Application Of Cooperative Learning In Elementary Chinese Comprehensive Course In Thailand

With the increasing political and economic power of China,the trend of "Chinese craze" has been widely spread around the world.As a friendly neighbor of China,Thailand has been improving Chinese teaching's status in the national education in recent years.However,in the course of Chinese teaching in Thailand,the author found that students are lacking motivation in learning Chinese,and the learning attitude is undisciplined and they are prone to anxiety.In the Chinese language class,teaching is given priority.Students lack interaction and communication and they have little opportunities to practice and use Chinese.Therefore,the Chinese teaching is not very satisfactory.Cooperative learning is based on heterogeneous study group.Students complete learning tasks together through mutual cooperation in the group,which can effectively promote students' interaction and communication and have a better learning outcome.Therefore,the author introduced the cooperative learning to elementary Chinese comprehensive course in Thailand,and carried out a teaching practice of cooperation learning for one semester in Kaengnuea Middle School,Khemmarat County,Ubon Ratchathani Province,Thailand.This paper aims to solve the following problems:can cooperative learning stimulate students' motivation to learn Chinese,cultivate learners' positive learning attitude,and reduce their anxiety of learning Chinese.Whether cooperative learning can promote students' interaction and communication,and increase the opportunities for students to practice and use Chinese and have a better learning outcome in Chinese learning or not.In this study,the author practiced cooperative learning in Thai elementary Chinese comprehensive course and presented three cases.The analysis of the practice revealed a positive effect of cooperative learning by student evaluation through a questionnaire.The conclusion is that: cooperative learning can motivate the motivation of Chinese learning,cultivate learners' positive learning attitude,reduce anxiety in Chinese learning,promote students' interaction and communication,and increase students' opportunities to practice and use Chinese.Therefore students achieved better Chinese learning outcomes.In addition,through classroom observation,after-class reflection and the interview of auditor teachers,the author discussed some problems in the course of cooperative learning and finally gives some suggestions for elementary Chinese comprehensive course in Thailand.