Investigating the Effectiveness of Peer Teaching / Learning in Language Classrooms

Abstract

In language teaching, many techniques have been used by teachers for many years to make learning effective and interesting. Peer teaching is one of those teaching techniques adopted by teachers to foster a better learning environment. This study aims at finding out the effectiveness of peer learning and teaching both from the perspectives of peer-teacher and peer-tutee at the tertiary level of Bangladesh. Students were involved in taking classes of their classmates and later their opinion was collected through survey questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion. The participants appreciated peer teaching in language learning and they also reported improving many social skills along with better learning of the subject matter. The study concludes with the remark that peer teaching is an effective method of teaching language at the tertiary level and it should be applied extensively in the classroom by teachers.