Cooperative Learning In English Reading Class Of Vocational School

Vocational education is an important part of Chinese educational system, and English in vocational school is a required course which possesses feature of practical and professional. However, the interactions among students during the class are relatively few in traditional teaching method. It is not easy for teachers to improve students’reading efficiency and arouse their reading interest.In the end of1970s, cooperative learning became popular in America and researchers proved cooperative learning possessed apparent advantages in improving students’cognitive and non-intelligence competence. It can meet students’needs and help them achieve better results than learning alone or competition can do. Cooperative learning is so successful that it is considered to be one of the greatest educational reforms. The Decision on Reformation and Development of Fundamental Education stated we should "encourage teacher to conduct cooperative learning, promote the communication among students, and learn from teaching"In order to improve the present situation of dull classroom and low interest in English reading class, the author conducted a research of CL in Beijing Vocational College of Transportation from September to December,2011. The research contains three hypotheses:(1) students in experimental class can utilize reading skills more frequently than those in control class;(2) cooperative learning teaching method can bring positive effect to students’reading attitude and reading interest:(3) the reading efficiency of students in cooperative learning class can improve more than that of students in traditional class.After one semester’s implementation of cooperative learning, the author collected the data and compared the mean score of pretest and posttest in both experimental class and control class. Individual sample T test was utilized to see if there were significant differences between the results of the two classes. At the same time, questionnaires about reading skills and reading attitude were also analyzed. The results showed that the teaching effect, which included students’reading efficiency, reading skills and reading interest, of CL method was much better than that of traditional method. The relaxed and lively learning atmosphere of CL class is beneficial to students, hence to apply cooperative learning in English reading class is feasible and it can produce better results. In the end of the thesis, the author put forward the limitations of the research and gave some advices for further study.