A Research On The Application Of Cooperative Learning In Teaching English In The Primary Classroom For Year Four Pupils

Cooperative learning, a learning and teaching strategy, originated in Americain the60’s or70，s of the twentieth Century. Different from the traditionalteaching model, which is more teacher-centered, cooperative learning is student-centered. In each learning group, all the group members work hard for the samegoal or to fulfill the same task. During the activities, they help and learn fromeach other, participate and cooperate, practice and explore. Now, cooperativelearning is a better way to cultivate the essential qualities of students’ who arepreparing themselves for the21st Century, such as their awareness of unity andcooperation, team spirit and their ability and skills of communication. Thus, as aneffective strategy, cooperative learning has aroused great interest of manyChinese scholars and experts in the ifeld of English teaching and research. Theyhave tried their best to do the researches on cooperative learning, not onlyexperimental but also theoretical. However, among the experimental researches，there are few about English teaching in primary schools. That’s why the authorchooses the Grade Four students in her school as the participants of this study.And this application research on cooperative learning lasts for a year.At the beginning of this research, the author studies the basic theoriesand related conceptions of cooperative learning and also summarizes the recentresearch findings on this topic at home and abroad. Next, the author uses avariety of scientiifc research methods to collect many kinds of data through questionnaires on English learning and some important English exams. Then,with the help of the bar chart and SPSS21.0statistical analysis software, theauthor makes the detailed comparative analysis on the data. According to theexperimental results and her own teaching experience, the author states thecurrent situation of the English learning in the class and the primary students’English ability in her school, analyzes the causes of this situation，anddemonstrates the effectiveness of the application of cooperative learning in theclass. The results show that cooperative learning can improvestudents’ classroom learning situation and their English achievements. Finally,the author offers recommendations on how to make cooperative learning effectiveand applicable in English teaching at primary school.The author does hope that this research can be of some reference and help toother primary school English teachers.