Cooperative Learning Activities In Non-English Majors' Oral English Class: Constraints And Solutions

In response to the college English curriculum reform, many colleges and universities have set up the oral English classes for non-English majors. Facing with this new challenge, many college English teachers have turned to the strategy of cooperative learning which is considered practical and powerful. Its application value has been verified by many educators and researchers. Meanwhile, some of the constraints also arose much attention.Since most of the studies on constraints and solutions of cooperative learning have been done in the traditional English classes (reading and writing are focused), this paper aims at finding out some constraints in oral English class from the teacher's aspect.This paper first verifies some of suggestions come from other researchers and then investigates some constraints of cooperative learning activities on the teacher's part by means of conducting classroom practices and questionnaire. Facts regarding the survey have shown that teacher's designing and setting of task, giving instruction, making assessment and training students'communicative and cooperative skills seem to be four important factors which contribute to the success or failure of cooperative learning activities in oral class. There is an urgent need for the teachers to reflect on themselves about these four aspects. Meanwhile, this study also provides some corresponding solutions. Such as, the teacher should take account of learner factors in deciding the tasks'level, and start with easy-to-do activities. Besides, short, brief and easy-to-know instructions are suggested to be given step by step according to different processes of classroom practice. In addition, the teacher should make assessment on both individual's work and the group's performance. What's more, it's also important for the teacher to train students explicitly in cooperative skills and communicative skills.The practice of cooperative learning activities in non-English majors'oral class is still new in the teaching field; so much attention should be attached to both of its strong points and weak ones.