Group Learning And Cooperative Learning In English Language Teaching

With the determination to popularize the higher education among the common people, China has been broadening the recruitment in the institutions of higher education since 1999 to meet the need of globalization. As a result, the class size in vocational college English teaching becomes larger and larger. The lack of student involvement in the English classroom of China's educational institutions has been a widely acknowledged problem to a great many Chinese teachers of English. Students are used to listening to the teachers without bringing their initiative into full play while teachers are accustomed to be the center of attention in the classroom. The passivity of the students and the dominance of the teachers constitute enormous obstacles for students'practice and use of language in communicative contexts. The purpose of English teaching in college is the cultivation of students'communicative competence as well as the ability to use English teaching, so the methods of teacher-centeredness are inadequate in large-class English language teaching, resulting in such problems as the students'passive learning attitude, the difficulty in giving and receiving feedback in time, the less oral practicing time. To activate students in the classroom, many teachers have tried various approaches. However, the skills they use are too fragmental to be popularized among the teachers. A systematic approach to enhance students'involvement is still in urgent need. For the English teachers facing such challenges, it is desirable to attempt the approach of student-centered cooperative learning in place of the traditional teacher-centered English language teaching.The thesis is based on the theory of cooperative learning covering constructivism theory,theory of ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development )and theory of multiple intelligences. The experimental research tried to integrate group cooperative learning with English teaching. Each of the heterogeneous group members is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn. They work together to reach a common goal.The paper first describes present situation of college English teaching, then puts forward the questions and purpose of the research. Based on theories of motivation, cognition and etc., the author of the thesis advocates that cooperative learning is applicable in the area of language teaching and learning. In addition, an 18-week experimental research was carried out. The 115 subjects from non-English majors were involved in Shandong institute of commercial and technology. Through the analysis of the statistics from pretest, questionnaires, observations, posttest and interview, the author got the following findings:1. Cooperative learning is effective in stimulating students'interest and enthusiasm for studying and can expand the students'horizon and inspire creative studying for the students, fasten the students'studying speed and thus has a positive effect on students'studying proficiency.2. Learners'self confidence in English is greatly improved through cooperative learning. The anxiety of English study becomes less, furthermore accelerate English teaching.3. The findings indicate that cooperative learning is popular in college and classroom atmosphere of experimental group turns more comfortable and active. Learners in experimental group tend to be more autonomous.The result of basic statistic analysis shows that cooperative learning is feasible in the teaching environment of china. Finally, some general implications are concluded and suggestions for further studies are put forward.In short, both theory and practice show that cooperative learning is an effective teaching approach. As long as it is utilized properly, much better teaching effects can be attained.