An Experimental Study On Cooperative Learning In Primary School English Speaking Classrooms

Language acquisition refers not only to the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar knowledge,but also to the use of language.So people are paying more and more attention to spoken English.However,many students are afraid of speaking English,and have no interest in oral communication.For one thing,the focus of basic education curriculum reform is to change the educational trend that emphasizes language knowledge,but ignores developing communicative ability.For another,the teacher should encourage students to learn by themselves,cooperate with each other,and take part in oral English activities,so that students can develop their ability of using language and improve their communicative competence.The new curriculum reform encourages Cooperative Learning,and regards the cultivation of students’ ability of Cooperative Learning as an important aim.Therefore,it is necessary to introduce the method of Cooperative Learning into oral English learning in primary school.And it is more effective than traditional English teaching.Because traditional teaching takes the teacher as the center,and it is a kind of negative learning model.While group learning can promote every student to participant in oral English practice activities and improve their spoken English interest.Hence,group cooperative teaching has become one of the most important teaching forms.This study is based on these relevant theories,such as Cooperative Learning,social interdependence,motivation,constructivism,and hierarchy of needs theory.This paper mainly explores the effectiveness of Cooperative Learning in primary school English speaking classrooms.The author conducted a teaching experiment in Grade Four for one year.It confirmed three hypotheses through comparing questionnaires and analyzing the interviews and tests before and after the experiment:Cooperative Learning can improve students’ interest in oral English.Cooperative Learning is helpful to promote students’ participation in oral practice activities.Cooperative Learning can improve students’ English speaking skills.In order to verify the three assumptions,the author selected four kinds of data collection tools:questionnaire;interview;observation,and test.The participants are seventy students who are from two classes in Grade Four in Wuxing Primary School of Fengjiakou Town.By the comparison of the controlled class and the experimental class,the research result shows that students in experimental class make much more progress than those who are in the controlled class in oral English ability.In addition,the author also points out some shortcomings in Cooperative Learning experimental research and puts forward some suggestions for further research.