On Application Of Cooperative Learning To English Writing In Junior Middle School

The Curriculum Reform of Basic Education initiated in 2001 emphasizes the cultivation of students'cooperative and communicative abilities. The English Curriculum Standards are also set to guide English teaching across the country. This new standard advocates the task-based teaching and learning pattern,and encourages students to achieve their goals and feel their success through perception,experience,practice, participation and cooperation under the guidance of teachers. As a result,cooperative learning is now widely applied in middle schools.For junior middle school students, English writing is the most difficult skill to master of all the English skills.At the same time, it is the most difficult for teachers to teach. English writing has been a weak point in my school all the time.After studying the theory of "cooperative learning" both at home and abroad, Curriculum Reform of Basic Education(2001) and the new English Curriculum Standards, the writer of this paper discusses systematically in five parts about how to apply cooperative learning to English writing in a junior middle school located in Changshu, Jiangsu Province.In the light of the cooperative learning theory, the paper explores the characteristics of cooperative learning and elaborates on the meaning, the value, the principles, the operation, and the patterns of cooperative learning.Also, the writer advances a case study with regard to the cooperative learning used in English writing in Grade Seven.The writer made experiments in two classes of Grade Seven for one school year. Through the analyses of the results of the tests and questionnaires for 80 subjects, the paper finally concludes that cooperative learning is effective in English writing.