INTRODUCTION

In the last decade there has been a growing interest among ESL/EFL teachers in using cooperative learning activities. With cooperative learning, students work together in groups whose usual size is two to four members. However, cooperative learning is more than just putting students in groups and giving them something to do. Cooperative learning principles and techniques are tools which teachers use to encourage mutual helpfulness in the groups and the active participation of all members.

These principles can be seen in the cooperative learning technique Numbered Heads Together (Kagan, 1992) that can be used, for example, in an ESL/EFL reading class. There are four steps in doing Numbered Heads Together:

1. Each student in a group of four gets a number: 1, 2, 3, or 4.

2. The teacher or a student asks a question based on the text the class is reading.

3. Students in each group put their heads together to come up with an answer or answers. They should also be ready to supply support for their answer(s) from the text and-or from other knowledge.

4. The teacher calls a number from 1 to 4. The person with that number gives and explains their group's answer.

Numbered Heads Together encourages successful group functioning because all members need to know and be ready to explain their group's answer(s) and because, when students help their groupmates, they help themselves and their whole group, because the response given belongs to the whole group, not just to the group member giving it.