A Study On The Application Of Cooperative Learning In Visual-Audio-Oral Course Of College English

In 2007,College English Curriculum Requirements put forward the teaching reform which aims to shift the priority of reading to listening and speaking in order to improve students' comprehensive ability of using English.In this background,focusing on the teacher-student and student-student interaction and cooperation,cooperative learning is a beneficial attempt to reform English teaching.A lot of teaching practice has shown that cooperative learning can greatly improve students' self-learning ability and learning outcomes in classroom teaching.This research aims to investigate the effects of using cooperative learning in college English visual-audio-oral course on students' English speaking & listening skills,and on their emotion.The research also aims to investigate the problems that occur in the process.This research adopted the quasi-experimental research design.A teaching experiment of three and a half months was conducted in two classes of Grade 2014 in China University of Geosciences Great Wall College.One was the experimental class in which cooperative learning method was employed and the other was the control class in which traditional teaching method was employed,and the total number of students were 78.Pre-tests and post-tests were carried out to collect data on students' speaking and listening skills.Four questionnaires were administered before and after the application of cooperative learning to collect data on their emotion related to English learning.The results show that the application of cooperative learning in college English visual-audio-oral course improves students' speaking and listening skills and their emotion in English learning.However,some problems occur in the process.Further research is needed to address the problems.