An Investigation into the Effectiveness of the Cornell Note-taking Method on the Students’ Retrieval of Information The case of the third year undergraduate students at Mohamed El Bachir El Ibrahimi University

Abstract

he purpose of the current study is to investigate how well English Foreign Language (EFL) learners can retrieve knowledge using the Cornell note taking method. A quasiexperimental study was undertaken on a sample of 20 third-year EFL students at Mohamed El-Bachir Ibrahimi University. A total of ten individuals from each group were divided into the experimental and control groups. The control group was instructed to continue taking notes using their usual method, whereas the experimental group was instructed to use the Cornell method during their Literary Text Study lectures. They were thus maintained without manipulation. To ascertain the students’ level of understanding of note taking and the Cornell system, a pre- and post-closed- ended questionnaire were used, along with three achievement tests to evaluatetheir retrieval of information, during the manipulation and after it. The acquired data were statistically analyzed with the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Finally, the research findings revealed that employing the Cornell note-taking method improved students’ recall of information.