An Empirical Research On The Problems And Countermeasures Of Cooperative Learning In English Teaching In Rural Junior High School

With the development of English curriculum innovation,how to realize student’s main role in English class and how to promote student’s comprehensive development are becoming the hot issue in education research.Cooperative learning,which can cultivate student’s sense of cooperation and stimulate their interest in learning English,can adapt to the requirements of English curriculum innovation,so it is applied extensively in China.Yangqiao Junior High School that the author works became the model school of applying cooperative learning in 2016.But the author found the implementation of cooperative learning in English class is not so good when the author talked with the teachers and students who have already tried the cooperative learning in English class as pilot classes.As a new front-line teacher who will apply cooperative learning in English class,the author not only knows the advantages and importance of cooperative learning,but also learns the development lag of cooperative learning in rural English class.Therefore,the author decides to carry out a research on the problems and it’s countermeasures of cooperative learning in English teaching in rural junior high school.Based on related theories,goal reward structure,development theories,social interdependence theory and learning motivation theory,the following problems are studied in the thesis:1.What are the problems of cooperative learning in English teaching in rural junior high school?2.What countermeasures are effective to solve these problems?In order to make the research more objective and authentic,the author designs the research procedures carefully.The survey participant are 188 students from four classes and 11 teachers,including 98 students from control classes in Grade Eight who have already experienced cooperative learning in their English classes and 90 students from experimental classes in Grade Seven that the author teaches.And all of these teachers take part in the survey have tried to apply cooperative learning in English teaching for one year.First,questionnaires,which take references fromother’s thesis,was conducted in the control classes.At the same time,interview and class observation were also used in the control classes.From analyzing the data for these researches,some problems that existing in English class with cooperative learning were found.In the meanwhile,the author also did a pre-test in experimental classes.The pre-test took the test paper that the control classes used in the same period as the test material.Second,based on related theories and the suggestions from some experienced English teachers,the author put forward some countermeasures and implemented them into classroom teaching in experimental classes,and some good results have been achieved.At the end of the research,the author did post-test in experimental classes by examination,the test paper was used in the post-test is also the paper that used in control classes in the same period.In order to learn students’ attitude toward cooperative learning in experimental classes,questionnaire was conducted in experimental classes.SPSS 21.0 was used to analyze the data collected through the research.Through the analysis of the data,the author finds some problems that exist in the English class with cooperative learning in rural junior high school: from student’s aspect:(1)weak foundation in English;(2)no habit of previewing;(3)lack of cooperation sense;(4)not good at expression;(5)misunderstanding on cooperative learning.From teacher’s aspect:(1)slavish limitation of cooperative learning;(2)applying cooperative learning passively;(3)preparation for cooperative learning is not adequate;(4)having no experience in teaching with the cooperative learning;(5)influenced by exam-oriented education;(6)ineffective evaluation mechanism.It can be seen that experimental classes made greater progress in English learning from the result of the post-test.And the author learned that the students’ attitude toward cooperative learning is more optimistic than that in control classes through questionnaire.All of these change and improvement of students prove that the following countermeasures are effective,from teacher’s aspect:(1)making cooperation learning adapt their own classes through internalization;(2)cultivating students’ skills of cooperative learning;(3)grouping students reasonably.(4)adequate instructional design;(5)preparing proper learning materials.Students is also the keyrole in cooperative learning,so they should also try their best to make an effect on improving cooperative learning in their own English classes under the help and guidance of teachers:(1)creating group culture;(2)role assignment.This research provides reference for implementing an effective cooperative learning in English class in rural junior high school.This research also has a certain value on improving English teaching in junior high school in rural area.Beyond this,this research gives a more suitable cooperative learning model for rural junior high school English teaching.If cooperative learning can be applied in class reasonably,it can improve students’ learning and give them some help in comprehensive development.Even though some positive effects have been achieved in the survey,there are still some limitations in the survey for the subjective and objective constraints.Such as the sample size is rather small,the term is still short and some problems that can’t solve because of author’s limited experience and ability,for example,left-children and large-class.