An Empirical Study On Cooperative Learning Mode In Junior School English Writing Class

In the 1970s, cooperative learning was firstly put forward by Johnson brothers. As one of the most successful educational experiments all over the world, cooperative learning has been introduced into China since 1990s. Nowadays, the principles proposed in cooperative learning have rooted in Chinese people. Since English writing is one of the most difficult parts for students in English learning, the studies focus on combination with cooperative learning and improvement on writing have reached a new high. Through the extensive reading for references, the author finds that most of studies focus on listening, speaking and reading teaching. However, researches on cooperative learning applied in junior English writing classes are rare to find. As a result, based on the review studies of cooperative learning and the present situation of English writing in Zhuhai NO.9 middle school, it has important value on the study of applying cooperative learning mode in writing classes in junior high school.By using the former research achievement at home and abroad for reference, especially the achievements on cooperative learning in English classes, the present study applies cooperative learning into junior students’ writing class and constructs an advisable teaching mode, aiming to testify that cooperative learning mode in writing class can enhance students’ writing ability. The subject in the study is from junior second, involving 102 students in the Zhuhai N0.9 middle school. The researcher randomly chose class 1 as the control class and class 2 as the experiment class. The experiment lasted for half of term and both classes are at same level before research. By adopting the methods of literature review, questionnaires and interviews, combined with pre-test and post-test analysis, the author make a comparison on traditional class and cooperative learning class. The experimental data are analyzed by using an independent samples T-test comparative analysis, in order to test the hypothesis of this experiment.The two research questions are:1. Is the cooperative learning mode accepted by students applied in writing class? 2. Is it an effective teaching method in improving students’ writing ability?The results of the experiment indicate that students’ learning attitude and interests of experiment class have improved a lot than students in control class. Students in the experimental class get higher scores than students in the controlling class. The findings show that not only the cooperative learning mode is accepted by students, and it also helps students to get a better performance in writing and reduce the writing anxiety in class. In addition, cooperative learning mode proves to be an effective teaching strategy. Nevertheless, the author still finds some problems from the research, such as the duration of the study is too short and some free-riders appear in the group work. At last, the author gives several suggestions for future research, yet more teaching experiments should be done in the further way.