The Application Of Cooperative Learning To English Reading In Senior High Schools

The21stcentury is the knowledge-based economy age. As an internationallanguage, English is becoming more and more important. As one of the mostimportant parts of English teaching in senior high schools, reading plays adecisive role in cultivating students’ reading ability. But it is a pity that ourEnglish reading tuition is far from being satisfactory. Teaching reading is mostlyone-way education：teachers try to instill all information into the students’ mindsand this often accounts for the students’ passive acceptance of knowledge. Thereare few chances for them to interact with each other. Reading course oftenfocuses on vocabulary, phrases, grammar, or translation of texts. In the end,students merely become a container of the teaching stuff, rarely having a fullunderstanding of either the main idea of the text or the real communicativeintent of the author. As a result, students cannot enjoy the pleasure from reading,and they lack motivation. This model ignores the direction in study method andthe important role the interaction between students is playing in the process ofteaching and students’ development. It not only restrains the students’ creationand personality but also binds their practical activities. Gradually, students losethe confidence in reading. In order to find a more effective way of teaching andlearning and change the traditional teaching method of reading, the authorrecommends applying cooperative learning (CL) approach to the readinginstruction and the study is mainly aimed at investigating the followingquestions:(1) Does CL motivate students to read?(2) Does CL improve students’ grades in reading?The experiment which that the researcher did lasted ten months. Theresearch involved54students in Class4Grade One of Weifang No.1MiddleSchool. A pre-test and a post-test were conducted to find out the changes in students’ proficiency in reading. Moreover, questionnaires and interviews wereadministered to investigate changes in students’ attitudes to reading and CL. Thedata from the results of the experiment were analyzed, and a comparison wasmade between the results before and after the experiment. In the experiment,according to the practical situation, the reading process can be divided into threeparts: pre-reading, reading and post-reading. In the reading process, studentsform groups and under the direction of the researcher, every group should worktogether and achieve some goals. At last, their performance should be evaluatedby other groups or the researcher. This model is aimed at forming a newatmosphere which improves the students’ reading proficiency and achieves goalseffectively. Through CL, students promote each other and share knowledge andexperience, and there is a change in their role from passive learners to activeones. On one hand, this model trains students’ reading ability and improve theirreading proficiency. On the other hand, it can cultivate their awareness andability of co-operation. In a free atmosphere, students can explore together,study together and make progress together. Meanwhile, there is change in theteacher’s role from knowledge spreader to instructor, inspirer and participant.The research has the following findings:(1) CL can motivate students to read.(2)CL can improve students’ grades in reading.The result of the experiments shows that it is feasible to implement CL inEnglish reading. The suggestions for the solution of problems are also given inthe thesis.