An Empirical Study On Application Of Cooperative Learning To Oral English Teaching In Junior High School

Cooperative learning is not an unfamiliar topic for teachers,educationalists,especially the researchers in field of education.However,it is not an easy thing to achieve successful application of the cooperative learning in classrooms.The teachers shall have comprehensive understanding of cooperative learning,such as its features,essentials,principles and terms,and how it functions in teaching practice.They shall also consider many factors when applying it,such as the students' preferences,the teaching objectives,the class size,their own teaching experiences,etc.,all of which will influence their teaching decisions in practices.Despite of these factors to bother in teaching practice,for English teachers,cooperative learning is quite a good option for them to use in teaching,especially oral teaching where the interaction among students are necessary.Although there are plenty of theoretical and practical studies on cooperative learning,there isn't any CL mode that is generally recognized and accepted in all aspects yet in the subject teaching area(Zeng Ni and Tian Xiaohong,2014).In addition,there are relatively not rich empirical studies on the application of cooperative learning to oral English teaching in junior high school.Hence,an empirical study that examines the teachers' implementation of cooperative learning in junior high oral English teaching would further contribute to the existing research literature.Based on the predecessors' studies,by employing interviews and classroom observations,this study tries to identify the junior high teachers' understandings and implementations of cooperative learning,and the factors,which influence their teaching behaviors of cooperative learning in oral English class with the hope of benefiting to the relevant qualitative studies at present.The study focuses on three research questions as below:(1)How do junior high English teachers understand cooperative learning?(2)In junior high oral English teaching,how do teachers implement the cooperative learning?(3)In junior high oral English teaching,what factors influence the teacher's implementation of cooperative learning?This study uses ethnography and different data collection methods to gather information about five junior high English teachers'interpretations and implementations of cooperative learning.These five teachers come from the same public school of a second-tier city in Central China.Through analysis,it was found that the teachers don't have a deep understanding of cooperative learning and their application of cooperative learning in their classroom practices was affected by some external and internal factors.The external ones involve the authorities concerned,the students,the class and the language tasks.The internal factors refer to the teacher's understanding of cooperative learning,attitudes towards its application in oral English teaching and teaching experiences.Among these factors,the teachers' understandings of cooperative learning played a significant role in their implementations.According to the results of this study,there are commonalities and differences in the application of cooperative learning by teachers who unsurprisingly show similarities and variations in their understanding of cooperative learning.As suggested by Siegel(2005),the human behavior is the result of processing of information input and the teachers' differences in CL implementation could be explained by their variations in CL understandings and experiences.Indeed,the teachers' teaching behaviors can't leave all kinds of personal and social influences that serve as information.The influencing factors interact with one another,resulting in the teachers' diversified adaptations of cooperative learning in classroom practice.However,because of their limited understanding and lack of relevant training or favorable experiences,their applications can barely be regarded as successful teaching practices.Rather than being conducted with in-depth application,cooperative learning only means a teaching form for most teachers who have adapted it to different degrees according to the teaching needs.