A Study On Cooperative Learning In English Class In Junior Schools

The world is progressing. English teaching in middle schools is facing new challenges and opportunities. The crux is the enhancement of the English teaching efficiency. National Standards of English Curriculum (Experimental Edition) explicitly indicates: the focus of reform of English course is to change the situation of putting much more emphasis on grammar and lexical explanations, and of the tendency of overlooking learners' language performance on actual occasions. The reform advocates experience, practice, participation, collaborative and communicative learning style and task-oriented approach based on learners' interests, life experience and cognitive level, aiming at developing learners' comprehensive abilities. Cooperative learning, as a theoretic and strategic system, is applied by many countries in the world. Many researches have shown that cooperative learning is a creative and effective teaching approach. There has been a growing consensus among researchers about the positive effects of cooperative learning on student achievements as well as social affective aspects.This paper is guided by the teaching thoughts above. Based on the literature review at home and abroad and New National Standard for English Curriculum, the author thinks that the application of this teaching approach can change the traditional ways of English teaching, which pays too much attention to the explanation of grammar and vocabulary; and develop students' ability to use language. The method, based on students' learning interest, life experience and their cognitive levels, creates more opportunities of practice, involvement, cooperation and communication for students, develops their positive affection, facilitates their active thinking and practice, and improves their autonomous learning. The paper tries to combine theory with practice, and not only delves into the concept of collaborative learning and its application on English instructional design for Junior school, but also makes predictable, applicable systematic design and arrangement on the structure and instructional stages of collaborative classroom English instruction in middle school.This paper proposes a feasible model of cooperative learning in classroom instruction. The paper will give some enlightenment for English teachers. According the experiment, the paper draws a conclusion that cooperative learning is an effective teaching method in English classroom teaching in middle schools.