The Effect of Jigsaw Technique on the Learners’ Reading Achievement: The Case of English as L2

Cooperative approach presents an example of an “innovative approach” (Ellis, 2003) that constitutes a paradigm shift in the area of language teaching. Instructors, principals and administrators continue to search for effective and reliable instructional strategies. The present study attempted to provide a comprehensive examination of the effects off the jigsaw teaching method on the success of Iranian EFL learners in terms of their reading comprehension achievement.To this end, 38 participants were exposed to the jigsaw instruction. In the experimental class the students were divided into groups which all had their own reading topic to study. After reading, each home group was split in such a manner that new groups had a single member from each of the old home groups. After the new groups had been assembled, each student in the expert group was responsible for integrating the knowledge of his/her topic into the understanding of the new group he/she was in. After gathering the required data, the results of a paired-samples T-test showed that the students’ post-test reading scores improved significantly (P= 0.000) when compared with their pre-test scores. Implications for teachers and materials developers are suggested.