A Study On The Application Of Cooperative Learning To The Teaching Of English Reading In Junior High School

As one of the four basic language skills, reading is the main way for students to acquire language knowledge and skills. Besides, it plays an important role in the Senior High School Entrance Examination. It is even said that whoever succeeds in the reading comprehension will be the winner. Therefore, it is of vital importance to increase students’ reading competence. With the development of Curriculum Standards Reform, the voice of quality-oriented education becomes higher and higher, emphasizing that teaching should be people-oriented and student-centered. It lays stress on the training of comprehensive language competence. The reform of teaching models has been the irresistible trend in modern society. However, the majority of English teachers in junior high schools, especially those from countryside schools, still apply traditional teaching methods which are teacher-centered and boring. Teachers spend most of the time in explaining vocabulary and grammar while students just listen and take notes. Such a method not only represses students’ initiative and creativity but also hinders their development of dialectical thinking skills. What’s worse, it also makes students lose learning interest and even become weary of studying. The poor reading proficiency has long been a headache for English teachers. The students produced under this method tend to be “dumb” or “deaf”, and they can hardly meet the demands of the market. In addition, it is one of the important reasons for the serious polarization of students’ academic achievements. Based on Constructivism, CL emphasizes that class should be student-centered and that students should learn from groups.Though many scholars have conducted research about CL in recent years and find its effectiveness in improving students’ academic achievements, CL has not been carried out in countryside junior high schools, especially in the instruction of English reading. Therefore, this thesis aims to answer the following three questions:(1) Can CL improve students’ English reading competence? If so, how can CL make it? If not, why?(2) What influence will CL have on students’ attitudes toward English learning?(3) How can CL narrow the polarization between top students and students with learning difficulties?In order to answer these three questions, the author takes two classes(namely, Class Nine and Class Ten) in Grade Eight from Ma Qiao Junior High School as subjects, conducting a five-month-long empirical experiment. Class Nine is taken as the experimental class and Class Ten is chosen as the controlled class. The author applies CL in the experimental class while she takes the traditional method in the controlled class. The instruments used in the research are tests, questionnaires and interview. And the author uses SPSS to analyze the data collected from experiment and tries to sum up the result to see whether CL is practicable in English reading instruction of junior high school.The result shows: CL can improve students’ English reading proficiency and comprehensive language competence; CL succeeds in motivating students’ interest and initiative in English learning; besides, CL can help students learn from others’ strong points and make up their deficiencies and make progress together. As a result, the degree of polarization is narrowed. In a word, compared with traditional teaching methods, CL is more effective in improving students’ English reading competence.