On The Application Of Cooperative Learning In English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

Vocabulary is the basic material of language. It is vital for students to master a largevocabulary to improve their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Vocabularyteaching plays a very important part in English teaching in senior middle school. SeniorEnglish New Curriculum Standard demands students have a larger vocabulary. However, dueto a lack of appropriate educational theories, most teachers teach vocabulary in a traditionalway, which mainly focuses on the explanation of words. The traditional way of vocabularyteaching is dull and teacher-centered, thus neglecting the participation and interaction ofstudents. It has made the students lose the interest and develop a negative attitude towardsEnglish learning, thus limiting the improvement of their English. Even though there are lots ofresearches on the vocabulary teaching, they mainly focus on the teaching strategies andapproachesThe researches from home and abroad have shown that cooperative learning is one of thecreative and effective learning theories. Cooperative learning, considered as one of the newlearning methods advocated by the national curriculum reform of basic education, helps createa better atmosphere of study, improves students’grades and develop their cooperatingawareness. Though researches on the cooperative theory are sufficient, they are mainly donein primary or junior middle schools, while few are in senior middle schools. Most researchesare done in reading and writing, few of which are done in vocabulary in English.First, the paper introduces the current research at home and abroad of cooperativelearning and vocabulary teaching. Second, the paper demonstrates the theory basis of theresearch. Third, it explores the application of cooperative learning in vocabulary through theexperiment and questionnaires. And then analyze the data collected. Finally, it draws aconclusion and makes suggestions.The paper based on experiments and questionnaires aims to prove cooperative learningtheory can be very acceptable and effective in vocabulary teaching in senior middle school.The experiment was carried out in class 11 and class 12 in No.1 middle school, both of whichhave the same teacher and English level. Class 11 is the experimental class, in which thecooperative learning was applied and class 12 is the control class still using the traditionalway to teach vocabulary. The experiment lasted 4 months. After the experiment,questionnaires and interviews were carried out to learn about the effects on student’s attitudesand cooperating awareness.. The author offered the pre-test to both classes at the beginning of the research to makesure they have the same level of English. 4 months later, the author tested them on the effectof their learning. The results have shown that students in the experimental class who learncooperatively do better than those who learn vocabulary in a traditional way. The results ofthe questionnaires and interviews have shown that cooperative learning not only improvestheir vocabulary in pronunciations, spelling and usages, but also arouse the students’interestand motivation to learn vocabulary and develop their cooperating awareness.