An Empirical Study On The Cooperative Learning In English Reading Teaching In Senior High Schools

With the development of economy,English becomes more and more important.Over the years we have made great progress in English teaching,and teaching scale has been expanded.However,because traditional English reading teaching is mostly knowledge-explained,students rarely have opportunities to practice and communicate with each other and it is difficult for them to participate in classroom activities.The application of cooperative learning can not only change traditional English reading teaching method and make interactions among students and between teachers and students come into play effectively.It can also cultivate their cooperative awareness to make students participate in class actively.Based on the motivation theory and social interdependence theory,this thesis in the theme of an empirical study of cooperative learning in senior high school English reading classes studies the following questions:1)What effects do cooperative learning have on high school students’ performance and ability of English reading?2)What effects do cooperative learning have on students’ interest,attitude and motivation?This empirical study lasts for 4 months,choosing 2 parallel grade 2classes of the senior high school as research objects.One class is chosen to be the experimental class while the other one is the control class.The experimental class is given lessons by using cooperative learning teaching approach,while the control class by using conventional teaching model.Before the experiment,a pre-test is conducted in both two classes,and the questionnaire is conducted in the experimental class.After experiment,a post-test is applied to two classes,and the same questionnaire is administered to students in the experimental class again.Then the results of pre-test,post-test and questionnaire are analyzed to make a comparison.Through the analysis of the questionnaire and pre-test and post-test performances via the SPSS statistical analysis software,this research draw the following conclusions:1)Through the questionnaire in the experimental class before and after experiment,we find that applying cooperative learning in English reading teaching not only arouses students’ English reading learning interests,but also changes their learning attitudes.At the same time,their learning motivations have been stimulated.2)Through the pre-test and post-test,we can discover that using CL in senior high school English reading is more effective than traditional teaching.And the application of cooperative learning inreading classes can help improve students’ reading performance and ability.Their reading speed and accuracy also have been greatly improved.Especially,students of low-score group in the experimental class improve much more than those of high-score group.Therefore,this empirical study proves that applying cooperative learning to English reading teaching can not only improve the students’ reading performance and reading ability,but also enhance the students’ enthusiasm for English reading.By contrast,it is more beneficial to English reading teaching in senior high school than what traditional teaching model does.