


































English Language Teaching Educational Journal (ELTEJ) 
Vol. 1, No. 3, 2018, pp. 149-160 
E-ISSN: 2621-6485 

  
 

Multiple Studies: The Influence of Collaborative Learning 

Approach on Indonesian Secondary High School Students’ 

English-Speaking Skill 

 
Berli Arta 

Monash University, Australia 

bart0001@student.monash.edu  

 
Abstract 

To respond the globalization, the importance of English communication skills including 

speaking skill increases. Looking at Indonesian context, secondary high school students find 

spoken English much more difficult than written English. Students are good at grammar, reading, 

and writing but they can hardly speak (Hairdara, 2016). This article proposes collaborative 

learning approach (CLA) as one suitable solution to solve the obstacles of sharpening English 

speaking skill due to its benefits. The discussion of this investigation highlights some benefits of 

CLA in developing speaking skill and the challenges need to be considered as well. Receiving 

well proven evidence of its benefits, CLA is recommended to be implemented in the teaching 

and learning of English speaking skill. As the results of this investigation, there are three main 

benefits of CLA whose implementation can reduce language anxiety, raise students’ 

participation, and increase students’ self-confidence. 

 

Keywords: collaborative learning approach (CLA), benefits, and English-speaking skills 

 

 

How to Cite: Arta, B. (2018). Multiple studies: the influence of collaborative learning approach 

on Indonesian secondary high school students’ English-speaking skills. English Language 

Teaching Educational Journal, 1(3), 149-160.  

  

 

INTRODUCTION 

Background, Definition, Significance 

One of the consequences resulting from globalization is the increasing demand 

of the ability to communicate using English. To respond this phenomenon, 

Indonesian students are demanded to be able to speak English. However, spoken 

English still seems difficult for many Indonesian secondary high school students. 

Haidara’s (2016) research reports that many Indonesian secondary high school 

students are good at English written tests like reading and writing, but most of them 

still are hardly able to speak. Meanwhile, “the mastery of speaking skill in learning 

any language including English is a priority for many second or foreign language 

learners” (Haidara, 2016). There are some factors that can hinder students’ 

mailto:bart0001@student.monash.edu


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improvement in speaking skill. These factors can be lack of practice, high language 

anxiety, and lack of confidence (Haidara, 2016). In response to these problems, one 

solution could be the collaborative learning approach (CLA). Many studies have 

shown the positive language learning outcomes of this approach in which students 

can engage and gain more opportunities to practice target languages in the classroom 

activities (Thousand, Villa &Nevin, 1994; Macaro, 1997; Nunan, 1992). However, 

it seems that most of the Indonesian teachers are not familiar enough with this 

approach. Therefore, further research on CLA would be beneficial for teaching 

practice where students’ speaking skill could be nurtured. 

Collaborative learning is a process of learning in which students collaborate 

together to attain ‘common learning goals’ (Macaro, 1997). It implies that CLA is 

established through pairs or group works to involve students during learning process. 

There are at least five attributes of this approach. They are: “1) a common task or 

learning activity suitable for group work, 2) small-group learning, 3) cooperative 

behavior, 4) interdependence, and 5) individual accountability and responsibility” 

(Davison, 1994, p. 25). All these attributes can facilitate students to develop their 

speaking skill. 

Considering these features of CLA, hence, this critical article will argue that 

collaborative learning is very beneficial to develop Indonesian secondary high 

school students’ speaking skill. This main argument is constructed by the possible 

benefits of collaborative learning on speaking skill, such as reducing language 

anxiety, encouraging active participation, and increasing confidence and self-

esteem. This study also provides a significant insight to overcome the problems of 

students’ English speaking skill. Additionally, it will demonstrate the use of CLA in 

teaching English speaking skills. At the end, it will give the article conclusion in 

which it will summarize the key points and provide some recommendation of further 

implementation of collaborative learning in English language teaching. Based on 

these, English teachers also can benefit from this investigation in a way that they can 

insert collaborative learning approach into their teaching practice. In addition, of this 

study will provide different perspectives how collaborative learning approach 

influences the proficiency of English speaking skill. Thus, English teachers or 

English education researchers can consider proper adjustments and modifications of 

the CLA implementations to enhance their students’ English speaking skill. 

 

 

 

 



 
 
 

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RESEARCH METHODS 

To understand the purposes of this study, the research questions are listed as 

follows: 

a. What are the benefits of collaborative learning approach on students’ speaking 

skill? 

b. What are the challenges of implementing collaborative learning approach in 

Indonesian secondary high school level? 

c. How can the challenges of CLA implementations be overcome?  

The research methodology of this study is literature review. To demonstrate 

the topic of the investigation, the first step is collecting academic literatures relevant 

to collaborative learning approach and English-speaking skill. The selected literature 

are gathered from books and articles of reliable academic journals. Then evaluating 

and analyzing these academic sources are done critically to frame the issue and 

construct arguments. 

As mentioned above, another focus of the article is to elaborate the benefits of 

CLA in developing students’ English-speaking skill and there are three benefits of it 

i.e. to decrease language anxiety during English classroom activities, the second one 

is to increase the participations of the students to take a part in learning, and to help 

students enhance their confidence in speaking English.  

 

The Benefits of Collaborative Learning on English Speaking Skill 

Reducing Language Anxiety 

The first benefit of collaborative learning approach (CLA) on students’ 

speaking ability is to reduce the language anxiety. “Anxiety is defined as distress or 

uneasiness of the mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune. General anxiety is 

the excessive and exaggerated worry about everyday things” (Suleimenova, 2013). 

Foreign language learners often experience anxiety in speaking the target language 

because the classroom environments seem threatening for students (Dornyei, 2002). 

Firstly, CLA can contribute in reducing language anxiety because it offers safe 

environments of learning English as a foreign language in order that the language 

anxiety decreases. Performing speaking English in small groups can make students 

feel more comfortable in making language mistakes then trying to deliver a speech 

in front of large groups of students. When a student sets an attempt to express an 

idea using English, only members of the group can listen (Dalisa, 2015). The fear of 



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making mistakes like mispronunciation or grammatical errors can diminish due to 

less threat of being judged by teachers or the entire classroom members (Dornyei, 

2002). Secondly, CLA facilitates students to support each other instead of 

competing. The common goals of learning particular English materials lead students 

to encourage all students to participate in achieving the target goals (Dornyei, 2002), 

for example, performing a drama in which each member of the group should work 

together starting from preparing the plots of drama to practicing prior to the show in 

order to exhibit good performance. CLA benefits in terms of providing social 

supports from peers as stated by Dornyei (2002). To prevent language anxiety in 

English language learning classrooms, Dornyei (2002) suggests avoiding 

competitions and promoting cooperation. Cooperative behaviors generated by 

students through CLA environments can let students feel less anxious to produce a 

speech or conversation among members of the groups (Dornyei, 2002). Thirdly, 

being set in a group helps students build a level of trust to share their feelings 

(Gregersen, 2017). Shy students can feel less reluctant to put their effort into practice 

of speaking skills due to the belief that peers would appreciate what they try to 

contribute (Gregersen, 2017). This trust among group members gradually lessens 

fears or nervousness in communicating their ideas using the target language. As can 

be seen, CLA plays essential roles in reducing language anxiety in speaking English 

by creating supportive environments of learning. 

Although the above evidence may be true, drawbacks of CLA in reducing 

language anxiety exist though, due to some reasons. The first drawback is that CLA 

promotes interdependence to each other among students (Gregersen, 2017). It 

implies that the success of completing a set task in CLA classrooms relies on the 

contributions made by each member of the group. Gregersen (2017, p. 122) argues 

that group works can “make students feel that they succeed and fail as a team”. 

Hence, CLA will trigger students to be afraid of making mistakes of performing their 

speaking skill because their failures will be seen as a part of group’s failures. As this 

pressure can hinder students’ willingness to contribute, students keep worrying that 

their contributions may create disadvantages to their groups. The second limitation 

is there is possible social incident that can appear during conducting CLA activities. 

‘Social incident’ like disrespect in group learning can bother students’ confidence or 

cause fear in contributing (Järvelä, Volet, &Järvenoja, 2010). Insufficient 

understandings of respects among students can cause students to easily laugh or 

ridicule at their friends’ performance. Finally, they become reluctant to express their 

ideas in the group discussion and the anxiety cannot be eliminated or even get 

increased. 



 
 
 

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To overcome the issue of pressure in providing good contribution to group and 

social incident, English teachers and students should have the same understanding 

about the concept of collaborative learning. The core concept of CLA is about 

learning knowledge, skills, and competencies together (Serrano-Cámara et al., 

2014). What students should do is to learn from each other by sharing language 

inputs and giving feedback to peers. Once students understand the goal of CLA, they 

can feel more comfortable to take a part in group discussion. Macaro (1997) argues 

that students perceive learning collaboratively helps them gain better understanding 

of language and more ideas from small group. They believe so because the learning 

process they experience is done by helping each other (Macaro, 1997). The values 

of helping each other in learning English can prevent social incident to occur. 

Holding the supportive values, students can realize that each of them has strengths 

and weaknesses, so they can respect strengths and weaknesses of the other group 

members. Eventually, CLA can be very effective to minimize the level of language 

anxiety due to promoting secure learning environments, developing trust among 

students and helping each other. 

To sum, students can benefit from CLA especially to reduce language anxiety. 

Students can feel that speaking is less threatening when teachers are not around them 

(Macaro, 1997). In addition, CLA mediates students to encourage and learn 

cooperatively so the fear of producing mistakes may be less influential to students’ 

learning performance.  

 

Active Participation 

Once students can feel less anxious in starting conversations, they tend to 

maintain their participation in the learning process. Therefore, the second benefit of 

CLA regarding speaking skill is it increases students’ participation. Besides 

providing secure learning environments to increase students’ involvements, CLA 

also promotes more opportunities for students to practice speaking English. 

Manurung (2015) emphasizes the importance of opening wide opportunities to 

practice in the teaching of speaking. Looking at Indonesian contexts, generally each 

class consists of thirty up to forty students. Moreover, the English learning hours are 

so limited approximately only two meetings a week. Hence, many students cannot 

get adequate chance to practice their speaking skill during classroom activities.  



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However, the sufficient opportunities can be provided through CLA in which 

students can try starting to talk using English in small groups. Each member of the 

chosen group is encouraged to take a turn in explaining ideas and counted as 

important resource person (Nunan, 1992). 

Another benefit of CLA on students’ learning participation is individual 

accountability. Each student’s participation that is acknowledged can support 

students to keep contributing to their groups (Gregesen, 2017). Take Jigsaw as 

illustration, each member of group has their own job distribution and they must apply 

the abilities of gaining information from other groups; taking notes of the findings; 

and making the findings public by precise communication to their ‘home group’ 

(Davidson, 1994). During the exploration of the given task, students can perceive 

how important their participation is because their presence is recognized by the 

learning process. Furthermore, the sense of accountability makes students improve 

their sense of responsibility at their learning achievements as a part of collaborative 

group works. “The true interaction is actually to engage students’ awareness that 

they are not alone to finish class-works, they have their potency among individuals 

to accomplish all the tasks” (Slavin, 2014, as cited in Anwar, 2016, p. 225). The 

awareness of individual roles and collective efforts in achieving group goals trigger 

all members to be active in completing the tasks cooperatively. In a word, CLA 

increases students’ engagements in speaking activities due to the increasing 

opportunities, level of individual accountability and responsibility in getting 

involved in the whole classroom activities. 

However, CLA receives some critiques though, due to the potential social 

challenges that may hinder students’ engagements in the learning process. “Groups 

can face multiple types of social challenges, which interfere with the social process 

of learning and task completion” (Järvelä, Volet,&Järvenoja, 2010). The first 

challenge is social conflict. When students cannot come to consensus due to their 

ego to stick on their own opinions, this situation may lead students to be less 

involved. Conflicts of students’ goals, characteristics, and interests can be obstacles 

to learning participations (Ja¨rvenoja&Ja¨rvela, 2009). It cannot be denied that 

reaching a consensus is difficult because students’ views on a task can be diverse. 

Take ‘role play’ as an example, students can refuse to take a certain role that they 

dislike to do or two or some students wish to choose the same jobs or roles. If the 

conflict cannot be solved soon, the learning process cannot work as expected. Then 

students’ speaking performance may seem impossible to occur because the unsolved 

dispute still restrains their willingness to take a part of collaborative works. The 

second challenge is students’ diversity that can influence social communication 



 
 
 

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during group discussion. Students tend to feel comfortable to stay in a group with 

those whose characters or social and cultural backgrounds are similar. Hence, 

students may experience communication difficulty generated by “interpersonal 

dynamics”, such as different priorities and expectations in learning; different styles 

of working or communicating; the tendency of some individuals to rely on others to 

do their share of the work, and power dynamics among members” (Arvaja, 

Salovaara, Hakkinen, &Jarvela, 2007, as cited in Järvelä, Volet, &Järvenoja, 2010, 

p. 17). In short, the emerging issues regarding social conflicts and diversity seem so 

challenging for students to participate in group works especially speaking aspects. 

Even though some researchers believe that social challenges may occur due to 

difficulty in making agreements and differences, CLA is still believed as a good 

language learning approach that can increase students’ engagements. This is because 

working as a group is a gradual process in which students need time to build 

relationship and value one another as learning partners (MacDonell, 1992). The 

conflict mentioned above is just a temporary problem. Moreover, in collaborative 

environments students are interdependent and share common targets, which in turn 

construct ‘feeling of solidarity’ and ‘comradely supportiveness’ (Dornyei, 2002). 

The effects of those feelings can influence students to take their parts voluntarily and 

emerging disputes can be solved through supportive discussion. Learning 

participation will not be seen as a burden, instead it can look like a fun for them. 

Dornyei (2002) even emphasizes that students tend to like each other regardless of 

ethnic, cultural, class, or ability differences when working together. The differences 

are good to facilitate them to develop social relationship and friendship as they 

practice respecting and accepting the diversity among them. The communication 

difficulty as mentioned above will gradually diminish and fade and it will no longer 

be an obstacle for increasing students’ engagement in learning process. 

In brief, CLA has essential roles in elevating learning involvement of students. 

It provides more opportunities and it also saves time. Each student must have turns 

to demonstrate their speaking skills according to particular tasks or contexts. In 

addition, every individual is accountable and responsible to contribute to learning 

outcomes of groups which students belong to. Even though there are some challenges 

that may appear and interfere relationship among them, those challenges are still 

manageable for students. Instead, they can build stronger relationship regardless of 



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differences they have and their learning participation of English speaking activities 

significantly rises. 

 

Increasing Self-Confidence to Speak English 

The third benefit of CLA in improving students’ English-speaking skill is 

development of self-confidence and self-esteem. As mentioned above, students 

encourage one another in collaborative groups. “Such groups can increase learners’ 

psychological health by providing a nurturing environment” (Kohonen, 1992). 

Moreover, mitigating the language anxiety and increasing opportunities to practice, 

CLA gradually can develop students’ confidence in speaking English. This is 

because CLA provides social interactions that are necessary to shift students’ 

confidence as well as self-esteem (Kohonen, 1992). To be confident, one needs other 

people to shape it by intensively communicating ideas or feelings and confirming 

curiosities or interests (Dornyei, 2002). “Self-esteem and self-confidence are social 

products, which means that they are created by people around us”, (Dornyei, 2002, 

p.90). The more students interact with their peers using English, the more confident 

they will be to employ English as a medium of communication. This is in line with 

Anwar’s (2016, p.228) point of view that “self-confidence emerges by itself when 

the opportunity and the frequency of sharing and discussing have been 

accumulated”. Furthermore, CLA allows students to have experiences of success in 

learning. Dornyei (2002) believes that there is no better way for building self-

confidence than to generate sense of success. In CLA classrooms, sense of success 

is built by multiple efforts students do in attempting to speak English. As the 

language anxiety can be prevented and students’ participations are supported by 

CLA, students can feel braver to put an effort. Starting to try their performance, 

students will realize that they are better than they thought before. Once they can 

demonstrate a successful effort, they will stay motivated to improve their current 

abilities. Finally, their self-confidence can grow well due to sense of achievements. 

In addition, self-confidence can develop in CLA due to the involvements of 

four behaviors of confidence. Four behaviors that are considered as confidence are 

willingness to take risks, to confront problems, to raise questions, and to discuss 

difficult issues (Clark, & Gakuru, 2014). Being accountable and responsible in 

contributing to their groups, each learner is encouraged to face challenges of 

completing their parts. At the first effort, taking a part in group discussion looks like 

a burden for them because they are obliged to do so. The more they engage with 

group interaction, the more they get used to facing possible risks of group discussion. 

Furthermore, collaborative working improves sense of community where sympathy 



 
 
 

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among students emerges due to social support from one to another. “Without a 

feeling of community people are on their own, likely to be anxious, defensive and 

unwilling to take the risks involved in learning” (Wegerif, 1998, as cited in Van den 

Bossche et al., 2006, p. 551). Similarly, the behaviors of confronting problems, 

raising questions, discussing difficult issue are shaped through tasks completion 

done by students. Assigned a certain role in a group, individuals learn to face their 

own problems as a team. This situation can eliminate the threat of confronting a 

problem of the given tasks due to feeling of togetherness (Anwar, 2016). During 

group discussions, students can learn to ask their own questions to satisfy their 

curiosity and demonstrate their opinions of given issues (McDonell, 1992). In 

‘buying and selling in markets’ as an example, students can apply their English 

knowledge of not only asking prices but also bargaining prices of products. All in 

all, as four behaviors of confidence are shaped well in CLA environments, students 

can become more confident in speaking English. 

 

CONCLUSION 

In conclusion, this article has shown that CLA has significant benefits of 

improving students’ speaking skills of English. The first benefit is that language 

anxiety declines due to less threatening learning environments, cooperative 

behaviors and social supports generated by students. Another benefit is increasing 

students’ active engagements in the learning process. Students are encouraged to 

take a part of group discussions and they are accountable and responsible on their 

own roles in their groups. Moreover ‘feeling of solidarity’ and ‘comradely 

supportiveness’ can increase students’ willingness to participate actively in 

classroom process (Dornyei, 2002). The last benefit students can get from CLA in 

improving their speaking skills is the growing self-confidence to speak English. This 

is because CLA allows students to gain senses of achievements and develops four 

behaviors of confidence like taking risks, confronting problems, asking questions, 

and discussing difficult issues. Consequently, the implementation of CLA is really 

recommended to teach English speaking skill.  

In the future investigation, it is suggested to examine the influences of CLA 

on the other English skills such as listening, reading, and writing. Such research is 

very important to monitor developments of all skills in collaborative groups. Besides 

teachers also must provide various activities regarding CLA principles in order to 



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involve students’ participations in learning process. Such efforts are highly 

necessary to improve qualities of teaching English as foreign language in Indonesian 

contexts. Therefore, the better improvement of CLA can influence teaching and 

learning English in better ways. 

 

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