The Application Of Cooperative Learning Theory To The Teaching Of English Practical Writing In Senior One

In modern society, English writing has become more and more important in information communication, emotion expression and cooperation with each other. The newly promulgated Senior School Curriculum Criterion proposes a higher requirement in writing ability for Grade Senior One. Due to the growing proportion of examination in writing ability of English practical writing, cultivation of the ability becomes an important topic for high school teachers.Cooperative learning is a student-centered teaching method that students can communicate with each other by interacting between teachers and students or among students. In China, the theory of cooperative learning has been widely applied in English teaching which leads to a lot of research results. However, there is a few studies applied to English practical writing. The article explores the application of cooperative leaning to teaching of practical writing in Senior One from the following aspects:First, what are the linguistic problems of English practical writing in Senior Grade One?Second, can the cooperative learning improve ability of vocabulary expression and cohesion consciousness of students in English practical writing?Third, can the cooperative learning in English practical writing facilitate students’ writing scores of Senior Grade One?The experiment is conducted in No 1 Senior High School in Jinzhou. 101 Grade Senior One students from Class 7 and Class 10 are involved in the experiment that lasts for 16 weeks. Class 7 as the experimental class is taught in teaching method of cooperative learning and another, the control class is taught under the traditional teaching approach. The experiment adopts three qualitative and quantitative instruments that is, interview, observation in the class and test. At last, the relevant datum of the experiment are collected and the statistics are analyzed by using SPSS17.0.The results of the experiment show in the followings: first, there are linguistic problems in English practical writing of Grade Senior One in the aspects of vocabulary expression, textual cohesion and technical errors. As terms of vocabulary expression, the mistakes of lexical collocation and singular and plural verbs are the main problems. This is because Senior One don’t adapt to the learning method in high school and they are insensitive to the differences between Chinese and English; second, the teaching method of cooperative learning can improve ability of vocabulary expression and cohesion consciousness of students in practical writing. Students can express words more accurately and variously because of interaction between teachers and students or among students. And by analyzing the four types of cohesion consciousness, the consciousness of lexical cohesion improves the most; third, cooperative learning in practical writing facilitate students’ writing scores of Senior Grade One. From the four standards for evaluation of English writing, vocabulary, grammar, content and cohesion, writing achievements have significant improvement in comparison with the control class.In conclusion, the teaching method of cooperative learning applied to English practical writing is effective and feasible. However, due to lack of time and experience, there are some deficiencies in the research, which need constantly exploring and improving in the future research.