A Study On The Effect Of Cooperative Learning On Junior Middle School Students’ English Classroom Anxiety

Over the last thirty years, many researchers and scholars have realized that individual differences such as motivation, learning strategies, anxiety, and aptitude have great impact on foreign language learning. Among the individual differences,anxiety was regarded as the one of the most influential factors in foreign language learning. Related findings show that anxiety has negative influence on learner’s foreign language learning. Therefore, how to alleviate learners’ foreign language anxiety has become a hot topic in second language learning. In recent years, many researchers have attached much attention to the language learning anxiety and cooperative learning. Many studies have explored whether cooperative learning could reduce foreign language anxiety. However, most of the studies are done in colleges or senior middle schools. Implementing cooperative methods in English teaching,especially in junior middle schools of China, is still insufficient. The present study carries out an experiment to study the effect of cooperative learning methods on junior middle school students’ English classroom anxiety. The research questions of the current study are:1. What is the current situation of junior middle school students’ level of English classroom anxiety?2. Can cooperative learning alleviate English classroom anxiety of junior middle school students compared with the traditional teaching method?3. Can cooperative learning improve the English achievements of junior middle school students?To answer the above questions, the present study conducted an experiment which lasted for one semester. The subjects of this study were 106 first-grade students from a middle school in Huichang County, with 53 students in each class. The two classes were quite similar in gender, age, and language achievement. One was experimental class and the other was control class. The teacher mainly used the cooperative learning methods in the experimental class, and used the traditional teaching methods in control class. The author employed both quantitative and qualitative methods in the experiment, including foreign language classroom anxiety questionnaire, English tests and semi-structured interview. All the quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS17.0.Combined with the qualitative data, the analyzed results indicated that:(1) there existsEnglish classroom anxiety among the students in junior middle school;(2)cooperative learning can alleviate English classroom anxiety of junior middle school students compared with the traditional teaching method;(3) cooperative learning methods did not improve the students’ English achievement significantly compared with the traditional teaching method;(4) cooperative learning can assist students to build up self-confidence, create a more relaxed class atmosphere, and enhance their team work spirits and responsibility.According to the findings of this study, some pedagogical suggestions are offered. First, teachers should provide students more opportunity to communicate and cooperate in the English classroom. Second, teachers are supposed to help students recognize their English classroom anxiety. Third, teachers need to provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere. Fourth, teachers had better help students building up their self-confidence.