1、1The Reflection of Cooperative Learning in English ClassAbstract：Cooperative learning is becoming an increasingly popular teaching strategy and it has already been put into the English class. This paper firstly analyzed the current situations of cooperative leaning, then discussed and designed some
2、effective methods and strategies, intending to explore how to improve the validity of cooperative learning in English class.? Key wordscooperative learning；group；teaching；English class? 中图分类号：F11 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1673-0992（2011）1-0232-01? 1?The Definition of Cooperative Learning? Cooperative learning ta
3、kes many definitions and models. Now, there has not been a universally accepted definition yet. “Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups 2through which students work together to maximize their own and each others learning.“ (Johnson, Johnson and Holubc, 1994); “Cooperative lear
4、ning is defined by a set of processes which help people interact together in order to accomplish a specific goal or develop an end product which is usually content specific.“ (Ted Panitz, 1996); “Cooperative learning is an arrangement in which students work in mixed ability groups and are rewarded o
5、n the basis of the success of the group.“ (A. Woolfolk, 2001). In our English class, cooperative learning can be considered as a teaching strategy in which students of different levels of performance work together in small groups to accomplish a shared learning goal. The members are responsible for
6、their own learning as well as their teammates, that is they should communicate with each other, help and encourage each other so as to maximize everyones learning and make progress together. ? 2. The Current Situations of Cooperative Learning in English Class? Now, almost in every English class, the
7、 group-discussion learning is adopted. This implies that cooperative learning is 3becoming an increasingly popular teaching strategy. However, running after the superficial relaxation and excitement and being short of the real cooperation and interaction are the most common phenomena in the cooperat
8、ive learning in our English class.? 1)The formation of the group is unreasonable, that is the selection of the group members are arbitrary, the division of the learning task for every member is ambiguous. ? 2) The disproportion in the participation of students to aggravate the polarization. The weak
9、 are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at and they do not dare express their ideas. Therefore, the whole group discussion just becomes a stage on which the good student performs, and the weak students are just audiences or listeners. ? 3) The language task is just restricted in the course
10、book. The language contents that need to be exercised have already been in the course book. And the mode of the group activity is usually just reading or discussion. Therefore, the monotonous and mechanical cooperative activity makes students feel so insipid that their enthusiasm is lost in a short
11、time.? 4）Most of the teaches just give a smile, a nod or a word such as “Good job!“, “Excellent!“, “You are clever!“ etc these 4words for the evaluation. When they assess the jobs, they always put more emphasis on the whole group, but put less emphasis on the development of the individual student. ?
12、 3. Effective Methods for Cooperative Leaning in English Class? For cooperative learning to be effective, it must be properly structured and implemented:? 1) Consider the group size: each small group has 4 or 6 students in order to increase the opportunity for each student to practise. It is importa
13、nt that the number of the group members cannot be odd (3 or 5 students), because this kind if group tends to bring the members into an embarrassing state that only one student is alone. ? 2）The group members should be heterogeneous, that is strong students and weak students are mixed together, for e
14、xample, there can be two strong students and two weak students in the 6-member group; meanwhile, boys and girls should be mixed in a group. ? 3) During the group work, the teacher should not be the outsider, but the participator and prompter taking part in 5students activities directly. The teacher
15、needs to monitor carefully how well the groups are functioning. When there are difficulties and mistakes, the teacher should give certain help in time. ? 4) Develop the extension of cooperative leaning: The cooperative leaning is not just a form of the discussion. It should be applied to all kinds o
16、f learning, such as grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, writing, etc. For example, in writing teaching, there can be group discussion (each member express his opinion), group conferencing (after the first draft, members give suggestions on how to make improvements, focusing on ideas), group edi
17、ting (after the second draft, members read again and point out some errors, focusing on grammar and structure), etc. 5) According to different language contents and purposes of teaching, the group activity can be diverse: discussion, debate, report, role-play, making story, simulative conversation a
18、nd writing, etc. For example, when learning “Computer“ this unit, we can adopt the debate. One side supports “The computers advantages are more than disadvantages“, and the other side supports “The computers disadvantages are more than advantages“.? 6) As for the evaluation of the cooperative learni
19、ng, the 6teacher should give feedback as soon as each group has finished his speech, including learning results, effects, shortcomings, whether has achieved the learning objectives and so on. Meanwhile, the individual assessment should not be neglected. The teacher should assess how much effort each
20、 member is contributing to the groups work.? 4. Conclusion ? Cooperative learning is not having students sit side-by-side at the same table to talk with each other as they do their individual assignments. Therefore, it is important for the teacher to explore and apply the methods to the cooperative
21、learning and organize the most effective cooperation that our students will benefit from the most. ? It is clear that this paper focused on the concrete methods in English cooperative class. It hardly considered the cognitive and emotional elements of students; whats more, this paper discussed the c
22、ooperative learning generally. It did not delimit which stage of teaching was applied to. These limitations need the future research. ? Reference：? 71尹洪佳, 论合作学习教学在英语课中的运用, 教育探索, 2006年第 8期(总第 182期)? 2李淑娟, 新英语课程中有关合作学习的教学方法的几点思考, 陕西师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版), 2006 年 7月第 35卷? 3束定芳, 庄智象 现代外语教学理论、实践与方法, 上海外语教学出版社, 1996? 4H.D.Brown. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001 ? 5Wang Qiang A Course in English Language Teaching, Beijing: Advanced Education Press, 2000.7.
