A Study On The Efficiency Of Cooperative Learning In Extensive Reading Class

Reading is an important way for obtaining information and understanding Britain and American culture, as well as a main way to consolidate and enlarge English knowledge. Extensive reading teaching has been given priority in foreign language teaching. However, as one of the basic skills of foreign language learning, extensive reading is considered as the most difficult part to be grasped. In view of the current circumstance of extensive reading, based on the cooperative learning method, this thesis pays much attention to the necessity and possibility of improving reading proficiency.The efficiency of cooperative learning method has already been proved in many fields, such as mathematics, biology and Chinese reading etc. Cooperative learning emphasizes that the classroom should be"student-centered". It highlights students'self-direction, individual development, intrinsic motivation and consciousness of cooperation. This can solve the problems in traditional extensive reading class where the students and the teacher are lack of communication and interaction. It is the expected innovation of this thesis. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the influence of cooperative learning on students'extensive reading learning. The research questions are as follows: 1. Whether cooperative learning can enhance students'motivation and interest in extensive reading learning and will the teacher's role and peers relationship be changed through cooperative learning? 2. Whether cooperative learning can be effective in enhancing students'reading comprehension competence?This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the current situation of extensive reading teaching in China and the necessity of the research. The outline of the whole thesis is also provided in chapter one.Chapter Two firstly offers literature review respectively that provides theoretical support and previous research fruits for the cooperative learning and extensive reading teaching. Then the author compares the two rationales before she combined the two.Chapter Three gives a detailed description of the design of the whole experiment, which makes up the bulk of the thesis. This study adopts a mixed approach involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods. During the experiment the author selects two classes of Business English majors from Beihua University, among which one serves as the experimental class, the other as the control class. In the experimental class cooperative learning model is adopted. Various forms of data were collected through tests, interview and questionnaires. T-test and related analysis on the data were conducted by using SPSS software, a commonly used tool for managing, analyzing, and displaying data.Chapter Four reports the research findings and provides further interpretation and discussion. The author illustrates respectively from such perspectives as: the efficiency of cooperative learning on students'motivation, interest and learner autonomy; the efficiency on teacher's role and peers relationship; the efficiency on students'reading comprehension competence. Meanwhile, the author points out the limitation of this study and provides suggestions for further research.Chapter Five ends the whole thesis with conclusion of the hypothesis and research findings. The major two conclusions drawn from this research are: 1. By adopting cooperative learning in extensive reading class, the motivation and learner autonomy of students are promoted. In addition, the teacher's role and peers relationship have been changed as well. 2. Cooperative learning is effective on enhancing students'reading ability. At the end of the thesis, theoretical and pedagogical implications of this study are discussed.