A Study On Cooperative Learning For Large-class English Teaching

The passivity of the students and the dominance of the teachers constitute enormous obstacles for students'practice and use of language in communicative contexts. And the increasing enrollment from 1999 in China pushed EFL teaching confront with new challenges: the inexorable trend of large-class English teaching in many universities. Language teaching is more advantageous in small classes is a well-known fact. The class is better to be small enough for students to have chances to practice what they have learned. Yet sometimes things do not happen as we wish. The difficulty of managing a large-size class is widely acknowledged. This research started with the basic assumption that classes on many universities in China are not likely to be reduced in size in the foreseeable future. Hence, solutions have to be realistic within the limited constraints of the present teaching-learning situation.Cooperative learning is a theoretic and strategic approach applied by many countries in the world in the past three decades. Many researches have proved that it is a creative and effective teaching approach. There has been a growing consensus among researchers about the positive effects of cooperative learning on student achievements as well as social affective aspects.To deal with the problems raised above and improve the efficiency of English teaching so as to help students make improvement in English learning proficiency, the author, from the point of view of a foreign language teacher, proposes cooperative learning method and carries out a series of tentative experiments in the classes she teaches. Based on the literary review at home and abroad, the author thinks that the application of this teaching approach can change the traditional ways of English teaching, which pays too much attention to the explanation of grammar and vocabulary, and develop students'competence of language use.The purpose of this thesis is to explore the influence of cooperative learning on students in large class. The participants in this research project are students in two first-year classes of Business School at Shandong Institute of Light Industry majoring in accountancy and market sell. They all major in international trade. There are seventy-three students in Class One and seventy-two in Class Two. Class One is treated as experimental class and Class Two is control class. The experimental class is given treatment, namely, using the cooperative learning theory in English teaching while the control class is taught in traditional methods. In the spring term of 2006, quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis were conducted in English class by means of questionnaires, interview and tests.With the help of the statistical software SPSS 12.0 for windows, the analyses of the data indicate that: cooperative learning leads to common progress, higher academic achievement, better communication skills, increased motivation toward learning, higher self-esteem and self-confidence. Cooperative learning activities can increase the opportunities to intake comprehensible input and produce functional output in a supportive and communicative environment, thus making language learning step forward.However, as a result of the longstanding traditional teaching, the immature implementation of cooperative learning and the special sample under study, various problems also turn out, including relatively small test sample, limitation of time, their poor spoken English and different English level.