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Cooperative Learning In The Course Of English Listening And Speaking In Independent College

Posted on:2016-09-29Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:L C LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2295330464952560Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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Cooperative learning is a teaching method emerging in America between 1960s and 1970s. It was introduced to China in late 1980s. In cooperative class, the whole class is divided into several groups and students learn through cooperation within their own group. Students in the same group have the same learning goals and every member is responsible for a certain part of learning tasks. Though they finish their own tasks independently, they depend on each other in some way.The study explores three questions:(1) Does cooperative learning have positive influence on independent college students in the learning of English listening and speaking? (2) Can cooperative learning improve independent college students’ cooperative spirit and ability? (3) Can cooperative learning improve independent college students’interpersonal communication?The subjects of this study are two classes of first-year students from Bowen College of Management. There are 82 students in total. The experimental class is made up of 45 students majoring in Visual Communication design, while the controlled class is made up of 37 students majoring in Animation Design. In the second semester, the author applies cooperative learning to English listening and speaking class in the experimental class. During the same period, the author still uses traditional teaching method in the controlled class. The author learns students’ opinions about cooperative learning through interview and learns the changes in the class brought by cooperative learning through class observation. Questionnaire is used to investigate the influence of cooperative learning on experimental students’learning attitude, cooperative spirit and ability and interpersonal communication after 16 weeks. All these 82 students’listening and speaking academic achievement are pretested and posttested. By comparing the two classes’results of both pretest and posttest, the author explores whether cooperative learning can improve students’ English listening and speaking abilities.Through this study, the author has some major findings:(1) Cooperative learning can change students’learning attitude towards English listening and speaking. Students become more active in the class and some students learn listening and speaking autonomously after class. They get improvements in listening and speaking academic achievement (2) Cooperative learning can improve students’cooperative spirit and ability. Their sense of responsibility is increased and they are willing to help their group members. They can also treat other members’views critically. (3) Cooperative learning can improve students’interpersonal communicative ability. They care more about their group members and are willing to share learning materials and information with their members. They also learn some communicative skills from cooperative learning. Most students are willing to study English listening and speaking through cooperative learning. However, some problems still exist in applying this method. Sometimes there are some conflicts among students when they hold different opinions. Sometimes a few students finish most of the tasks of their own group since some members are not so active in learning. When students are having discussions, they may also make loud noises. The teacher also needs to improve her organization of learning groups and evaluate students properly. To solve these problems, the author proposes some suggestions.
Keywords/Search Tags:cooperative learning, college English teaching of listening and speaking, listening and speaking abilities, independent college
PDF Full Text Request
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