The Research On The Application Of Cooperative Learning To Vocabulary Teaching In Junior High School

Vocabulary is the basic material of language. It is vital for students to master a large vocabulary to improve their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Vocabulary teaching plays a very important part in English teaching in junior middle school. Junior English New Curriculum Standard demands students have a larger vocabulary. However, due to a lack of appropriate educational theories, most teachers teach vocabulary in a traditional way, which mainly focuses on the explanation of words. The traditional way of vocabulary teaching is dull and teacher-centered, thus neglecting the participation and interaction of students. It has made the students lose the interest and develop a negative attitude towards English learning, thus limiting the improvement of their English. Even though there are lots of researches on the vocabulary teaching, they mainly focus on the teaching strategies and approaches.The researches from home and abroad have shown that cooperative learning is one of the creative and effective learning theories. Cooperative learning, considered as one of the new learning methods advocated by the national curriculum reform of basic education, helps create a better atmosphere of study, improves students’ grades and develop their cooperating awareness. Though researches on the cooperative theory are sufficient, they are mainly done in primary or junior middle schools, while few are in junior middle schools. Most researches are done in reading and writing, few of which are done in vocabulary in English.First, the paper introduces the current research at home and abroad of cooperative learning and vocabulary teaching. Second, the paper demonstrates the theory basis of the research. Third, it explores the application of cooperative learning in vocabulary through the experiment and questionnaires. And then analyze the data collected. Finally, it draws a conclusion and makes suggestions. The paper based on experiments and questionnaires aims to prove cooperative learning theory can be very acceptable and effective in vocabulary teaching in junior middle school. The experiment was carried out in class1and class4in No.41middle school, both of which have the same teacher and English level. Class1is the experimental class, in which the cooperative learning was applied and class4is the control class still using the traditional way to teach vocabulary. The experiment lasted4months. After the experiment, questionnaires and interviews were carried out to learn about the effects on student’s attitudes and cooperating awareness.The author offered the pre-test to both classes at the beginning of the research to make sure they have the same level of English.4months later, the author tested them on the effect of their learning. The results have shown that students in the experimental class who learn cooperatively do better than those who learn vocabulary in a traditional way. The results of the questionnaires and interviews have shown that cooperative learning not only improves their vocabulary in pronunciations, spelling and usages, but also arouse the students’ interest and motivation to learn vocabulary and develop their cooperating awareness.