A Study On The Application Of Cooperative Learning To English Writing Teaching In Junior High Schools

English writing is not only one of the four basic language skills in English learning,but also can objectively reflect students' ability to use language comprehensively.In English teaching and learning,students and teachers come to realize the importance of it.However,English writing has been weak in English teaching in junior high school so far,whether teaching methods or teaching consequences are not optimistic.As a result,it has become a critical problem for students and teachers to know how to solve the difficulty students met and improve students' writing competence.In the field of English research,cooperative learning,an important teaching strategy,has been well-received widely by a majority of teachers.New English Curriculum Standards for junior high schools promotes that if students involve the types of learning,such as sensory,experiential,practical,participatory and cooperative,they can gain the ability of discovering the rules of language,grasping language knowledge and skills gradually,adjusting the emotion attitudes constantly and developing valid learning strategies to cultivate autonomous learning competence with the guidance of teachers.In the fourth rank of the third section in the NECS,it promotes the following norms about writing for students in junior high schools like this: Students can draft and modify compositions with the help of teachers or in group cooperative learning(2011).However,oceans of teachers made quite a few attempts on it but they ended up with failure because of the influence of the traditional English writing teaching.As a result,teachers lose confidence in cooperative learning and students lose their interest in English writing.Cooperative learning,based on the main theories of cognitive development,needs and motivation,has been applied to English writing teaching in this research,with a five-month periodical application research carried out,aiming to explore the following three research questions:(1)How is cooperative learning applied to English writing teaching in junior high schools?(2)What are the changes of students' attitudes towards English writing after cooperative learning?(3)What are the effects of cooperative learning on students' writing strategies?The class observation is carried out in Class Three,Grade Nine in Experimental School of Wenjiang Middle School for a month in the research.There are 50 students in total.Meanwhile,it is conducted by three English teachers of the same grade,aiming at using the observation scale to record and reflect the condition of the implementation of cooperative learning in English writing classes.Then some changes are made according to the factors influencing cooperative writing during the research.After cooperative learning,in order to investigate the changes of students' attitudes towards English writing and the effects of cooperative learning on students' writing strtegies,6 students from different English levels are interviewed deeply and the same questionnaires on students about writing strategies before and after the experiment are offered to solve the three research questions above.The main conclusions through the research are drawn as follows: firstly,the main factors influencing the implementation of cooperative learning in writing process are reasonable group building,teachers' roles and evaluation.Therefore,sufficient preparation should be got before the implementation.Based on the principles of cooperative learning and English writing,the author attempts to implement cooperative writing by cooperative writing,cooperative correction and cooperative evaluation.Secondly,after cooperation,students' attitudes towards English writing have become more positive,including improved writing interest,reduced writing anxiety,heated discussion,strong determination and sufficient confidence when facing writing difficulties.Ultimately,it is good for students to develop better writing strategies after cooperation,which is embodied in before writing,while writing and after writing.Moreover,good writing strategies also permeate students' normal writing habits.In short,the application of cooperative learning contributes to solving the problems in writing teaching.In addition,it's valuable for teachers to renew their writing teaching methods to improve students' writing competence.