Research On The Cooperative Learning In English Class

Since cooperative ability is recognized as a graving human quality in modern society, it is urgent for teachers to provide circumstances to well prepare students before they are really exposed to society, and try every effort to eliminate the negative effects of the teacher-centered model, in which the interaction between students and teachers is limited, resulting in the inefficient learning and negative psychological influence. In addition, the present curriculum reform advocates developing students’ cooperative ability practiced in the cooperative activities. A growing number of schools and teachers have taken up the cooperative learning model according to the requirements of the curriculum.Some schools in Luoyang have been enthusiastically carrying out the curriculum reform, among which Luoyang Dikuang Bilingual School(shortened as “DK Bilingual School” in the following) is practicing the “FSTS”(five steps and three segments) model. The “WATCH” model, a particular form of the FSTS model in English teaching and learning, has been implemented for five years in this school. It is made up of five steps: Warming, Asking, Talking, Creating, and Harvesting. Every step involves three segments: learning tasks, students’ activities, and teachers’ instruction. The study aims to examine if this model is theoretically justified, to see if this model is efficient enough in terms of students’ interest in and attitude to English learning and to propose the corresponding suggestions. The major research contents include the major elements, effects, advantages and disadvantages of this model. Corresponding suggestions will be offered based on the data analyzed.To make sure the research is carried out scientifically, at the beginning of the research, the author did the classroom observation in one of the representative English classes from every grade. Observation scales were fulfilled to record the cooperative activities. Based on the observation of cooperative activities, the feedback of homework, group scores, and the assessment of teachers, the representative groups with higher, lower and medium cooperative abilities were chosen as the participants of the interview. Three groups with different cooperative abilities in each of the three classes observed previously were interviewed, totally 9 groups with 4 members in each. What’s more, all the English teachers in the School were interviewed and filled designed questionnaires. Last, 360 questionnaires were handed out to students of the three grades and 352 questionnaires were collected. To make sure the data is carried out scientifically, the descriptive statistics, the linear regression analysis, and the cluster analysis of the SPSS 20.0 were used to analyze the frequencies and the influential factors related to “WATCH”.The major findings of the research are clearly described in the end of this thesis from four aspects. First, the “WATCH” model is implemented theoretically. Second, the “WATCH” model is efficient in improving students’ English learning and their social skills. Third, the implementation of this model is advantageous in that it is helpful to guarantee the equal education opportunity, to promote the efficiency of cooperative learning and to keep a balance between punishment and reward. However, some disadvantages or problems should not be neglected: 1) Not all the teachers have a clear picture of the “WATCH” model. 2) It is not scientific enough to merely evaluate the results of groups’ cooperative learning activities without considering the process of cooperation. 3) The types of the cooperative activities are not diversified enough to fit the requirements of different teaching materials. 4) The grouping method is not scientific enough to make sure the equality among groups in a class. Based on the analysis of the disadvantages, suggestions are offered: 1) Teachers should pay more attention to the details of cooperative learning including the designing of the cooperative tasks, the grouping method and the objectives of cooperative learning. 2) Considering students’ requirement, teachers should enhance the group cohesion by electing the group leader appropriately. 3) The implementation of the cooperative learning model is supposed to be supervised jointly by teachers, students and the school. Moreover, the communication between teachers and students should be enhanced.