An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Cooperative Learning On Senior High School Students' English Writing Self-efficacy

English writing,as one of the crucial ways of language output,is of essential importance to learners inevitably.Being one of the four basic language skills,it can reflect learners' English language competence in a most direct,obvious and authentic way.English writing in senior high schools is not an exception,given the corresponding and specific requirements stated explicitly in the English Curriculum Standard for Senior High Schools.Nevertheless,the English writing performance of high school students at present is far form satisfactory.It is a commonly existing phenomenon that the majority of students in senior high schools feel either unwilling to write in English or incompetent to write an English composition.As a great number of scholars have proposed,writing is not only a cognitive activity,but also an emotional activity.That is to say,the incapability of writing an English composition is a matter of writing ability,belonging to the category of cognition,whereas the unwillingness to write in English refers to individuals' emotional factors.Therefore,both the cognitive ability and emotional factors are of equal importance to English writing.English writing self-efficacy is one of the key emotional factors which is influential to students' English writing achievements.A considerable number of studies have shown that students' English writing self-efficacy is positively related to students' English writing achievements.Individuals with stronger English writing self-efficacy tend to perform better in English writing.Therefore,it is of great significance to make explorations into effective approaches to enhance students' English writing self-efficacy.Enlightened by cooperative learning,the author took advantage of cooperative learning with the purpose of making an exploration into the effects of cooperative learning on the English writing self-efficacy of senior high school students on the basis of self-efficacy theory proposed by Bandura in 1977.With students from two parallel classes in a senior high school as the research subjects,Senior High School English Writing Self-efficacy Questionnaire,writing tests and interview as the research instruments,the research,which lasted for 16 weeks,adopted cooperative learning teaching mode in the experimental class,whereas traditional teaching approach was applied in the control class in order to make explorationsinto the following research questions:1.What are the effects of cooperative learning on the English writing self-efficacy of students in senior high schools ?2.Can the application of cooperative learning in English writing class have the same effect on the English writing self-efficacy of students with different English writing proficiency in senior high schools?3.Can the application of cooperative learning in English writing class improve the English writing achievements of students in senior high schools ?The following findings emerged from the research.Firstly,cooperative learning can enhance students' English writing self-efficacy more effectively compared with the traditional teaching mode;both of the two aspects of students' English writing self-efficacy,namely the English writing skill self-efficacy and the English writing task self-efficacy got enhanced significantly;it can be concluded from the interview that a series of activities embodied in cooperative learning such as brainstorming,peer review,group cooperation and competition,made students experience more sense of achievement,encouragement,affirmation and the power of the models in a more relaxed learning atmosphere,all of which were consistent with the information sources proposed by Bandura and played a positive role in enhancing students' English writing self-efficacy.Secondly,significant promotion of students' English writing self-efficacy can be indicated in both the high-achiever group and the low-achiever group.However,the English writing self-efficacy of students in the low-achiever group was increased more than that of students in the high-achiever group.Thirdly,cooperative learning can improve senior high school students' writing achievements to a significant extent as well.On the basis of the research findings,some implications are drawn to improve students' English writing self-efficacy and English writing teaching in senior high schools.