The Application Of Cooperative Learning In Reducing Classroom Reticence In Senior High School

With the development of science and technology,the countries all over the world are more closely interrelated.As an international language,English plays an important role in interpersonal communication.However,in the English classroom of Asian countries,student’ negative reticence is becoming more and more serious.This phenomenon has also attracted the attention of many scholars at home and abroad.Students’ reticence in class has an important influence on teaching effect.In order to solve the problem of students’ reticence in English class,scholars at home and abroad have made various studies on the types of reticence and the causes of reticence.Classroom reticence is mainly divided into positive reticence and negative reticence.This paper mainly studies students’ negative reticence.Some scholars think that classroom reticence is due to students’ own personality;others think that traditional Chinese culture is also one of the reasons for classroom reticence;only a small number of scholars think that teachers’ teaching methods are also one of the reasons.Therefore,after understanding the current situation and reasons of classroom reticence,this study starts with teachers’ teaching methods,to explore whether cooperative learning can reduce students’ classroom reticence.Cooperative learning is a kind of teaching strategy guided by teaching objectives,organized by heterogeneous groups,through communication,discussion,cooperation and summary,with participation in completing cooperative learning tasks of groups to achieve teaching objectives and based on group achievements as rewards.Cooperative learning can promote the communication between students and improve their participation in class.Therefore,this study carries out a semester of cooperative learning in Y Senior High School,and verifies whether this learning method can reduce students’ classroom reticence or not.This study mainly used the methods of questionnaires,classroom observation and interviews.The questionnaires mainly analyzed the current situation and causes of students’ reticence from three aspects: teachers’ factors,students’ own factors and classroom environment factors;classroom observation mainly observed the interaction between teachers and students in the classroom,respectively from teachers’ and students’ participation in the classroom;interviews were conducted with 6 students and 5 front-line teachers to know students’ reticence in class and their attitude towards cooperative learning;120 students from two parallel classes in Grade Two of Y Senior High School were taken as experimental subjects,all of the students were from nearby towns with similar cultural background,educational background and scores.The two parallel classes were divided into the experimental class and the control class.The cooperative learning method was implemented in the experimental class and the traditional teaching method is used in the control class.In this way,we can see whether reticence in the experimental class reduced after one semester of experiment.There are two questions in this study:1.What are the main factors leading to students’ classroom reticence?2.Can cooperative learning reduce students’ reticence in English class?Through the analysis of the questionnaires,it is concluded that there are three main reasons for this phenomenon: teachers’ factor,students’ factor and classroom environment factor.According to the classroom observation,the classroom reticence of the students in the experimental class has improved significantly before and after the experiment.Before the experiment,the participation of the students in the experimental class is not high,only a few people actively participate in the classroom activities;after using cooperative learning,the author found that the number of students actively participate in the classroom activities is increasing,and the students’ attitude to learning English has also improved.In the later stage of the experiment,students actively participate in classroom activities and actively express their own views,which effectively reduces the classroom reticence.According to the interviews between students and teachers: students’ attitude towards cooperative learning has changed,and their interest in group activities has become more and more high.Teachers think that cooperative learning can be used in the future classroom to improve students’ learning enthusiasm,and can effectively reduce students’ classroom reticence.