The Study On Application Of Cooperative Learning Strategy In English Class Teaching Of Junior High Schools

Cooperative learning is acclaimed as the most important and the most successful teaching reform in the decade. Cooperative learning is a kind of instructional strategy which takes the cooperation group as the basic form and takes the group performance as the evaluation standards. The strategy should bring into the full play to the students’ self-initiatives and accomplish the instructional objectives and activities together to improve learning effect.The study is based on the constructivism theory, social interdependence theory and the social cohesiveness theory. The concept of cooperative learning was concluded, which was based on the achievement and the literature of cooperative learning and discussed how to implement cooperative learning in English class teaching in junior high school through the specific teaching case. The objects of the study were two classes of Grade Eight in NO.1Junior High School in Xixian. Before the experiment, the current situation of the cooperative learning strategy was understood by questionnaires and interviews with the teachers who teach English in the school so that we could find the problems existing in cooperative learning. Based on the problems, some strategies to implement cooperative learning effectively were put forward. And then the study proved the feasibility of cooperative learning through the strategies used in the specific teaching case. At the beginning of the term, we took English learning atmosphere table, English learning motivation table and English learning methods table as the research tools, in order to understand the students’atmosphere, motivation and methods of learning English. After implementing cooperative learning for one term, the students were surveyed by the same three tables again and they were interviewed to understand the students’cognition and attitude to cooperative learning strategy. And then, the study argued the effect of cooperative learning by the results of the survey and by comparing the achievement between the experimental class and the control class, before and after implementing cooperative learning.This paper is divided into six parts, focusing on "The Study on Application of Cooperative Learning in English Teaching of Junior High Schools". The first part is the introduction. As the start of the paper, this part expounds the background, the purpose, the significance, the thoughts and methods of the study. The second part is the literature review, which analyzes, concludes and summarizes the relevant studies on cooperative learning both at home and abroad. The third part is the theoretical basis of cooperative learning. In this part, the paper summarized the concept of cooperative learning, and then discussed the theoretical basis comprehensively. The fourth part focuses on the present situation of cooperative learning of junior high schools. The present situation of cooperative learning of junior high schools was surveyed by using the methods of questionnaires and interviews and then summarized some problems in English class teaching, and finally came up with some effective strategies for cooperative learning. The fifth part is the analysis of the specific teaching case of cooperative learning in English class of junior high schools. Two classes were chosen as the experimental classes to study cooperative learning. It turned out that cooperative learning was workable and effective in English teaching of junior high schools. However, in the process of the experiment, there are still some problems which have not been solved effectively. The sixth part is conclusion. This part summarizes the study and some suggestions on the problems are put forward, and then this part introduces the limitations of the study.The study shows that the cooperative learning strategy in English teaching of junior high schools is feasible and it conforms to the law of physical and mental development of the junior high school students. Cooperative learning strategy has a certain scientific nature and effectiveness. It can improve the students’academic achievement, mobilize students’initiative of learning English and change their attitude to learn English. Cooperative learning strategy can enhance the students’consciousness of cooperation, let the students learn how to cooperate with others, rather than competition. Cooperative learning embodies the students’subjectivity, so that they actively participate in activities to reach all aspects of development. Cooperative learning can develop the students’ autonomous ability to learn and improve the students’interest in learning English and their attitude to English. Cooperative learning, at the same time, improves the relationship between teachers and students, and builds equal, harmonious and democratic learning atmosphere. To some extent, all of these promoted the improvement of the students’academic achievement. However, there are some problems we should think about when we use cooperative learning strategy. First, the students lack cooperation consciousness and skills. Second, the students are divided into groups unreasonably. Third, the students’participation is not balanced. Fifth, the teachers lack the guidance on cooperative learning.