Implementing Kagan's Structures in Teaching Pronunciation Skills to Young EFL Learners

Abstract

Th e aim of the present paper is to explore the benefi ts or shortcomings of the incorporation of Kagan’s cooperative structures in teaching basic English pronunciation skills to young Serbian EFL learners. Seeking to test the applicability of Kagan’s structures on teaching pronunciation at an elementary level of EFL learning, we conducted an experiment consisting of two parts. Th e total of 24 participants (mean age = 10.5) attending a private school English lessons for three years were divided into an experimental and a control group. Th e experiment comprised a pre-test before and a post-test aft er a one month long implementation of Kagan’s structures for teaching pronunciation during the 60-minute classes two times a week with the experimental group only. Th e control group received traditional group work pronunciation training. To measure whether the implementation of Kagan’s approach had any infl uence on perception and production accuracy, both groups were tested for phoneme discrimination and pronunciation of the target language sounds. Th e results demonstrated signifi cant benefi ts of Kagan’s structures application.