The Impact of Student Teams Achievement Divisions Technique on Boosting Descriptive Writing Ability of Iranian EFL learners

Since students are required to prepare their papers in well-organized written works, it is important for academic learners to have a good command of writing skill. One of the methods gaining a reputation in enhancing students’ performance in language teaching is cooperative learning. This study intends to examine the effect of one of the CL techniques on enhancing upper-intermediate EFL learners’ descriptive writing ability. Fifty participants of this study were assigned into two groups. First, Nelson general proficiency test was administered to make sure both are homogeneous in terms of general proficiency. Then, a writing pre-test was given to both groups to examine if they possess the same writing proficiency. Analysis of both Nelson and writing pre-test showed that both groups were at the same level at first. The experimental group received treatment using Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) as a cooperative learning technique while the routine teaching method was implemented to the control group. After carrying out the treatments for 16 sessions, the writing post-test was given to both groups. The results rejected the first null hypothesis and showed STAD was efficient in increasing students' writing ability. The second null hypothesis was supported since the p value for this test was 0.74 and higher than 0.05 meaning males and females were similar in their performance. This study has implications on teaching and learning descriptive writing. This study also indicates that STAD is an effective alternative method and can be utilized by teachers to enhance the mastery of writing skill.