An Action Research On The Application Of Cooperative Learning To Improve Learners' Motivation In English Listening And Speaking Learning In Senior High School

Listening and speaking are essential abilities of English language competence,which is one of the four fundamental components of core competencies of English subject.The development of learners' language competence can promote the other three core competences,including learning competence,thinking competence and cultural competence,which are beneficial to broaden learners' international horizon and thinking,and promote international communication,according to the “English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School” in2017.Meanwhile learning motivation is a critical factor in the process of language learning,and it is the internal driving force which directly promotes students' learning and affects students' learning attitude,learning strategies,and academic performance.So how to arouse language learning motivation in order to promote English listening and speaking learning is still worth probing.Based on the cooperative learning theory,taking a class in a senior high school in Hui Zhou,Guang Dong as the research subjects,the thesis adopted the methodology of action research to conduct the application of cooperative learning for 17 weeks,aiming to locate another effective and efficient approach to promoting students' language competence by probing into the effects of cooperative learning on learners' motivation in English listening and speaking learning.Data,collected from the motivation questionnaire designed based on D?rnyei's motivational model,interviews before,during and after cooperative learning,teaching journals,and learning diaries,would be analyzed by SPSS 25 and Microsoft Excel,,from which,the thesis intended to figure out answers to the following two research questions:1)What's the current situation of the learners' motivation in English listening and speaking learning in senior high school? 2)To what extent does the application of cooperative learning affect learners' motivation in English listening and speaking learning in senior high school?The detailed and specific action research was carried out for two rounds.In the first round of intervention,Kagan's structural approach and Johnson's learning together were used in the English listening and speaking teaching.After the first round of intervention,the situation of teaching had improved to some extent,but there were some problems in thecooperative learning as there were still some free-riders who were not so active in the group.Through interviews with learners,adjustments were made to the action plan.And Slavin's STL(student-team-learning)and Kagan's three-step-interview were used to the next round of application.After the two rounds of the action,the questionnaire was used to investigate whether cooperative learning had an influence on learners' motivation in English listening and speaking learning or not;secondly,the interviews were conducted with learners to study the effect of cooperative learning;and meanwhile,in the process of the interventions,the author kept writing teaching journals and invited three learners to write learning diaries as well,in order to study the effect of cooperative learning on learners' motivation further.Findings revealed that: 1)Situation of learners' motivation in English listening and speaking learning was not so satisfying.Specifically,at language level,learners were more instrumental,while motivation at both learners' and learning situation levels were relatively low,which may affect learners' performance in the class,and do harm to their learning;2)After the intervention for a semester,it could be found that cooperative learning helped improve learners' motivation in English listening and speaking learning,especially motivation at learner level and motivation at learning situation level.Learners' performance in the class became more active and some learners spared more efforts to their learning.And through paired-sample-test of the questionnaires before and after cooperative learning,the sig.was0.00,which demonstrated that cooperative learning helped improve learners' motivation in English listening and speaking learning to some extent.The study is of certain significance.Theoretically,this action research has discovered some problems in the process of applying cooperative learning theory to teaching practice,which can provide some implications for the future studies on CL.Pedagogically,in terms of teaching practice,this study explores the effects of CL on learning motivation,which can also bear some new insights for English listening and speaking teaching to promote students' language competence.