Improving Senior English Writing Class Through Cooperative Learning

This thesis starts with an analysis of the definitions of cooperative learning, made by scholars both at home and abroad in different periods, working out the common connotation of these different definitions, and the main characteristics of cooperative learning as a teaching strategy. The whole history of human development is permeated with cooperation, which is decided by the social attribute of human beings. Cooperative learning, as a way of learning has a long history, but not until the 1970s did it get a rapid development as a teaching theory and strategy. Thereafter, cooperative learning came into being different schools and their correspondent teaching approaches. The thesis also makes an analysis of the significance of implementing cooperative learning in teaching practice of senior English writing, and the status quo of its development, pointing out that the new high school English curriculum reform calls for implement of cooperative learning in teaching practice in high school English class. Its implement includes such four major aspects as division of learning groups, setting of a cooperative goal of the group, division of labor as well as cooperation on the part of group members, and setting of an assessment system. The thesis focuses on an analysis of and a probe into the practice of cooperative learning in senior high school English writing class. It first elaborates different teaching approaches closely related to writing class of this particular type, pointing out that the change of teaching approaches, from process approach to genre-based teaching approach, does not mean a mere change in teaching approaches, but reflects a consistent development and perfection of basic teaching ideas. And now there are still some puzzling problems confronting us in senior English writing class. An attempt to solve some of the problems brings forth the teaching experiment, guided by cooperative learning strategy, on senior English writing class.The experiment takes as its subject two parallel classes in senior one, and is designed to, through a comparative teaching lasting a period of five months, verify the effectiveness of cooperative learning, applied to improving the senior English writing classroom instruction, and its significant effect on students' strategies of cognition, regulation and communication. The experiment is composed of a whole series of shared activities on the part of both teachers and students, and some specific cases of writing classroom instruction. Experimental data are collected and analyzed by means of pretests and posttests of the experiment, questionnaires and inquiries. Based on an analysis of these data, a summary is made, pointing out the characteristics and the significance of applying cooperative learning strategy in a senior English writing class, problems that remain unsolved, and some reflections on this teaching experiment. And above all, the experiment provides a referable case for any further study in this particular area.