The thesis discusses some difficulties involved in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Japanese universities and proposes cooperative learning techniques as a partial solution to these problems. This recommendation is supported by a selective review of the literature on group work in second language teaching and research on the negotiation of meaning in second language acquisition. Results of a study conducted in a Japanese university show that cooperative learning groups outperformed individual learners on many measures and performed equally well on others. The thesis concludes with specific recommendations for the use of cooperative learning techniques in EFL classrooms in Japan. (Author/KM)