An Investigation Into English Cooperative Learning-A Case Study In Chongqing Senior High School

China brought cooperative learning into its classroom of and primary middle schools in the 1990s and it has caused much discussion since then.But there is no fixed and perfect model of cooperative learning.And how to practise cooperative learning in the test-originated education system in China is still a problem.Chongqing Senior High School where the author works is adopting cooperative learning model actively which provides the author with the opportunity to carry out her research.This paper explores the English cooperative learning in Chongqing Senior High School and aims to answer the following questions:1)what is the basic situation of cooperative learning in Chongqing Senior High school?2)what are the major advantages and disadvantages of cooperative learning in Chongqing Senior High?3)And what is the role of teachers in class?In order to find out the answers,questionnaire,students interview and classroom observation are used during the research.The research focuses on the students in five classes of senior one who just graduated from junior high and lasted for one semester.There are two questionnaires,the first of which is given at the beginning of the semester.The questions are related to their previous learning types,their interest and motivation about their English learning,which is to get a clear idea of students'previous learning experience in junior high school.The second questionnaire is given at the end of the semester.Similar questions are conducted to find out whether there are significant changes on their interest,motivation and performance in class.The results show that more than half of the students think that they have got more interest and confidence in learning English and take part in the class activities actively.They believe that the relaxed leaning atmosphere is helpful and they would like to learning English through cooperative learning.Students interview include 12 students from different English levels and they are interviewed about their feelings,comments,favorite class activities and advice on improvement.First,the students interviewed all admit that they like the cooperative learning because group members could help each other which reduces their learning anxiety and improves their learning interest.Second,class discussion,role play and jigsaw are their favorite class activities.Lastly,they hope that teacher could give them more specific instructions before class.English teachers of the five chosen classes were interviewed about their principles in grouping the class,their purpose when walking around,how do they assess the groups and what their reflections are.During the class observation,it is found that students could give correct answers through group discussion.Most students could participate the class activities actively and complete their tasks perfectly,which shows that cooperative learning can create a relaxing learning atmosphere for students.But there are still some disadvantages of cooperative learning.First,there are unsatisfying effects in class because some students depend on other group members too much and the class activities are not diversified enough,which need teachers to give properly designed activities and clear individual responsibilities.Teachers can act as class organizers and facilitators in class but they can not give effective evaluation every time the students give answers.Lastly,the assessment is mainly given by teachers in class which is personal.Diversified assessing methods are suggested such as group assessing and self assessing.