A Study On The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning In Primary English Teaching

Cooperative learning,primarily put forward by Robert E Slavin,has witnessed substantial progress and developed gradually into an innovative and effective teaching method.In the early 1990 s,cooperative learning has been widely applied in teaching practice in China and also been paid much attention to by experts and scholars.Primary education is of great importance for the growth of students and of essentiality for the cultivation of their learning habits.What's more,whether the practice of cooperative learning in the English class of primary school can be ensured is rather important as it is one of the key concepts put forward in Chinese New English Curriculum Reform.Under such background,what comes into being is the gradual development of cooperative learning into a respected teaching model in New Curriculum Standard and the increased emergence of related researches.Through reviewing the literature in nearly the past decade,the writer finds that most cases are about the theories concerning cooperative learning while the studies based on practices are very insufficient and far from satisfaction.There are more researches on secondary stages when compared with primary stage,and the similar facts can be seen on the research on Math and Chinese instead of English;and the research methodology is mainly based on the applied research rather than on empirical research.Under the guidance of cooperative learning theories,this thesis presents the research of cooperative learning on students at the fifth grade in a primary school in Xi'an,and focuses on the effectiveness of cooperative learning.The methods of this study include questionnaire,test,interview and classroom observation,and SPSS 19.0 is used for comparative analysis of the results of the questionnaire and statistical test.The followings are the findings of the study:(1)Cooperative learning is effective to improve students' English languageperformance;(2)For students in primary school,the interest in learning English is raised and cooperative learning improves classroom atmosphere and relationships between students,and strengthens students' self-efficacy.It is hoped that this study can be conducive to the better understanding of the effectiveness of cooperative learning and shed significant light on the application in primary school English teaching.