An Experimental Study On Effects Of Cooperative Learning Upon Development Of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies In A Senior High School

English vocabulary is the foundation of learning English, and many studies proved that vocabulary learning strategies can improve one’s vocabulary learning. Cooperative Learning is the teaching reform of new era, whose characteristic is a kind a teaching activity based on the group activity. It is believed that Cooperative Learning is effective to stimulate students’ learning interests as well as build up their confidence. There are few studies on whether Cooperative Learning is effective to improve students’ vocabulary learning strategies though researches on vocabulary learning strategies and Cooperative Learning are sufficient.Based on Cooperative Learning theory and Social Interdependence theory, an experimental study is conducted to explore how Cooperative Learning affects vocabulary learning strategies. The study aims to answer two questions: 1) Can Cooperative Learning help senior high school students to develop vocabulary strategies effectively? 2) To what extent does Cooperative Learning affect the vocabulary strategies development of students at different levels?Two parallel classes of Grade Two in a senior high school from Guangzhou are chosen. The class six, which consists of 40 students, is the experimental class, while the class twelve, which consists of 42 students, is the controlled class. The Cooperative Learning teaching approach was conducted in the experimental class to teach vocabulary learning strategies, while conventional teaching method was employed in the controlled class to instruct vocabulary learning strategies. Among the 40 participants in the experimental class, the top five who had the highest English scores in the final-exam of last term as well as the high school entrance examination were chosen as higher English proficiency students, while the bottom five who had the lowest English scores were chosen as lower English proficiency students. Questionnaires and interview were used to collect the data and results.The results of the research indicate that 1) Cooperative Learning can help studentsdevelop their metacognitive strategies, memory strategies and social strategies; 2) those who had higher English proficiency benefited more in developing metacognitive strategies and memory strategies, while those who have lower English proficiency benefited more in developing social strategies.