An Empirical Study Of The Influence On Students' Reading Motivation And Performance Based On Jigsaw Method In Reading Teaching In Junior High School

The New Curriculum Standard of Junior English for China advocates learning methods of experience,practice,cooperation and communication,aiming at developing students' independent learning competence and cooperative spirit and cultivating students' practical language competence.Cooperative learning,which combines autonomous learning with group cooperative learning,plays an important role in improving students' learning efficiency.As an effective classroom teaching mode on the basis of the cooperative learning theory,Jigsaw Method contributes to create a positive and harmonious classroom learning atmosphere with diversified teaching activities,enhancing students' confidence in learning by exploring solutions to certain problems through sharing and cooperating.Currently,empirical studies on Jigsaw Method are mostly concentrated in senior high school and college class,but few studies on junior English reading class are applied in the stage of compulsory education.The author applies Jigsaw Method to junior English reading class and compares it with traditional English reading teaching,trying to explore whether the application of Jigsaw Method can effectively stimulate students' learning motivation and improve their reading achievement.The study focuses on discussing the following two questions:(1)Does Jigsaw Method contribute to improve English reading achievement?(2)How does Jigsaw Method influence learning motivation of junior high school students?In order to answer the questions mentioned above,the author reviewed related domestic and foreign literature about reading motivation and Jigsaw Method.Then the author adopted empirical research method to explore whether Jigsaw Method had certain impacts on learning motivation and academic performance.With two parallel classes selected from a junior high school as the research subjects,the author carried out the experiment.Jigsaw Method was adopted to carry out reading teaching in the student-centered class,aiming to improve students' awareness of independent study.Traditional reading method was applied in the CC,in which the teacher dominated learning activities by imparting language knowledge to learners.According to Mori's theoretical model to assess reading motivation,reading motivation can be categorized into four dimension: Intrinsic Value of Reading,Extrinsic Utility Value of Reading,Importance of Reading and Reading Efficacy.After a semester of reading teaching,learning motivation of students in both classes was strengthened;a rise of students' academic achievement was shown in the EC,while there was no significant change in students' learning performance in the CC;the enhancement of students' learning motivation in the EC mainly focused on two aspects: Extrinsic Utility Value of Reading and Reading Efficacy.However,the overall enhancement of learning motivation in the CC was not obvious,and Extrinsic Utility Value of Reading was slightly strengthened.The experiment results showed that,Jigsaw Method contributes to enhancing students' Extrinsic Utility Value of Reading and students' learning confidence.The research result shows that,compared with the traditional reading teaching,the application of Jigsaw Method in junior English reading class can stimulate both students' Extrinsic Utility Value of Reading.Therefore,it is feasible to carry out Jigsaw Method in English reading teaching class in junior high school.