A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning In English Teaching At A Small Class Of Junior Middle Schools

With the continuous deepening and improvement of the New Course reform,a brand-new outlook has been seen in the Junior English class.New Course Standard is able to make major breakthrough in terms of English course task,course target,course application,and course comment,etc.However,when we analyze the practical application of the New Course Standard to the junior English class,we find that many teachers are not able to provide their students with enough guidance in learning method and strategy,thus bringing about such phenomenon as a poor engagement in the class,low input in learning and the separation between the students' cognitive process and learning outcome.Therefore,it is urgent and necessary to improve the effectiveness of junior middle school English teaching.One of the possibly good ways in improving this effectiveness might be the adoption of cooperative learning and a small class education.This is because the improvement of the living standard in China makes it possible to have a small class education in many places where many parents can afford their children's learning at a small class.Small class education might provide much better environment for students than big class education,and assure the quality education.The implementation of small class education might be conducive to achieving the efficiency of students' learning.For English teaching in particular,a small class combined with cooperative learning might make students more initiative,because it might encourage students to develop the awareness of their engagement,thus reinforcing the effectiveness of cooperative learning.The present research is to explore the workability of the ideas mentioned above and proposes some suggestions for effective cooperative learning at a small class.This thesis is mainly composed of five parts:Chapter one presents social background and latest teaching situation in juniormiddle schools to illustrate that cooperative learning and small class are necessary and important.Chapter two elaborates theoretical basis of cooperative learning and small class.Chapter three mainly introduces the research methodology,which includes research questions,research participants,research instruments,research procedures and data collection procedures adopted in this studyChapter four reports the results and findings from the current study as well as discussions about the results and findings.And at the same time,discussions are conducted according to the data concluded from the present study.Chapter five is the final part of the thesis,summarizing the main idea of thesis.After pointing out the shortcomings of this research,the author will give some implications for further research.This research is set among middle school students of grade seven as an experiment and has lasted for one semester.It is just a case study,and the number of participants is limited,hence a further improvement in the future research.