The Application Of Cooperative Learning In High School English Vocabulary Teaching

Recently, as the difficult point and key point of high school English teaching,vocabulary teaching has been given increasing emphasis. Vocabulary learningqualities of high school students have a direct effect on the development of theirlistening, speaking, reading and writing skills. However, there exists a universalphenomenon, that is, vocabulary teaching is time-consuming and low efficient. Mostteachers still follow the traditional way in teaching vocabulary, featuring that teachersexplain the words and students listen and write, which fails to improve students’learning interests and cultivate their vocabulary learning qualities. In addition, thenew English Curriculum Standards advocates that students and their development aresupposed to be given attention in teaching. English teaching should shed light onstudents’subjective position in learning process. Furthermore, students’emotion andlifelong learning abilities ought to be laid stress on in learning. Vocabulary teaching ofhigh school is supposed to pay attention to students’subjective position, changestudents’current situation in which students accept knowledge passively and updatethe traditional class structure which features that teachers speak while students onlylisten to their teachers.Cooperative learning originated in the beginning of the 20thcentury in the US,and it scored substantial achievement in the mid-70s and mid-80s of 20thcentury.Nowadays, cooperative learning has been applied universally in each subject.Cooperative learning has played its positive role in enhancing students’academicperformance, boosting students’non-cognitive development and improving socialpsychological atmosphere in class. However, the application of cooperative learningmode in high school English vocabulary teaching is not general. In this thesis, theauthor has applied cooperative learning mode into high school English vocabularyteaching , hoping to improve students’vocabulary learning quality , and at the sametime to cultivate students’cooperative，competitive consciousness and collectivevalues, as well as improve their creativity , information-searching abilities and cooperative capabilities. Three questions are mainly addressed in the study: (1) Willthe application of cooperative learning mode in high school vocabulary teachingenable students’to hold a positive attitude towards vocabulary learning and creategood study atmosphere? (2) Will the application of cooperative learning mode in highschool vocabulary teaching enlarge students’vocabulary and enhance theirvocabulary-using abilities? (3) Will the application of cooperative learning mode inhigh school vocabulary teaching improve students’cooperative abilities? The authoraimed to explore a highly efficient method of high school English vocabularyteaching though the study.The study regarded 104 students of the school where the author tutored asexperimental subjects. The author divided the students into control class in which thestudents were taught vocabulary in cooperative learning mode and experimental classin which the students were taught vocabulary in traditional way. The total number ofeach class was 52 and the experiment last two months. The author offered thepre-texts to both classes before the experiment so as to make sure both classes were ofthe same English level. After the experiment, the post-texts were conducted in bothexperimental class and control class. Following the post-text were a questionnaire andan interview targeting for the students of experimental class. The author employedSPSS and Excel to analyses data.The study has shown that the teaching effect of cooperative learning mode isbetter than that of traditional vocabulary teaching. The cooperative learning mode candevelop students’subjectivity, cultivate their auto-learning abilities as well as enhancestudents’vocabulary proficiency. The students learn how to deal with the relationshipbetween cooperation and competition and gradually they know how to cooperate andcompete with others. Therefore, it is feasible to apply cooperative learning mode intovocabulary teaching of high school.