Application Of Cooperative Learning Approach To English Reading Teaching In Higher Vocational And Technical Colleges

The cultivation mode and teaching objectives of higher vocational and technical talents are unique, sohigher vocational and technical English teaching must base on ability, developing students’ practical ability ofapplying language. It emphasizes that the cultivation of language application ability is as important as thetraining of basic language skills. However, in higher vocational and technical English teaching, teachers justconcentrate on the training of listening and speaking ability, ignoring reading ability. Some teachers just attachgreat importance to knowledge, ignoring students’ reading interest, thus the higher vocational and technicalcollege students can’t do better in reading. Most of them are anxious about English reading due to their poorEnglish foundations and some are even bored of English reading. It not only influences the teaching results ofEnglish reading, but also prevents emotional development of students. Cooperative learning approach sprang upin America in1970s and is an effective teaching approach. Based on the communality of teaching process, itfocuses on interaction among students and adopts cooperative team into classroom teaching. It aims at achievingteaching objectives by organizing cooperation-based activities so as to reduce reading anxiety, motivate readinginterest and promote second language acquisition in the process of cooperative interaction.According to the current teaching situation of higher vocational and technical college English reading andthe characteristics of cooperative learning approach, the author attempted to explore the effectiveness ofcooperative learning approach in the teaching of higher vocational and technical college English reading,especially the effects on relieving students’ reading anxiety, improving students’ reading interest and promotingstudents at different levels to make progress in their reading comprehension. This thesis is a case study onteaching of reading to non-English major freshmen in Jiuquan Higher Vocational and Technical College. Theauthor randomly selected two parallel classes from non-English major freshmen registering in2013andperformed10weeks’ teaching experiment. Cooperative learning approach was used in the reading teaching ofexperimental class while traditional teaching method was used in controlled class. The two classes were taughtby the same teacher. Before the experiment, a questionnaire survey and a pre-test were conducted in the twoclasses and there’s no obvious difference between the two classes in students’ English reading anxiety, readinginterest and English comprehension.The data collected by the questionnaires and tests was processed with the help of SPSS and Excel. Theresults and analysis of the data show that the application of cooperative learning has effectively promoted higher vocational and technical college English teaching. Cooperation created a harmonious and democratic learningand reading atmosphere and to some extent eliminated anxiety in reading. Students’ self-confidence and interestin learning have also been enhanced. They have more initiative to learn. In the process of cooperation, studentsat different levels improved not only their social skills, but reading comprehension scores by mutual interactionand help.