A Study Of Cooperative Learning In English Writing In Senior High School

Cooperative learning, an approach centered on students and targeted at making joint progress, provides practical possibility for the innovation of the teaching method and the enhancement of teaching efficiency and effectiveness in senior high school English writing. The present study aims to investigate the effects of cooperative learning on easing writing anxiety, boosting writing enthusiasm, and enhancing writing proficiency.The study conducted a pedagogic experiment which lasted for one semester in two Senior One classes. One of them was regarded as experimental class and received group cooperative instruction, while the other maintained to be instructed with the traditional teaching method, in most cases, that was the Grammar-Translation Method. In these two classes, the study tested students’ English writing proficiency levels before and after the experiment respectively, in order to explore whether cooperative learning improved students’ writing ability. The study also required students in the experimental class to complete questionnaires before and after the experiment, trying to find out whether cooperative learning changed students’ attitudes towards writing, eased their writing anxiety and made them more active and enthusiastic about writing.Based on the analysis of the data collected from the experiment, the study finds out that group cooperative learning helps students build up confidence when writing in English, cultivates their writing interest and improves their writing ability effectively. This teaching method also reduces students’ writing anxiety and pressure, enables students to enjoy English writing, encourages them to help each other and learn from each other and fosters their cooperative spirit in study. Cooperative learning has every student take part in the whole process of writing and motivates them to write more actively.Finally, the study suggests some pedagogic implications of this study, intending to shed some light on the teaching of senior high school English writing.