An Experimental Study Of The Effect Of Application Of Cooperative Learning Theory On Process-Genre Writing Teaching Approach In College English

Cooperative learning was pervasive in America in the early 1970s. This effective teaching approach is widely used in English as second language class. Nowadays, many researchers have devoted to discuss positive effects of cooperative learning in improving students'different kinds of skills of foreign language learning and proved that cooperative learning greatly arouses students'potentials in improving their skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, and in communicating with others. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, process-genre writing teaching approach was put forward which is a synthesis of different writing teaching approaches such as product, process, and genre. Based on the real situation of college English writing teaching in our country, the researcher put forward a five-phase writing teaching model which applies cooperative learning to process-genre writing teaching approach. The five-phase refers to text analysis, title discussion, simulation, independent writing and peer assessment.The aim of this experimental study is to testify the effect of application of cooperative learning theory on process-genre writing teaching approach in college English writing. It utilizes cooperative learning activities and peer assessment to improve college students'writing ability. The ultimate purpose of the study is to increase communicative skills of language. The subjects are 103 freshmen from two parallel classes of College of Qi Taihe. The questionnaires are carried out to know the students'situation of writing before and after the experiment. Pre-test, mid-test and post-test are used to testify whether the five-phase writing model is more effective than other teaching models on English writing teaching. The researcher takes both quantitative and qualitative methods to data treatment. Through statistical analysis for questionnaires and tests, Excel 2003 and SPSS 16.0 are used. The findings indicate that the new teaching model which integrates cooperative learning theory to process-genre writing teaching approach make great improvements on students'writing ability. Five-phase writing teaching model which is used in experimental class is more effective than the product writing teaching approach that is used in control class. Meanwhile, there are significant differences in improving college English writing ability between two classes.The present thesis has both theoretical significance and practical value. In theory, it is a creation to integrate cooperative learning theory to process-genre writing teaching approach to design a new five-phase writing teaching model. In practice, the real problems in college English writing teaching are solved, which proves that this model is more effective. At last, the thesis presents implications and limitations of the research, and provides the suggestions for the future studies.