First Study On The Effect Of Cooperative Learning On Reducing Language Fossilization

Research shows, most of the English learners often meet the problem of language fossilization in the process of learning English. That is, after several years of study, it is quite hard for them to get further improvements even when they have already acquire a good knowledge of English. Therefore, many language learners usually feel depressed while they cannot find any effective methods to reduce the fossilization because of the three features of fossilization – prevalence, persistency and permanency. Meanwhile, with the young- aged trend of English learners, the phenomenon of language fossilization has already appeared among high school students, which deserves a high concern.The causes of fossilization are quite complicated, including both internal factors and external influences. As a high school teacher, I decide to combine the study on the effect of cooperative learning model on reducing language fossilization with my teaching practice in the writing class. As a new teaching mode, cooperative learning, which has been popular for many years, is recognized and promoted by a large number of experts. With a solid theory foundation as the supporter, it focuses on high quality social interaction and companion relationships. By means of multilateral interaction, it can stimulate students’ learning motivation and cultivate their awareness of active learning. Meanwhile, it is also beneficial to both the improvements of students’ interaction and study abilities and the development of self-awareness. As many researchers have found out that the phenomenon of fossilization has a close relationship with students’ emotional cognition, an assumption exists in this dissertation that the cooperative learning mode can have an effect on reducing language fossilization. In order to prove the assumption, the author designed an experiment in one term with the subjects of two grade-two classes in Lihuili High School. The cooperative learning strategy was adopted in one class while the other not. The result showed that the experiment was a successful one and the former class made more progress than the latter one.The dissertation contains five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction, which tells the related research at home and abroad and the research significance of the dissertation. Chapter two is a literature review, which gives a detailed introduction to the related theories of language fossilization and cooperative learning strategy. Chapter three concentrates on empirical study, which explains the design and detailed steps of experiment. The fourth chapter shows the results of the empirical study, according to the statistics from the experiment. The fifth chapter gives a summary of the whole dissertation, pointing out the shortcomings of the dissertation.