The Action Research On Cooperative Learning For Improvement Of Students’ Learning Effects In Listening In Junior Middle School

Listening is one of the most important abilities in English learning,but in some local schools due to lack of the English environment,listening does not get the attention it deserves,which causes great difficulties in listening learning and poor learning results for most of the students in junior middle school.In recent years,in order to change the situation,the front-line English teachers have followed the requirements of the curriculum standard,constantly explored the issue of improving students’ listening.According to the previous researches,cooperative learning is an effective way to improve learning effects.Especially under the current situation of large-sized class teaching,cooperative learning is conducive to solving the problems in students’ learning.Therefore,on the theoretical bases of the zone of proximal development and activity theory,this thesis conducted action research on cooperative learning and strived to solve the Grade-8 students’ problems with English listening in a local school.First,the teacher researcher investigated and confirmed students’ learning difficulties and found out the causes for their learning problems,then selected cooperative learning to solve problems in listening teaching and learning and formulate three research questions:（1）What effects does the cooperative learning have on the students’ participation in listening activities?（2）What changes does the cooperative learning bring to the students’ attitudes and confidence in listening activities?（3）What improvements do the students have in their listening skills through the cooperative activities? During the 14-week action plan for classroom cooperative activities,the students completed various listening activities and were able to achieve the basic objectives of listening learning in one semester.During the research,through classroom observations,interviews,teacher journals,etc.,the data were collected and analyzed for teaching reflections,timely adjustment,and better effects.The research findings present the answers to the research questions: first,cooperative learning promoted students’ participation in listening activities so that every student engaged in classroom learning and cooperated to complete listening tasks;second,cooperative learning had a supportive effect on learning,promoted the progress of students at different levels,changed their attitudes towards classroom activities,and enhanced their confidence in learning;third,students’ listening skills were improved to a certain extent.The research findings also provide pedagogical implications: it is the teachers’ guidance that facilitates and guarantees the successful cooperative learning,and teachers need to adopting appropriate teaching strategies to guide students to do cooperative learning,including allocating group tasks appropriately,facilitating a role of the peer scaffolding,and strengthening the formative evaluation in the process of group learning and individual learning.