Cooperative Language Learning In Scientific Writing Classes For Non-English Major Graduate Students

With the deepening of international communication,the demand for graduate students in English Scientific Writing Course has become increasingly prominent.In recent years,in order to improve graduate students' international academic communication skills and their English scientific writing ability,many universities try to open English Scientific Writing Course for graduate students.However,there are some problems in the practical development of the course: the different background of students,the different demand of academic papers writing,the single and ineffective teaching method and so on.In the meantime,sprung up in the United States in the early 1970 s,cooperative language learning is a creative and effective teaching theory.Because it has ameliorated the learning atmosphere in the classroom and improved the students' academic performance significantly,it soon became the concern of educationists all over the world.Therefore,the research put the teaching method of cooperative language learning into English scientific writing classes to explore the effectiveness of cooperative language learning on English scientific writing classes.The period of the research covered one semester.The experiment was carried out in Beijing Institute of Technology.The subjects consist of 60 graduate students who major in science in English scientific writing classes.Cooperative language learning was implemented in both classes by the same instructor.Along with the research,the data of questionnaires,tests,observations and interviews were collected.The results and analysis of the tests,observations,questionnaires and interviews demonstrate that cooperative language learning has made some effects on English scientific writing class: 1)Students became more interested in writing and feel less nervous in classes.2)Students benefit enormously in cooperative language learning classes.They improved not only writing scores,but also their language use ability.3)The students have a better understanding of cooperative language learning.Through cooperative learning,students' writing skill and communication skill all have been improved.4)It is true that students with different language proficiency respond differently towards group division,class activity and writing evaluation,but most of them think highly of using cooperative language learning in scientific writing class.At the end of the thesis,the researcher makes some related teaching suggestions on English scientific writing instruction according to the findings of the research.Owing to the limitations of the study,there still remain many practical problems,which call for teachers' and researchers' attention and endeavor for further research so that more effective methods will be found for teaching of English writing in the future.