Cooperative Learning in English Class1.doc

英 语 课 堂 的 合 作 学 习Cooperative Learning in English ClassContentsAbstract . 1Key words. 1I. Introduction 1II. Theoretical Grounds.32.1 Brnduras Social Learning Theory.32.2 Vigotskis Theory of “Zone of Proximal Development”.32.3 Piagets Cognitive Development Theory.42.4 The Theory of Constructivism.4III. Strategies for Cooperative Learning43.1 Forming Groups43.1.1 Close seat group.43.1.2 Ability group .53.1.3 Interest group .63.1.4 Mixture group.63.2 Designing Team Activities.63.2.1 One-minute Papers.63.2.2 Round Robin Brainstorming.63.2.3 Interview.73.3 Students Roles in Cooperation73.4 Teachers Role in Cooperative Learning.83.4.1 Teacher as manager and organizer .93.4.2 Teacher as participant and language resource.103.4.3 Teacher as facilitator .10IV.Disadvantages and Problems. 104.1 Class Control.114.2 Inactive Learners in Cooperative Activity.114.3 Insufficient Cooperative Work.124.4 Unreasonable Question12V.Advantages and Significance . 12VI.Conclusion13References.14Cooperative Learning in English Class摘要: 社会的发展要求学生形成新的学习方式。课程改革的基本理念之一就是积极倡导自主、合作、探究的学习方式。随着国际交流的越来越频繁，现在的社会越来越需要合作，而且恰当的合作会带来意想不到的收获。对于学生来说，在学习中培养合作意识， 锻炼合作能力也就显得尤为重要了。本文根据国际语言环境和英语的交流性特点，通过与中国传统的英语课堂教学的种种不足的对比，指出了在英语课堂中采取合作教学方法的合理性及可行性，着重探讨了合作学习的计划，接着探讨了如何面对及解决合作学习中所遇到的问题，从而较全面的证明了合作学习在教学中有着明显的优势。关键词: 合作学习, 交流, 小组活动, 英语课堂, 传统英语教学Abstract: According to the needs of development of society, students must form a new learning approach. And a free, cooperative and explored learning method is one of the basic theories of curriculum reform. With its frequent international communication, cooperation is needed in many fields in our society, and it brings in much vigor and success. As to students, it is very important to develop their awareness of cooperation, and they should practice their cooperative ability in learning. According to international language environment and the characteristic of English language- communication, and compared with some shortage in traditional English teaching, this paper points out the property and feasibility of cooperative learning in English class, and then it focus on strategies for cooperative learning and how to solve the disadvantages and problems during cooperative learning, at last explains the advantages and significance of cooperative learning in English class.Key words: cooperative learning, communicate, group activity, English class, traditional English teaching I. Introduction It is known to us all, with its frequent international cooperation and communication, China is in urgent need of many different kinds of professionals with a superior level of English language proficiency. So English has become more and more popular nowadays, and China has the largest English language learning population in the world. However, most students have got nothing other than reciting large quantity of linguistic knowledge after more than ten years learning English, and even most students just like “deaf” or “mute” when they communicate with foreigners (He Meihui, 2003) The problem is mainly because that English class in China is still controlled by teacher-centered grammar cramming method and students passively listening method.In traditional English class, the teacher is an authority. He/She controls the whole class, and teaches the whole class by cramming linguistic knowledge to students no matter how much students can understand or digest. Students just listen to the teacher passively and take notes; they have few opportunities to develop their skill in communicating with others in English, while they need to spend their large portion of time in memorizing a list of grammatical principle and a large of new words, and repeating these again and again to achieve a good mark in the English examination. So many students and even some teachers hold that learning English just for the examination. So the more this method is used frequently, the more students become “deaf” or “mute” in English communication. Therefore, this traditional teaching method is not any longer suitable for students learning English, and we must find out a new scientific method. As to English, as a tool of communication, we should not only recite some grammatical principle and a large collection of words, but also use it actively and frequently to develop our communication skill and interpersonal skill. And communication is the final aim for us to learn a language. Learning English is also for communicating with others in the international environment. According to this, we must look for another teaching method in English learning, while Cooperative learning is an efficient method in English learning. Cooperative learning is defined as “group leaning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others” (Olsen & Kagan, 1992). And in this educational approach, students and the teacher are in a state of dynamic cooperation, together building up an intimate learning and social atmosphere in the classroom to reach learning goals. In cooperative learning class, knowledge and authority are shared between the teacher and students. And cooperative learning is believed to be an effective way of learning English. When cooperation is used well in English class, it can activate the atmosphere of classroom, inspire students motivation of learning English, develop students intelligence and develop various personalities of students, enhance relationship or friendship between partners, enlarge students mind, and promote students communicative ability in English. Cooperative learning can provide students with more chance to choose challenging tasks that they are interested in, to exhibit control and autonomy, and to collaborate with peers. Therefore, cooperative learning condition is believed to motivate students positively. And cooperative learning also produces more positive relationship among students, healthier psychological adjustment and more favorable attitudes towards learning than do competitive or individualistic experiences. It can also enhance students satisfaction with their learning experience and can help to develop their social skills and skills in oral communication as self-esteem. And cooperative learning is a good way to improve the relationship between teacher and their students because of teachers participation.II.Theoretical GroundsThe idea of cooperative learning originated in the United States in 1970s and was developed into a teaching strategy in the 1980s. It has been tested in David Johnsons Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota. The leading experts in this field are David Johnson, Roger Johnson and Robert Slavin amongst others. The term “cooperative” is used in contrast to “competitive” and “individualistic”. In many countries, cooperative learning is considered one of the most creative teaching strategies and China started to introduce cooperative learning in the 1990s. And from that time, many educators have studied this, and experiment in some schools at different levels. Such as, Tang (1996) made an experiment in Hong Kong, and Guo Xiangju took an experiment from September 2001 to June 2003 in a college.And the concept of cooperative learning is based on the following theories: 2.1 Brnduras Social Learning Theory It points out that learning is going on in condition of interaction of these three elements which are environment, learner and cognitive act. The pattern of cooperative learning can provide students a natural environment for interaction, and make sure that cognitive act can be developed well. 2.2 Vigotskis Theory of “Zone of Proximal Development”It notes that the disparity between a learners actual ability of solving the problem by himself (or herself) and his (or her) ability which has made progress by the help of his better-skilled classmates or his teacher is the disparity between a learners degree of ability developing and potential abilities. Students cooperation in their own “zone of proximal development” is more super than in individual activity. So, students in different academic level can learn from others to make up for what they are unknown or unfamiliar with, and they can have a deep understanding of the problem after discussing with others. Therefore cooperative learning is a good way for students to improve their study.2.3 Piagets Cognitive Development TheoryIt points out that Cognitive Development Process is a process of absorption, assimilation, adjustment, and counterbalance. And it stresses that social experience knowledge (language, value, principle, morality and so on) only can gain during interactive communication with others. The pattern of cooperation provides much more opportunity for students to improve their ability of cognition.2.4 The Theory of ConstructivismConstructivism thinks that learning is not only a process for students to accept knowledge passively, but also a process for students to build a system of knowledge. This student-centered learning process is a good one of inspiring students interests and motivation and expressing students personalities. Under this method, students in cooperation can ceaselessly perform, assimilate, reflect and adjust, at last improve themselves and reach success (Guo Yanbing, 2002).III. Strategies for cooperative learning3.1 Forming GroupsForming groups is a basic way for cooperative learning in English class, and generally we give each group or team a specific task, and then they achieve the final goal through efforts from all of team members. Forming teams depends on members of students, students academic level, students interest, seat and sex (a group should be a mixture of males and females).3.1.1 Close Seat GroupAs time limited, it is not a wise option to change students seat to do a cooperative activity in a class, so sometimes we should adopt “close seat principle” to organize cooperative activities (Liu Wenbiao & Shi Wenjuan, 2005), according to students seat, pair-work and group-work both can go on.Pair-work is a very convenient and the most used way to do cooperation. Harmer (1991) pointed out, “students can be divided to 2 persons in a group and they achieve most of tasks in this way.” This way of cooperative learning method saves the time which is used to form groups, and it provides much time and chance for every group to practice their English language in cooperation. A group-work of four students or six students is also a good way for cooperation. In this way, we often let students in the first row turn back to the second row, and students sit nearer in these two rows can do face-to-face group work, and like this pattern, the third rows students turn back to the fourth, the fifth turn to the sixth, and so on. If it is a group of 4 students, they can cooperate like the following table:According to this table, Sun Qiantu ( 2002 ) pointed out, Student A1 can form a group with Student A2, Student B1, and Student B2, and in that way we can infer student A3 can form another group with A4, B3 and B4. And students in such a group can do a cooperative activity sufficiently because of more than one partner and also can do a face-to-face communication which help to cooperate. And sometimes each member is given a role; for example, the roles include a leader, a recorder, a reporter, and a monitor. Team member perform their function respectively according to their roles. 3.1.2 Ability Group Ability group is considered as such two patterns: one is described like this, the whole ability of each group is almost same, but each students ability in every group is not the same. For example, Team of four is formed by choosing one person from the top, and one from the end and the two from the middle according to their academic level (Guo Xiangju, 2004). In such a group, students can learn from others, even the struggling level student, and also they can help each other and go ahead together to achieve a common goal. And learning in this kind of group, students can improve their learning method by observing others learning; it is a very useful way for learning. In this situation, everyone should join in the cooperation, because the success of a group needs everyones effort, not one person. In this atmosphere, solidarity and each others help is more important, and the feeling of responsibility is also important. The other is explained to such a pattern: the whole class is divided into many groups, in which each student almost has the same level in English, but the entire ability of each group is different, for example, Group A (the most talented), Group B (average), Group C (less talented), and cooperative activity should be designed in different level for different groups. Pintrich, Brown & Weistein (1994) believed that students could be truly engaged in tasks when the challenges were in balance with the learners skills or abilities to respond.3.1.3 Interest Group Students who have the same interest should be divided into a same group. Interest can make them communicate easily and would like to communicate with others. And can promote their relationship. Harmonious relationship makes students feel at ease, relax, and have no pressure, they can join the group actively and dare to exchange their opinion, and they are not afraid of undergoing mocking (Guo Yanbing, 2002).3.1.4 Mixture GroupA group is regarded as a mixture of male and female student (Liu Jinmei, 2003), because generally boys and girls think differently when they face the same question, so this mixture group can provide a chance to exchange their different idea through cooperation, and also give those shy girls or boys a chance to practice their encouragement to speak before counter-sexes. 3.2 Designing Team ActivitiesHere are 3 team activities: One-minute paper, Round Robin Brainstorming, and Interview (Guo Xiangju, 2004).3.2.1 One-minute PapersOne-minute papers can be used to facilitate a group discu