Application Of Cooperative Learning To The English Reading Class In Senior High School

English reading, as one of the four skills of a language learning, plays an important role in the English learning. The traditional English reading teaching is dominated by a teacher-centered, examination-oriented, grammar and vocabulary-based method. Knowledge of English is transmitted through the instructor who acts as an authority, a knowledge-giver and moral example to students, who are simply silent passive knowledge receivers. Therefore it is natural to see students cannot read fluently even after having learned English for several years. It is the same with the author's students. Though they have finished the junior English learning and passed onto the senior study, their English reading competence is far from the requirements put forward by the Standards of English Curriculum.There is a great need to reflect on the teaching methods in the English reading class and make some changes. Among various teaching approaches, cooperative learning is quite practical. Cooperative learning, a form of collaboration, is "working together to accomplish shared goals" (Johnson & Johnson, 1989). For one thing, the Standards of English Curriculum advocates the cooperative spirits among students and task-based teaching, of which cooperative learning is one important part; also students have a great disparity in English reading level, which establishes the condition for them to "work together" for the "shared goals". Besides, cooperative learning affords students enormous advantages not available from the traditional instruction because learning groups can accomplish meaningful learning and solve problems better than any individual can alone. Taking these factors into account, the author applied cooperative learning to the English reading class in Class 5, Senior Grade One of No. 12 Middle School in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province from September, 2005 to April, 2006.This paper consists of six parts. Chapter One is the introduction which introduces the purpose and significance of the application as well as the present situation of English reading teaching. Chapter Two offers the theoretical basis of the application of cooperative learning to English reading class, which includes two parts. The first part reviews the definition, the history development, the key elements and techniques...