An Empirical Study On The "Transformation" Of Senior High School Students With English Learning Difficulties Under The Guidance Of Cooperative Learning Theory

With the further progress of the curriculum reform in our country,English teaching is increasingly challenged by many new challenges,especially in the high school teaching where an increasing number of students with learning difficulties begin to arise.How to help these students get out of their predicament has attracted our attention.On the other hand,as a newly-emerged way of learning,Cooperative Learning has been favored in education reform in all countries,and has been widely used in teaching practice.The Decision on Reform and Development of Basic Education issued by the State Council in 2001 pointed out that we should encourage Cooperative Learning,promote mutual exchanges and mutual benefits between teachers and students and facilitate the teaching and learning of teachers and students.In 2011,the Ministry of Education promulgated The New English Curriculum Standards(2011)for full-time compulsory education in senior high schools,which clarifies the learning method of adopting experience,practice,participation,cooperation and exchange from the students'learning interest and life experience in English teaching.Based on the background mentioned above,this paper carries out a practical exploration of using Cooperative Learning theory for the transformation of senior high school students with English learning difficulties.This empirical study was conducted in a senior middle school in Changsha on the basis of the previous researches on students with learning difficulties and Cooperative Learning both at home and abroad under the guidance of Cooperative Learning Theory and Multiple Intelligence Theory.Instruments like classroom observation,questionnaires,interviews and tests are applied to collect data which will be used to discuss the transformation effects of the appropriate use of Cooperative Learning on learning interest,learning habits and academic performance of students with learning difficulties.In the process of research,the author randomly divided the two classes taught as the experimental class and the control class based on the relevant studies of Students With Learning Difficulties and Cooperative Learning.In the experimental class,Cooperative Learning methods of teaching were implemented while in the control class,the author adopted the traditional way of teaching.Through the analyses of all the results from questionnaires,tests,classroom observation and interviews,the author would like to research and demonstrate three questions:1)what effects does Cooperative Learning have on stimulating the learning interests of the senior high school students with learning difficulties?2)What positive effects does the Cooperative Learning have on the development of the students' good learning habits?3)what changes will the students' academic performances undergo with the help of Cooperative Learning?Through data analysis,the major findings are concluded as follows:(1)The students with English learning difficulties from the experimental class like to learn English through Cooperative Learning,and that their interest in learning has significantly increased.(2)Most students can gradually develop good learning habits under the guidance of Cooperative Learning Theory.(3)There is a corresponding promotion in the academic performance of all the students surveyed in the experimental class.The experiment indicates that the Cooperative Learning Approach is indeed more effective than the traditional way of teaching to transform the senior high school students with English learning difficulties.However,due to restrictions of author's theoretical competence and some other reasons,this experiment inevitably has some limitations.Further study on transforming high school students with English learning difficulties based on cooperative learning theory should still be continued.