An Action Research On Collaborative Learning For English Reading In Junior High School

Reading plays one of the most important roles in English teaching.It’s also a very important indicator to measure the learners’ language level.Although most middle school English teachers have realized the importance of cultivating students’ English reading abilities,there are still many problems which makes students aren’t so interested in English reading.So,to explore how to teach English reading class is becoming one of the most important goals of middle school English instruction.In accordance with the requirements of new English curiculum standards,teachers should encourage students to experience and practice the language knowledge and skills in a cooperative and exploratory way.Under the above background,in order to stimulate students’ interest in English learning and make most of the students experience the joy of English reading,and to improve their reading abilities,this research will discuss how to improve the teaching and learning methods in junior high school English reading class.This thesis is divided into five parts,the introduction part briefly introduces the dissertations reason,research purpose and research contents.I define the"Collaborative Learning" and I also compare it with "Cooperative Learning" to show the difference.And in this part,I also briefly expounds the theoretical basis of collaborative learning,which includes social negotiation theory of social constructivism,a community of learning,the zone of proximal development of Vygotsky’s theory,etc.The first chapter tells research questions、research object and methods,and I also briefly introduces the research procedures in this part.The second chapter discusses how to design the collaborative learning environment.Mutual trust and the interdependent relationship among students is the foundation of the collaborative learning,upon on this,the second section introduces the way to set up discourse rules in the class for inspiring students to have more great ideas.And it also helps to establish an equal dialogue relationship among students and teachers.The third section expounds how to establish discourse rules in English reading class from the perspectives of both students and teachers.In this class,teachers act like "invisible heroes" who never tells who they are,but they indeed guide,encourage and joint students’ words.So the fourth section analyze and summarize the teachers’ various roles in the class.The third chapter has three parts which elaborate how to design collaborative learning tasks.The first part points out the meaning and methods of choosing and developing reading materials.The second part lists the reading question classifications.The third part is to introduce challenging questions by defining them and analyzing the characteristics of these questions.The last chapter analyzes the action research by using survey research methods:such as interview and the comparison of students’ academic records etc.it illustrates the positive impact of collaborative learning,which can help improve students’reading interests and abilities.Finally,I reflect on some shortages of my research,and I also put forward some further research topics.