Task-based Cooperative Learning And EFL Teaching For Art Students In Senior High Schools

Along with the development of society and the enlargement of enrollment scale of Higher Art Institutes, more and more art students in senior high schools are admitted to colleges and universities through the College Entrance Examination.As is well known, art students in senior high schools spend more time and energy in practicing the skills of drawing and singing and do not take their academic studies and the acquirement of knowledge seriously. What is worse, for various reasons, it is usually rather difficult for them to keep working hard at English. However, as international communication is becoming more frequent, English is regarded as the working language by most international meetings and trade activities, English knowledge becomes a must for further education. As English teachers, in view of their characteristics of cognition and foundation, we are responsible for the improvement of these students'English learning so as to meet the demands for their further development in the future.In terms of the Chinese learning custom and context, facing the art students'poor English, the idea of teacher-centeredness is popular with English teachers and the students gradually foster dependent spoon-fed habit in learning and lose interest in English class. Thus, although the teacher spares no efforts to make the students to acquire more in class, the result is far from satisfactory. Therefore, it is urgent to reform the teacher-centered English teaching method for the art students in senior high schools. This research intends to apply the task-based cooperative learning to English teaching of art students in senior schools. By adopting task-based cooperative learning in EFL Teaching, whose advantages have been proved by many linguists and educators, we hope to change the teacher-centered class into the students-centered class so as to arouse their interest in English so that we can train our students to be capable individuals, who can work and cooperate with others successfully. This experimental research applies the tasked-based cooperative learning to the art students in Senior three who will soon take the college entrance examination. So it is hoped that task-basked cooperative learning can offer a free, harmonious and interdependent climate for English learning, which will better their various abilities such as cooperation, communication and creation, aside from relieving their anxiety from the coming college entrance examination.According to Krashen's Input Hypothesis and Filter Hypothesis, Swain's Output Hypothesis, interaction hypothesis, and Social Interdependence Theory, this dissertation carries out an experimental study of task-based cooperative learning in English teaching in the form of pair work, group work as well as cooperation between the teacher and students on the art students in Senior Three from Wulian No. 3 Middle School in Rizhao. The experiment lasts for about three months. The research attempts to improve the subjects'abilities of English-learning, cooperation, communication and so on. It begins with a pretest for 60 subjects from two classes after a questionnaire is made on their motivation of English learning and preference of cooperation and the equivalent groups are randomly assigned as the control group and the experimental group. After the experiment, another questionnaire is made to know about the student's opinions of the new teaching method. The primary research hypotheses are:1) Task-based cooperative learning is more effective than the teacher-centered teaching method in improving the abilities of the students'English learning and easing their pressure for the coming college entrance examination. 2) The progress of the experimental group in English learning is gained and the higher total average score of the first English examination for the coming college entrance examination can be received. The experimental instruments are questionnaires, teaching practice and English proficiency tests. EXCEL is used to analyze the collected data.Based on the experiment and the data analysis, the following findings are arrived at: 1) The experimental group's total abilities of English learning, motivation of cooperation and responsibility are improved by task-based cooperative learning 2) The experimental group's test scores have not been greatly improved compared with their developed abilities after three months'experiment.It has been proved that the task-based cooperative learning can arouse the students'interest in English and develop the subjects'ability of English learning, self-confidence and good relationship between the teacher and the students. At the same time, the cooperative classroom atmosphere inspires their intrinsic motivation and lessens their pressure for the coming college entrance examination. However, owing to three months'limited experimental time and lack of penetrating research and study, the subjects have not improved their English level greatly. Thus, the application of task-based cooperative learning to senior art student English teaching requires more attention and further research.