The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning In College English Teaching

The thesis is related to an empirical research examining the effectiveness ofcooperative learning (CL) in college English teaching. The participants in thisresearch were 60 freshmen of non-English majors who were admitted into Academyof Armored Forces Engineering (AAFE) in 2005. After they entered the university,they were placed through the placement test, and divided into two classes according totheir scores. One, altogether 30 students, took in the project as the experimental group,which was exposed to CL approach and the other 30, as the control group, receivedtraditional teacher-fronted instruction. Two hypotheses were addressed in thiscontrastive research: (1) Students with CL would make greater progress in English. (2)The atmosphere in the experimental class would be more enjoyable and relaxing withsuch affective variables as motivation, interests, and self-esteem greatly enhanced.Through the analysis on tests scores, questionnaires, classroom observations, andinterviews, the research indicated that, after a 15-week experiment, the students withCL made greater progress in English, especially in listening, speaking, and writing.Meanwhile, CL created more relaxing atmosphere for students, in which theirinterests and confidence were improved considerably. Finally, the thesis arrives at aconclusion on the basis of the research that CL is an effective approach in collegeEnglish teaching in Chinese context. However, in the process of carrying out CL inforeign language teaching (FLT), some challenges and problems arising from theapplication need to be further considered and resolved.In addition, the researcher has discussed the limitations of the research and putforward suggestions for further study.