Application Of Homogeneous Grouping And Heterogeneous Grouping Cooperative Learning In Junior High School English Reading

The new curriculum reform emphasizes cooperative learning,which has been widely used in classroom teaching,including English reading teaching.Grouping is the precondition of cooperative learning.The typical grouping methods are homogeneous grouping and heterogeneous grouping.Homogeneous grouping cooperative learning means dividing students of similar ability levels,gender,interest,hobby,learning style,and experience in learning,etc into the same groups to cooperate with each other.Heterogeneous grouping cooperative learning means dividing students of different ability levels,gender,interest,hobby,learning style,and experience in learning,etc into same groups to cooperate with each other.As to which of the two grouping ways is better,it is still a controversial topic in this field.So the researcher chose two classes(Class One 48 and Class Two 47)with similar number of students as research subjects,and divided them into three levels(high,medium and low)based on their English reading scores,gender,interest,hobby,learning style etc.to carry out homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping cooperative learning of English reading.The purposes of the research are to compare(1)Which kind of grouping cooperative learning can be more effective in improving junior high school students' English reading scores;(2)students in which level have higher improvement in both experimental classes.The experiment was carried out in two rounds.The first-round was from September to November.The result shows that:(1)Both homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping cooperative learning could improve junior high school students' English reading scores,and there was no significant difference.(2)In homogeneous grouping cooperative learning,high-and medium-achieving students' scores improved more than those of low-achieving students.(3)In heterogeneous grouping cooperative learning,the high-and medium-achieving students' scores improved more than that of low-achievers'.The combined analysis of the experimental data,the questionnaire data as well as the interview records shows that there are some deficiencies in the cooperation,but the reasons in both classes are quite different.In the homogeneous class,the scores of low-achieving students' did not improve because the teacher did not explain the grouping reason,and low-achieving students were antagonistic to grouping and were unwilling to cooperate.In the heterogeneous class,the low-achieving students' scores did not improve because the division of tasks was not clear and free-riding occurred,but the teacher did not detect and correct it in time.After some adjustments for deficiencies appeared in the first-round experiment,the second-round experiment was carried out.The second-round experiment lasted two months,from November to January.The experimental data showed that:(1)Both homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping cooperative learning can significantly improve junior high school students' English reading scores and there is no significant difference between them.(2)In homogeneous grouping cooperative learning,the high-and medium-achieving students' scores improved more than low-achieving students',and the results were consistent with the results in the previous researches.(3)In heterogeneous grouping cooperative learning,the high-,medium-and low-achieving students' scores all improved.The high-and low-achieving students' scores are consistent with the previous researches,but not the medium-achieving students'.The reason why medium-achieving students also made improvement was that in their cooperation process,they elaborated information by explaining to low-achieving students which in turn made them have a deep understanding of the information and maintain it in long-term memory.The study found that there was no significant difference in homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping cooperative learning.Homogeneous grouping benefits high-and medium-achieving students.Heterogeneous grouping is good for all three different level students.Therefore,in alleviating enrollment pressure in compulsory education,heterogeneous grouping is a better choice.At the same time,in cooperative learning,teachers need to constantly reflect on her teaching and be sensitive enough to observe problems that may appear in task design and assignment,evaluation as well as teacher's roles,so as to promote students' English reading.