A Study On The Effective Cooperative Learning In Primary School English

Cooperative learning is initiated as one of the learning styles inCurriculum Reform of our country. The new curriculum reform calls todevelop students’ component comprehensively and individually.Cooperative learning is meaningful for the education in the new century.It is the background of the age and the requirement of standard of Englishcurriculum. It aims to develop the spirit and skills of cooperation inprimary English education．It is one of the most important learningmethods and strategies in current teaching practice. Cooperative learningrequires students to collaborate with each other and help each other tocomplete the common tasks in the learning process. Groups should betaken as the basic organizational form for interaction between studentsand teachers, or among students. How to lead students to effectivecooperative learning and how to improve the teaching quality andefficiency is one of the most heated topics in primary and secondaryschools.It has been found that some teachers who practice cooperative learning can not comprehend its essence or apply it into proper classroomteaching. Besides, some students can not benefit a lot from it. Theprevious studies of cooperative learning pay more attention to generalmacro-level principles rather than specific disciplines. It can not provideteachers with enough guidance, for it fails to take into consideration thecharacteristics of individual disciplines and target groups. That is to say,teachers can not get feasible help from the studies which are not closelyrelated with their teaching practice. Therefore, the previous studies ofcooperative learning can not help teachers to put the cooperative learningtheory into their teaching practice. The thesis is an attempt to apply theeffective cooperative learning strategies in primary school Englishteaching. The thesis comes from the English teaching practice.Cooperative learning practice can cultivate students’ learning interests,and foster students’ cooperative spirit that can meet the requirement ofthe future. It is known to all that it is very necessary for the students tohave the quality of cooperation and the ability to share with in the future.The thesis investigates and analyzes cooperative learning practice byquestionnaires, interviews, experiments and observation. It obtains detailed and reliable data and information. It focuses on the content ofcooperative learning, the basic elements of cooperative learning, thetheoretical foundation for cooperative learning, the basic steps ofcooperative learning, the main value and misunderstanding of cooperativelearning．The thesis show questions in the implementation of Englishcooperative learning: The content is not suitable for the cooperation;students participate passively and insufficiently; teachers are the lack ofmonitoring capacity; there is a lack of scientific evaluation mechanism.According to the characteristics of primary students’ acquisition ofEnglish, the thesis gives tactics to improve the effectiveness ofcooperative learning. First, choose the proper cooperative learningcontent. The content of cooperative learning should be suitable forcooperation; the content of cooperative learning should be students’ ownand students are eager to share it with their classmates; the content ofcooperative learning is close to students’ life. Teachers should buildproper life atmosphere to stimulate the students’ initiative to participate inthe class. Second, divide students into teams. The teams should take thestudents’ ability and their achievements into consideration; choose an excellent leader of a team and make full use of the demonstration of theleader. And the task of every member must be explicitly assigned toarouse students’ enthusiasm, which can ensure the good effect of thecooperative learning. Third, teachers should take an active part in thecooperative learning. Teachers should try to set a good example forstudents in the cooperative learning; they should give specific guidance inthe cooperative learning so as to develop students’ ability of cooperativelearning and skills of cooperation. Building a good atmosphere ofcooperative learning can effectively improve the students’ Englishproficiency. Finally, establish scientific evaluation mechanism. Teachersshould pay attention to the varieties of evaluation and the varieties ofencouragement. The evaluation should be systematic and comprehensive.The evaluation should take into consideration not only knowledge andstudents’ grade but also students’ ability and emotion. It is favorable forfostering the students’ ability of cooperation and improving the quality ofcooperation.The contribution of the thesis lies in its experiments in cooperativelearning of primary school English teaching. It does not only analyze theoretically the use of cooperative learning in teaching, but also makes astudy of teaching practice from different aspects, showing the advantagesand disadvantages of cooperative learning. It depicts clearly the statusquo of cooperative learning in primary school English teaching. Thesolutions are theory-based and workable in practice. It also givessuggestions as to how cooperative learning should be developed in thefuture. It is of great significance to both theory and practice.