An Action Research Project: Designing Cooperative Learning Tasks In English Writing For Junior Middle School Students

This thesis mainly focuses on an action research: designing cooperative learning writing tasks for Junior Two students in Shunyi District, Beijing, China. First of all, the thesis describes the background of cooperative learning, which includes the rationale supporting cooperative learning; the definition and types of tasks and the characteristics of cooperative learning. Then it explores the significance of cooperative learning In this part, some main contributors to cooperative learning will be briefly introduced.Secondly it presents the identification of two problems: students have little or no interest in English writing and they do not have the interpersonal skills to learn from the teachers. And two research questions are listed.Thirdly, it describes the implementation of an action research on task-based teaching practice, which includes preliminary investigation about the students, planning actions of twelve weeks, and I design the tasks for each week, data collection through questionnaires, teaching log, and interviews with students.Fourthly, the results and analysis of the action research will be found in this part, which will be described weekly according to the twelve weeks action plan.Finally, through the action research on cooperative learning, it is concluded that cooperative learning can stimulate students' interest of English writing and can develop the students' interpersonal skills to learn from others, the limitation of theresearch is mentioned, too. And the questionnaire is to be found in the appendix.