An Application Of Cooperative Learning In English Writing Teaching In High School

In either traditional input-emphasized teaching or listening-and-speaking-focused teaching models, English writing has long been neglected. However, with the promotion of the new round of curriculum reform, writing is becoming more and more important. Therefore, it’s necessary to change the traditional writing teaching model to improve students’writing competence.This research focuses on the application of cooperative learning model in senior school writing teaching to improve students’writing competence and arouse their interest in writing and developing their abilities of cooperation and autonomous learning. First of all, the author makes a study of the present situations of writing teaching and cooperative learning through questionnaires. Besides, the author reads a lot of books on theories and practice of cooperative learning.Two classes are involved in the experiment, one as the control group instructed with the traditional model, the other as the experimental group with the cooperative learning model. Two questionnaires are conducted in the experimental group during the experiment, one at the beginning of the experiment to get a general idea of cooperative learning and students’attitudes towards writing before the experiment, the other at the end of the experiment to find out students’attitudes towards cooperative learning and English writing after the experiment. Two tests, the pre-test and post-test, are also applied in the two groups. After five months’experiment, the author uses Statistical Package for Social Science(SPSS11.0)to do the statistical analysis. According to the results, writing scores from the experimental group are significantly higher than those from the control group. It shows that the cooperative learning model is effective and applicable in senior school writing teaching and also it proves that the model can arouse students’interest in writing. Therefore, this research has its theoretical significance and pedagogical implications.