. C. (2002). 30 Years of TEFL/TESL: A personal reflection. RELC
Journal, 33(1), 1-35.
Sachs, G. T., Candlin, C. N., & Rose, K. R. (2003). Developing cooperative
learning in the EFL/ESL secondary classroom. RELC Journal, 34(3), 338-
369.
Savignon, S. J. (1991). Communicative language teaching: State of the art.
TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 261-278.
Sharan, Y., & Sharan, S. (1992) Expanding cooperative learning through
Group Investigation. New York: Teachers College Press.
Sharan, S. (2002). Differentiating methods of cooperative learning in research
and practice. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 22(1), 106-116.
Slavin, R. (1995) Cooperative learning: Theory, research and practice (2nd
edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Slavin, R. E. (1999). Comprehensive approaches to cooperative learning.
Theory into Practice, 38(2), 74-79.
Smith, R. A. (1987). A teacher’s views on cooperative learning. The Phi Delta
Kappan, 68(9), 663-666.
Tateyama-Sniezek, K. M. (1990). Cooperative learning: Does it improve the
academic achievement of students with handicaps? Exceptional Children,
56(5), 426-37.
Wei, P., & Tang, Y. (2015). Cooperative learning in English class of Chinese
junior high school. Creative Education, 6, 397-404.
Yamagata-Lynch, L. C. (2003). Using activity theory as an analytical lens for
examining technology professional development in schools. Mind,
Culture, and Activity, 10(2), 100-119.
Yamagata-Lynch, L. C. (2007). Confronting analytical dilemmas for
understanding complex human interactions in design-based research from

Astuti & Lammers, Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning 259
a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework. The Journal of
the Learning Sciences, 16(4), 451-484.
Yamagata-Lynch, L. C. (2010). Activity systems analysis methods:
Understanding complex learning environments. New York, NY: Springer
Publishing Company.