| College English is an important basic course of higher education in China. Since 2002, College English teaching reform was made as one part of"The project for higher education teaching reform and quality control"by the Ministry of Education, its teaching effects received widely concern.In the College English Curriculum Requirements, it writes: The new model should combine the principles of practicality, knowledge and interest, facilitate mobilizing the initiative of both teachers and students, and attach particular importance to the central position of students and the leading role of teachers in the teaching and learning process. It also says:Changes in the teaching model by no means call for changes in teaching methods and approaches only, but, more important, consist of changes in teaching philosophy and practice, and in a shift from a teacher-centered pattern, in which knowledge of the language and skills are imparted by the teacher in class only, to a student-centered pattern, in which the ability to use the language and the ability to learn independently are cultivated in addition to language knowledge and skills, also to lifelong education, geared towards cultivating students'lifelong learning ability.However, with the enrollment expansion in China's universities, the problem of inadequate facilities and insufficient teaching resources are getting more serious, which leads to such a larger class-size as"three-in-one","four-in-one". The"teacher-centered"teaching pattern meets up with the severe challenge. The teaching reform is undergoing everywhere.As the demonstration site of College English Teaching Reform, Hebei University of Science and Technology combine small-size listening class with large-size reading class together under the integrated environment, which is, holding big without releasing small, and have made a big progress. But as a college teacher who has taught for about 22 years, the author feels that the teaching effects in the large reading class are still unsatisfactory compared with the colorful and active listening class. After several years'trials and errors, the author finds that Cooperative Learning is an effective teaching strategy.Based on a review of Target Structure Theory, Cognitive Development theory and Krashen Hypothesis, this research attempts to investigate the effectiveness of CL for students'achievements; to coordinate the differing needs of the students, to examine the students'attitudes towards Cooperative Learning and the main factors affecting its implementation and especially to verify that Cooperative Learning is the effective teaching model and evaluation model in a large class.The experiment involves two classes: experimental class, which applies the CL approach and control class, which uses the traditional approach. During the 16 weeks, the author conducted her study by explaining the concept and methods of CL, dividing study group, assigning task, making group rules and establishing evaluation standard in the experimental class. Then, with the help of SPSS 13.0, by analyzing the scores obtained in the pretest and posttest, the author finds out that CL promotes language proficiency and achievement in final exam; by analyzing the feedback from the questionnaire, class observation and interview, the author concludes that CL is accepted and welcome by most of the students.From the above, it is concluded that CL is an effective teaching approach in a large reading class under the integrated teaching environment. It can provide more chances to student-teacher's interaction, stick out the students'position, cultivate their awareness of participating in the activities actively and motivate their interests in learning English, so that it will reach the aim of improving the teaching effects and students'comprehensive ability to use English in a well-rounded way. The result would also benefit the teachers in and out of the universities.In the end, the limitations of the study and some suggestions to the future study are mentioned. |
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