An Empirical Study Of College English Writing Teaching Based On Cooperative Learning Theory

Writing,being an important way of language output and one of the most basic language skills,plays a crucial role in English learning.However,for many Chinese college students,especially for non-English majors,their English writing performance is still not satisfactory.In the light of the present situation,more and more scholars are committed to seeking an effective teaching method for English writing.And lots of researches have indicated that cooperative learning,as a creative and effective teaching theory and strategy,has great influence on improving students’ English writing ability.Therefore,it is imperative to carry out the study dealing with the application of cooperative learning theory into English writing teaching to improve students’ English writing performance.In view of this,80 non-English major freshmen from Xi’an Polytechnic University were chosen as the research subjects,who were divided into the experimental class and the control class.And then a writing teaching experiment for one semester was carried out,in which the experimental class adopted the writing teaching method based on cooperative learning theory,while the control class the traditional writing teaching method.To be specific,this study employed the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods,including questionnaires,English writing tests and writing tasks,writing teaching experiment as well as the interview,aiming to answer the following three research questions.(1)What’s the non-English majors’ attitude towards cooperative learning in English writing?(2)What are the significant differences in English writing performance between control class and experimental class after the writing teaching experiment based on cooperative learning theory?(3)What are the changes of students’ attitude towards cooperative learning in English writing in experimental class after the writing teaching experiment based on cooperative learning theory?The research results are presented as follows.(1)Non-English majors’ attitude towards cooperative learning in English writing is at a medium level before the writing teaching experiment.(2)Before the writing teaching experiment,students in EC and CC have almost the same English writing performance.However,after the writing teaching experiment based on cooperative learning theory,EC,compared with CC,appears significant differences both in integral English writing performance and in content,organization,grammar and vocabulary in English writing.(3)After the writing teaching experiment based on cooperative learning theory,there appears a significant difference in EC students’ attitude towards cooperative learning in English writing,which indicates that students in EC have a deeper understanding of cooperative learning in English writing.Thus,in comparison with the traditional English writing teaching,the college English writing teaching based on cooperative learning theory can greatly contribute to the improvement of non-English majors’ English writing performance,which is really an effective teaching method for English writing.