USING COOPERATIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SKILL

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' opinions towards the reading comprehension through cooperative learning activities. The subjects were 25 students in grade 5 at Bannonnoi school, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. The studied was operated in an English course in second semester of 2014 academic year. The experiment took two days a week for five weeks. There are two instruments which were used in this study; lesson plans which were used for teaching over 10 periods, consisting of five lesson plans from New Express English Activities Book 5, and the questionnaire for checking the students' opinions towards cooperative learning. The research findings were as follows: The mean score of all determination is 3.82 which reflect that the subjects improved their reading skill due to the cooperative-learning activities in the class. The opinions were taken from each item indicated that the students have a positive attitude in cooperative learning in all items. Furthermore the cooperative learning activities can motivate in reading comprehension to a maximum of 4.56. The results of the study helped the teacher to improve teaching English by using cooperative learning strategy, promote reading comprehension, encourage and support students in reading English by using cooperative learning.