On The Use Of Cooperative Learning In Language Teaching In High School

In the 1990's of the 20^th century, our nation placed quality education in the centre of theoverall education reform. Regarded as 'basis of bases', our high school Chinese teachinghas received special attention from our country and people from all walks of life. It has thusbecome a topical subject in the educational circle of Chinese teachers that 'how we cancultivate students abilities of collecting and processing information, acquiring newknowledge, analyzing and solving problems and communicating and cooperating'and howwe can pour new life into traditional Chinese teaching.The notion of cooperative learning revived in the 1970's and became very popular in ashort time. It was introduced into China as an advanced educational notion. Over the past afew years, a lot of Chinese teachers have been probing into different approaches ofcooperative learning. However, whether in theory or in practice, cooperative learning is stillin its beginning stages and the application of cooperative learning to Chinese teaching isamong its weakest links. Therefore the author, referring to her practical experience, is tryingto put the theory into practice, hoping to delve further into the area.The essay first reveals the negative influences of traditional Chinese teaching method onforming the positive human relationships between students and on students'mental health.Traditional Chinese teaching method proves not to be capable of shouldering theresponsibility of cultivating qualified talents for the new century. So it is the right time toadopt cooperative learning method. Next, the essay explains the definition and the historicalorigins of cooperative learning by comparing the main differences between cooperativelearning and traditional teaching method in the setting of educational purposes, educationalmanagement forms, relationship between students and teachers and evaluation methods.Then, on this basis, from the angles of students'intellectual and mental development, policysupport of the education authorities and her practical experience, the author probes deep intonecessity and feasibility of applying cooperative learning. After that, the essay explains theapproaches of applying cooperative learning to Chinese teaching, trying to find out how toput theory into practice. Before having a cooperative learning class, not only should theclass be divided into different groups according to a certain criterion but also the studentsand their teacher should make proper preparations for the content of courses, cooperativepsychology and cooperative skills. While in class, according to different purposes of tasks,the teacher should flexibly use different forms of cooperative learning methods to cultivatetheir different abilities of learning Chinese whenever it is needed. After that, the teachershould make sound evaluations to ensure that cooperative learning can accomplish itspurposes to the greatest extent each time. In the end, the author rationally reflects on theachievements and problems of the application of cooperative learning to Chinese teaching,giving a deep analysis of the reasons behind them, in order that we can better our teachingorganization in Chinese teaching to improve its educational effects.