An Empirical Study In Vocational College English Teaching:the Integrated Application Of Formative Assessment And Cooperative Learning

An effective teaching method and perfect evaluation system is an indispensable part of the teaching program. The proper application of cooperative learning can improve the classroom atmosphere, greatly enhance the students’learning interest, and cultivate the students’innovation abilities and spirits of teamwork. Formative assessment is designed to get the timely and effective feedback in the process of teaching activities to obtain a better teaching effect.The purpose of this thesis is to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of the integrated application of cooperative learning and formative assessment in college English classroom teaching. Within one-semester duration of action practice of cooperative learning and formative assessment, an empirical study has been conducted on168non-English major freshmen in Wuchang Polytechnic College. The168students are divided into experimental group and control group based on the scores of pre-test, and the experimental group receives intervention of the integrated application of cooperative learning and formative assessment. Through questionnaire surveys, interviews, observations in class, quizzes, the group cooperation practice, and the setup of individual and groups’portfolios, the data are collected, the analysis and comparison of the experimental group and the control group are made to explore the influence of the integrated application of cooperative learning and formative assessment in terms of learning interests, strategies, motivations, attitudes and effects. The results show that the integrated application of cooperative learning and formative assessment has greatly improved the students’learning interests and academic achievements, facilitate students to form active attitude towards English learning, however, there is no significant change in students’learning strategies and motivation. Therefore, the integrated application of cooperative learning and formative assessment is workable in vocational college English teaching, and the assisted use of formative assessment in group learning activities can not only greatly enrich the means of English teaching evaluation, but also make problems existed in the process of cooperative learning and the improved direction clear, timely modify or adjust the activities in order to get better learning effects.