On Developing Senior Middle School Students' Positive Affect In English Learning Through Cooperative Learning

Scholars have discovered that affective factors can play a significant role in learning process since development of humanism in the 1960s. Humanism emphasizes the importance of whole-person development, including both cognitive development and affective development. In this sense, it's necessary to pay attention to both cognitive factors and affective factors in teaching and learning process. On the basis of these findings, many foreign language researchers have discovered that affective factors can play a critical role in foreign language learning and teaching. Attention to affective factors can improve language learning and teaching. However, the influence of traditional educational conception that the development of cognitive skills is our sole educational goal determines that we just pay attention to the cultivation of cognitive skills and neglect the development of affective factors in English learning and teaching process, which makes students feel "indifferent", "bored" and even "non-cooperative", and it can result in low efficiency. On the other hand, we have big classes in middle schools and the single English instruction pattern fails to meet the different levels of students in English, and many real linguistic activities cannot be carried out flexibly. What's more, in this kind of teacher-centered classes, students have fewer opportunities to interact with others, which restricts their learning practice Without question, this way of instruction only discourages many students in English learning and easily makes the students feel bored and causes low efficiency. So, the question is what kind of action we can take to develop learners' positive affective factors. In recent researches abroad, Cooperative Learning (CL) is gaining much attention. Cooperative learning refers to a system of teaching and learning strategies which take small groups as the basic form of the classroom structure, requiring interaction among group members engaged in tasks in which all members have both something to contribute to and learn from other members. Researches on cooperative learning state that CL has its contributions to improving the overall climate of the classroom and its potential for providing supportive and expanded opportunities for learners to use the language. That is, CL creates a more positive affective climate in the classroom. To be more specific, it is of great importance in reducing anxiety, promoting interaction, strengthening motivation, increasing self-confidence and self-esteem and providing comprehensible input and output, etc(Arnord, 2000).Considering the importance of affective factors in English language learning and the positive benefits of cooperative learning, this thesis proposes that we should make full use of cooperative learning to develop learners' positive affective factors in middle school English teaching so that the learning process can be greatly facilitated. In a deeper sense, cooperative learning incorporates the balanced goal of developing learners affectively, cognitively and psychologically in foreign language learning and teaching, and therefore, it facilitates the holistic development of a person. This is in accordance with the quality education that is going on in our country. This thesis introduces how to incorporate cooperative learning into senior middle school classrooms to improve positive affective factors so that effective results may be achieved, the author also makes use of a survey to prove the benefits of CL to learners' positive affect.This thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter One briefly introduces the relevant researches on affect in language learning and Cooperative Learning, then the author introduces the role that cooperative learning plays in developing learners' positive affective factors in English learning process. Cooperative learning can increase motivation, form positive attitude, increase self-esteem and reduce anxiety. Chapter Two discusses the theoretical background. Chapter Three discusses the approaches of implementation of cooperative learning in senior middle school English class in detail, and the author presents four teaching examples to show how she develops students' positive affect through cooperative learning. Chapter Four makes use of a survey to prove that cooperative learning can develop some positive affective factors. Finally, the author summarizes the major findings of the research, the implication of the research, limitations of the present research and suggestions for the further research.