The Implementation Of Cooperative Learning In The Public English Teaching In Higher Vocational Colleges

With the development of English teaching reform and the "students-centered" education thought, the cooperative learning has been more and more applied to the English classes as one of the major teaching theories and strategies in the world. In china, there are many researches about cooperative learning and its relevant experiments in English classrooms. However, a vast majority of the experiments are carried out in the English classes in primary and middle schools, and very few implementation in Higher Vocational Colleges, not to mention teaching non-English majors. In the light of this. The thesis aims to explore the effectiveness of the implementation of Cooperative Learning in the public English teaching in Higher Vocational Colleges.The author made a cooperative learning experiment lasting for one semester in Hubei Industrial Polytechnic. The author chose an experiment class and a control class. Both classes were taught by the author and before the experiment the average scores of them were almost the same. In the experimental class, cooperative learning-centered teaching mode was used; While in the control class, the traditional teacher-centered mode was used. The author elaborated the experiment process concretely and detailedly, such as the forming of CL groups, cultivation of CL ability, the design of CL tasks, students’ performance in CL, the evaluation model, and so on. To ensure the validity of the result, all the data were collected through a range of instruments such as test, questionnaire*interview and classroom observation, which were carefully analyzed and summarized.In the end, the thesis arrives at a conclusion on the basis of the research that implementation of CL in the public English teaching in Higher Vocational Colleges is not only feasible, abut also effective. CL can create a harmonious and relaxing atmosphere, increase students’interest in learning English, improve students’ practical abilities of English, develop students’sense of cooperation and ability of autonomous learning. What’s more, it can promote professional development of foreign language teachers. In addition, the author also discussed the limitations of the research and put forward suggestions for further studies.