Study On Cooperative Learning In Oral English Teaching In Secondary Vocational Schools

Cooperative Learning (CL) is one of the creative and effective theoretical and strategic systems, having been widely applied throughout the world. CL focuses on adopting heterogeneous group as the main form of teaching activities, and aims at promoting the students to work together to achieve a common learning goal to the greatest degree. The application of CL in oral English teaching in secondary vocational schools not only improves the students’oral achievement and their competence to communicate in English, but also cultivates their social skills and affection.This thesis attempted to explore the combination of CL with oral English teaching in secondary vocational school to find out a more effective mode of oral English teaching as well as the influence of CL on the students. And it aimed to answer the following questions:(1)Can CL promote the students’speaking achievement?(2)Can CL have positive effects on the students’affective states, such as interest, self-confidence, anxiety and motivation?The experiment was conducted in oral English course in Class20, Grade One and Class21, Grade One in Heshan Vocational and Technical Senior High School from March to June in2012. Class20was the experiment class employing CL method while Class21was the control class using the traditional teacher-centered method. There are fifty participants in each class. Before the experiment, a questionnaire and an oral test were conducted to learn the situation of their learning and their English level. Another questionnaire and oral test and an interview were conducted at the end of the experiment to learn the changes in both oral achievement and affective state. Two oral tests were used the sample paper of PETS1. After collecting the data of tests, the author used SPSS16.0to analyze the data. And after finishing the analysis and study, the author had reached the following conclusion:(1)CL can promote the students’speaking achievement.(2)CL has positive effects on the students’affective states:motivating their interest, promoting their self-confidence, and lowering their anxiety.Finally, the author gives some suggestions on how to improve the application of CL in oral English teaching in secondary vocational schools.