Astudy Of Cooperative Learning In Senior High School English Teaching In The Context Of The New Curriculum Reform

With the new curriculum reform, cooperative learning is gaining more and more popularity in the senior high school English teaching. It is also required formally in New Curriculum Standards of Middle School English (2003) that teachers should guide students to do various cooperative learning activities in and after school. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning. Class members are organized into small groups after receiving instruction from the teacher. The group members negotiate and achieve the goal together. The teacher assesses the achievements gained by the whole group.This thesis mainly does an elementary research on cooperative learning in Dalian 48 Senior High School. The research questions are: 1.How is cooperative learning applied in the senior high school according to the New Curriculum Reform? 2. Can cooperative learning help increase the students'academic score in Senior High school? 3. Can cooperative learning arouse students'study interest and promote their emotional development?This thesis explores the current English teaching situation in China and its related problems, analyzes the significance of cooperative learning and discusses cooperative learning instructional issues. After the five-month experiment, the author analyzes the results which reveal the implement of cooperative learning in teaching. It turns out that cooperative learning is significantly more effective than traditional teaching and the English academic score in the experimental class is a little higher than that in the control class. In cooperative learning, they work together to set aims, make plans, collect information and present their opinions. It helps develop students'problem-solving strategies and cooperative skills, improve students'language competence and build their excellent characteristics such as activeness, respect, cooperation and communication. Students have more interest in study and their emotion is greatly developed. However, problems in conducting co-operative learning cannot be ignored as well. They are, for instance, students lack proper knowledge and skills of cooperative learning. Solutions to the problems are also discussed in this thesis.However, there are still some limitations which need more research to solve. Firstly, the subjects from the students in Grade Two in the author's school which are limited to only 96 students. It may not represent all Chinese Senior High School students. Secondly, the test just lasted 5 months. Therefore the result of the study is far from conclusive and further research investigation is needed.Nonetheless, the author hopes the study will throw light on the exploration of cooperative learning in Senior High school English teaching and be of great help to most English teachers and researchers in China.