A Survey On The Implementation Of Cooperative Learning In Classroom Elt Of Rural Senior High Schools In East Henan

Cooperative learning (CL) rose in the middle of the 1970's in America, making full use of the dynamic elements in class and taking group work as its basic form. Cooperative learning promotes learners to work cooperatively in groups for a common goal. Cooperative learning, as an instructional methodology, provides opportunities for students to develop skills needed in today's world in-group interactions and in working with others. One of the goals of Basic Education Curriculum Reform is to transform students learning methods, to make students learn through the methods of autonomy, inquiry and cooperation. Therefore, it fits completely the requirements of New English Curriculum in China to apply cooperative learning in senior high school English class. Moreover, how to carry out cooperative learning is a focus among senior high school teachers.Researchers and teachers began to pay attention to cooperative learning since the early 1990s. There are many theoretical and practical researches and many experiments in some areas, which have achieved good results. Henan province is without a doubt ongoing curriculum reform and innovation, as well as implementing cooperative learning in many areas. Of course, the emergence of any new things cannot be expected to achieve the goal overnight, and many problems have to be addressed in the process of"localization". This thesis chooses three senior high schools in rural areas of Eastern Henan Province. The purpose aims at finding out some positive changes and major problems in the process of CL localization in classroom ELT of Senior High Schools in rural areas of Eastern Henan, and analyzing the course of these problems, hoping to draw some significant conclusions after the analysis of the data based on the cooperative learning theory.The present thesis raised the following questions:(1) What positive changes have taken place in ELT of senior high schools in the rural areas of Eastern Henan after the implementation of CL?(2) What are the major problems with implementation of CL in ELT of senior high schools in the rural areas of Eastern Henan? What causes the problems?In this research, three senior high schools in rural areas of Eastern Henan were investigated by classroom observation, interviews and questionnaires. The following are the major findings, including positive changes and major problems.There are four aspects of positive changes:(1) The cooperative learning is helpful for English learning, effectively narrowing the achievement gap between students; (2) Adopting the cooperative study, the teachers understand its importance and begin to apply the approach of cooperation in lessons preparation, teaching reflection and the improvement of teaching by themselves. (3) The cooperative learning creates a more active classroom atmosphere. (4)The cooperative learning improves the self-study ability of the students and promotes understanding and cooperation among students.The major problems are as follows:(1) The cooperative process itself has been over-stressed, while the preparation for CL has been neglected. (2) Teachers lack effective control of cooperative learning and active participation. (3) Task-distribution has been neglected in CL, which leads to poor individual responsibility and active inter-dependence. (4) Students are poor at cooperative skills like listening to peers, self-control and self-expressing. (5) Sixty percent students are still in the mood of passive listening, unable to participate actively into CL.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction, including research background, the research motivation and the overall structure of the thesis. Chapter 2 briefly reviews CL, including CL's essential factors, CL's methods and the present status of studies on CL both in China and aboard. Chapter 3 presents the research design. Chapter 4 shows the results and analysis of the questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation. Chapter 5 concludes the thesis with the major findings, some suggestions, and the limitations of this research.