Application Of Cooperative Learning To English Writing Teaching For Secondary Specialized Shool Students

Researches on cooperative learning began in the 1970s in America. Many scholars both at home and abroad, with Johnson brothers, Slavin, and Wang Tan as the main representatives, have conducted numerous studies on theory and practice of cooperative learning. With their efforts and promotion, cooperative learning has developed into a creative and effective teaching theory and strategic system. Since the combination of cooperative learning and education, cooperative learning has been applied to many subjects and areas, such as mathematics, science, and second language learning etc. However, there are just a very limited number of studies on application of cooperative learning to English writing. Most of these scanty studies focus on students in college and middle school. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to explore how to apply cooperative learning in English writing class for secondary specialized school students and what the effects of cooperative learning are on English writing teaching for those students. The author chose two classes from Teachers Education College of Ningbo University as the subjects, with 50 students in each class. One class was randomly selected as the experimental group, while the other as the control group. In the English writing class of the experimental group, the author carried out cooperative writing approach. For the control group, traditional product-oriented teaching approach was used. According to the principle of five basic elements for cooperative learning proposed by Johnson brothers, the author adopted different forms of cooperative writing in the experimental group, such as group discussion, Writing Together, Relay Writing, Group Investigation and peer-reviewing, etc. The experiment lasted for one term from the early of March, 2008 to the middle of June, 2008. By adopting the methods of literature review, questionnaires, and interviews, and through conducting the pre-test and the post-test to the subjects, the following three aspects about the effects of cooperative learning on English writing teaching were investigated:1. Can cooperative learning improve students'writing achievements?2. What are the effects of cooperative writing approach on students'non-cognitive factors?3. What are students'attitudes towards cooperative writing approach?The results of the experiment indicated that cooperative learning could improve students'writing achievements. Three features of a composition: language, content and organization were analyzed. There were significant differences between the experimental group and the control group in the post-test in terms of the language feature of writing. However, there was no great significant difference in the other two features of the writings of the two groups. In addition, cooperative learning motivated students'interests in writing, improved their writing strategies, and increased their confidence in English writing. Besides, most students held a positive attitude towards cooperative learning. They were willing to participate in cooperative writing activities and they believed that it was beneficial to their English study. Despite that, the author still found some problems from the students'interviews, such as discipline problem,"free riders"phenomenon, and some students'over-dependence on mother tongue, etc. At last, the author proposed several measures to deal with these problems with a view to providing aid for the future experiments.