The Application Of Cooperative Learning In Junior English Teaching

With the development of society, many socialists hold the view that cooperation will be more important by far than competition in the future society. In teacher-centered traditional English class, teachers spend too much time and energy explaining and analyzing the material instead of training students’ communicative competence. But the aim of the junior English class is to stimulate and cultivate students’ interest in English, make students master a certain language knowledge and basic skill, foster students’ ability of using language and communication, and develop their intelligence and personality. New English Curriculum Standards require that teaching should be focused on students and students’ development and it advocates the task-based teaching model in which students complete the task objective by means of perception, experience, practice, participation and cooperation under the help of teachers. The new English standard of Course shows the concept of the student-orientation and the advocation of learning methods of experience, practice, participation, cooperation and exchange have been identified as the most basic ideas of teaching.Cooperative learning is students-oriented with study groups as the basic teaching organizational form, systematically using the interaction among dynamic factors to promote studying and achieving the goal of teaching. The mode of cooperative learning in English classroom teaching can fully mobilize students’ learning enthusiasm, initiatives and creativity, and is also conducive to cultivate the students’ sense of cooperation and teamwork skill, to improve their interpersonal skills and to strengthen their team spirit.The thesis attempts to apply the cooperative learning approach to the Junior English class. Cooperative learning is a kind of teaching form in which the students finish a specific amount of learning tasks in groups through interdependent and interactive activities. Its purpose is to promote the development of the students in cognition, emotion and attitude. At the same time, it also proves that by participating various meaningful activities, the students’ interest in English can be motivated and their overall language competence can get improved.This thesis is divided into five chapters:The first chapter introduces the research question, the purpose and significance of this research, after that provides the structure of the thesis.The second chapter concentrates on a survey of literature review, which covers the theories of cooperative learning and the researches on the application of cooperative learning in English class abroad and in China.The third chapter is the key section of the thesis, which is to deal with the experimental implementation of cooperative learning approach in English class. This part covers the different aspects in relation to the experiment, such as subjects, research questions, instruments and procedures.The fourth chapter mainly states the results and analysis of the research.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis which gives readers a clear picture of the whole thesis. The author sums up the main points of view and offers some suggestions for the further study.