A Study Of Group Members' Interaction On A Junior High School English Class: Perspective Of Activity Theory

With the implementation of the National English Curriculum Criteria,which advocates student-centered English teaching,English education puts more emphasis on students' autonomous learning and cooperative learning ability.Group activity is one of the most effective organization forms to realize students' autonomous learning and cooperative learning.Group activity can mobilize students' learning enthusiasm,create a relaxed and pleasant learning atmosphere and develop students' comprehensive language ability.However,the organization and implementation of group activity in English class faced a number of problems for a long time,and previous studies mainly attach importance to the organization forms of group activity,studies on students' group activity process are relatively rare.Therefore,the present study aims to explore the real process of group activity under the guidance of Activity Theory.The present study is carried out in a senior high school English class,participants included eight students formed two groups.Classroom observation and interview were adopted to probe the following three research questions: 1)What does each group member actually do during the group activity? 2)What is the group activity process and how does the process influence the activity products? 3)How does each elements of activity system influence the group activity process and products?The research finding are as follows: Students have the same goal to carry out the activity(Students cooperate to complete a composition),but they have different motives and goals in the activity process,based on this,the activity products also produced some differences;Different learning motives and cooperation patterns will have different influences on activity process and activity products;Among the six elements influencing the activity system,students' group activities are mostly influenced by subject's motives,the objects and the influence of community.They are less influenced by the division of labor,rules and tools.In the end,based on the research results,the author offers some teaching suggestions.