The Application Of Cooperative Learning To English Reading Class In Junior High Schools

With the rapid development of science and technology, reading is becoming more and more important to gain information. Besides, reading is one of the four basic skills which include listening, speaking, reading and writing in language learning. Thus reading plays an irreplaceable role in English learning. Furthermore, the New National English Curriculum Standards lay emphasis on English reading. However, the traditional reading class is a teacher-centered class, which is mainly dominated by teachers. In the traditional reading class, teachers are regarded as the controllers and authorities of the whole class, while students are just passive knowledge receivers. Meanwhile, students have few opportunities to participate in class. In the traditional reading class, teachers attach too much importance to vocabulary and grammar teaching, which fails to stimulate students’ reading interest. Students’ reading ability hasn’t been improved greatly through the traditional reading mode. In order to change the teaching situation to meet the requirement of the New National English Curriculum Standards, the teacher applies cooperative learning to the reading class. The teacher holds the view that cooperative learning is a breakthrough and supplement to the traditional one.Based on lots of theories and researches of cooperative learning, an experiment is conducted in the reading class by the teacher. The subjects of the experiment are two classes from the Affiliated Experimental Middle School to Xuhui In-service Teachers’ college. The experiment is carried out from September, 2014 to December, 2014, lasting for three months. Class One with 40 students is chosen as the experimental class and Class Four with 40 students is chosen as the controlled class. During the experiment, the traditional reading teaching method is adopted in the controlled class, while cooperative learning is applied in the experimental class. In the experimental class, students are divided into ten cooperative groups and each group has four students. In order to achieve the common goal, students cooperate with each other. At the end of the experiment, 40 students of the controlled class and 40 students of the experimental class are all given the post-test. The purpose of the post-test is to find out whether there is a significant difference in reading between the two classes after the application of cooperative learning. Besides, questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation are conducted to make the experiment more persuasive in the experiment. After the experiment, some major findings can be summarized as follows. Firstly, cooperative learning provides a positive atmosphere in which students take an active part in the class. Secondly, cooperative learning is an effective way to stimulate students’ reading interest and reading confidence. Thirdly, students’ reading scores and reading ability have been improved after the application of cooperative learning. Fourthly, cooperative learning can cultivate students’ sense of cooperation and responsibility. Fifthly, the teacher plays multiple roles in the cooperative learning class rather than a knowledge transmitter in the teacher-centered class. The teacher acts as resource provider, organizer, instructor, facilitator and evaluator. A conclusion can be drawn that cooperative learning is an effective method to improve students’ reading comprehension. However, there are still some limitations in the experiment, which affect the effectiveness of the application of cooperative learning more or less. According to these limitations, some practical suggestions are put forward in the last chapter.