基于合作学习的初中生英语学习效果研究

本文是一篇教学论文，本研究选取义福实验中学七年级四班和七班两个班级进行化学发光教学实验，建立了有效的化学发光课堂模式、相应的小组运作机制和评价机制，引导实验班学生集体学习，互相帮助，促进学生的全面发展。通过对EC和CC的学习成绩的比较，以及对典型学生的测试、问卷和访谈分析，主要发现：（1）合作学习能提高学生的英语学习效果在传统的课堂教学中，学生的学习积极性不高，学习动机不明确，总是被动地接受知识。学生在课堂上不会主动回答问题，因为他们不自信。教师作为课堂上的带头人，往往不给学生创造思考的机会，只要求学生记笔记、记笔记、掌握知识，对学生英语学习兴趣的培养不够重视。在大多数情况下，学生解决问题只靠自己，不向其他学生求助，大多数学生合作意识不强。

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the Research
With the development of society, a lot of work cannot be finished by inpidualability and intelligence alone. The development of society needs inter-disciplinarytalents with cooperative spirit and ability. However, for a long time, knowledgetransfer as the value orientation of the subject-centered teaching concept occupies adominant position in school education in our country and class teaching system is thekey teaching form. In classroom teaching, more attention should be paid to students’mastery of knowledge, but the development of students’ non-cognitive factors areneglected, such as emotion, will, attitude and values. The teaching mode is inculcatingacceptance basically. Students are required to keep quiet in classroom and have littlechance to communicate with other students. Students’ cooperative consciousness andability have not been developed accordingly.
In order to change this situation and satisfy the needs of education in the 21stcentury, English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2011) clearlystipulates that teachers should encourage students to discover the rules of language,master the knowledge and language skills gradually, adjust their emotional attitude,form effective learning strategies and develop autonomous learning ability throughexperience, practice, participation, inquiry and cooperation. Therefore, it is necessaryto strengthen the cultivation of students’ cooperation consciousness and make themform the habit of cooperation in the process of teaching.
Since the concept of Cooperative Learning (CL) has been introduced into theeducational circles of our country, the scholars of our country have carried on thecontinuous research to CL. Whether from the theory or from practical teaching, CL hasa very important impact on students, and the improvement of cooperative ability is ofgreat benefit to students’ lifelong development. And it is even regarded as “one of themost important and successful teaching reform in recent ten years”.
...........................

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Research
In the current curriculum reform research, there are many researches on CL andrelated teaching strategies, but there are few studies on the Junior Middle Schoolstudents’ English learning effect based on CL. As for English learning effect, it notonly refers to students’ academic achievement, but also students’ skill development andemotional attitude of English learning should be involved in it.
This paper studies the improvements of students’ learning effect after applying CLto Junior Middle School English classroom on the basis of combining CL with Englishlearning effect. It mainly discuss the following two questions:
(1) Can Cooperative Learning improve students’ learning effect?
(2) How to effectively apply CL to Junior Middle School English classroom so asto improve students’ learning effect?
The English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education points out moreattention should be paid to students’ lifelong development, which put forward thateducation should lay stress on the cultivation and stimulation of students’ emotion,students’ self-confidence, students’ interests and students’ cooperative awareness. Theimplementation of CL is also in line with the new curriculum of our English teachingtraining interdisciplinary and comprehensive talents. The process of cooperativelearning evaluation can make students pay more attention to the cooperation behavior,let them constantly sum up experience, and experience success in the process ofcooperative learning.
..........................

2. Literature Review

2.1 Theoretical research of Cooperative Learning
The roots of CL in teaching can be traced to the late 1700s in England. In theUnited States, John Dewey was the first educationist who emphasized education as avehicle for citizens to live cooperatively in a social democracy. CL was first putforward and carried out by David Koonts, who is the famous American educationist, inthe early 1970s. Then, CL made essential development in the period from 1970s to1980s. (Sun Mingnan, 2018) During this time, the definition as well as the keyelements and teaching goals of CL were given by different researchers.
2.1.1 Definitions of Cooperative Learning
CL has been widely studied since the 1970s. CL was one of the main learningstyles that occurred in the 1960-1970s in the United States, and then some educatorsbelieved that CL concentrated on the development of one’s skill and knowledge as wellas abilities in the meanwhile, which could not only develop students’ social behaviorbut also improve students’ intelligence.
At present, CL is researched around the whole world by many researchers and isgiven different definitions. In Slavin’ view, CL means that students work in groups offour to understand material initially presented by teachers (1990). Johnson D.W andJohnson R.T deem that CL can be seen as instruction aimed at achieving a commongoal, which involves working in groups (1991). Sharan, S. thinks that CL isinstructional techniques or grouping structure in which students are pided intoheterogeneous so as to finish teaching activities (1994). According to Frank B. Murray,CL refers to a set of teaching practices in which teachers give various directions abouthow to work together to groups of pupils. Wang Tan thinks CL is intended to promotestudents’ cooperating in a heterogeneous group. In these groups, members worktogether for a common goal and their success is often judged by the whole groupachievement (2004).

.............................

2.2 Studies on Learning Effect
2.2.1 Definition of Learning Effect
In Modern Chinese Dictionary, “effect” is a neutral word and it refers to resultsproduced for some reason. Effects can have its pros and cons.
In this paper, English learning effect refers to the positive changes of inpidual’sknowledge, skills, emotional attitude or values through learning activities under theguidance of teachers.
2.2.2 The Essence of Learning Effect Evaluation
From the philosophical point of view, the essence of evaluation is to judge theobjects to be evaluated. In essence. evaluation is subjective dynamic reflection of valuerelationship and subject of evaluation can be either the party involved in valuerelationship of or the third independent party. Evaluation takes human as subject andtakes value relationship as object.
In the course of teaching and learning, it is required that students should not onlymaster knowledge, develop intelligence and cultivate skills, but also form goodpersonality psychological quality. Therefore, the evaluation of learning effect musthave correct educational value orientation.
In this research, students’ English learning effects refers to the judgement ofgeneral development of students’ English learning skills and emotional attitude throughspecial cooperative learning activities. About learning skills, it is observed fromstudents’ language skills and autonomous learning skills and cooperative learning skills,and as for students’ emotional attitude, it is mainly observed from students’ interests,confidence in English learning and their classroom participation in English class.
...................................

3. Research Design...................................... 15
3.1 Research Questions...............................15
3.2 Research Subjects................................... 15
4. Application of Cooperative Learning to Junior Middle School EnglishClassroom Teaching................................21
4.1 Preparation before Application............................. 21
4.1.1 Establishing Cooperative Learning Groups..........................................21
4.1.2 Training Students’ Cooperative Skill....................................................23
5. Data Analysis and Results Discussion................................... 41
5.1 Results and Analysis of Students’ Test Scores.....................................41
5.1.1 Results and Analysis of Pre-test (Mid-exam) of EC and CC................41
5.1.2 Results and Analysis of Post-test (Final Exam) of EC and CC............ 43

5. Data Analysis and Results Discussion

5.1 Results and Analysis of Students’ Test Scores
In order to investigate students’ change of English academic achievement, all thestudents both in EC and EC are requested to participate in the pre-test and post-test.After a semester of the experiment, the statistics analyzing system SPSS21.0 is used toanalyze the details.
5.1.1 Results and Analysis of Pre-test (Mid-exam) of EC and CC
The following Table 5.1 shows the results of scores of the EC and CC.

.............................

6. Conclusion

6.1 Major Findings
In this research, two classes (Class 4 and Class 7) in Grade 7 of Yifu ExperimentalMiddle School are selected to carry out the teaching experiment of CL. The effectiveCL classroom model, the corresponding group operation mechanism and the evaluationmechanism are established, and students in the experimental class are guided to learntogether and help each other in groups, thus promoting students’ comprehensivedevelopment. Through the comparison of academic achievement between EC and CC,as well as the analysis of tests, questionnaires and interviews with the typical students,the main findings are as following:
(1) Cooperative Learning can improve students’ English learning effect
In traditional class, students’ learning enthusiasm is not high, their learningmotivation is not clear, and they always accept knowledge passively. Students do nottake the initiative to answer questions in class because they are not confident. Teachers,as the leaders in class, often do not create opportunities for students to think, but onlyrequire students to take notes, remember and master knowledge and they pay lessattention to the cultivation of students’ interest in English learning. In most cases,students solve problems only rely on themselves, they do not ask for help from otherstudents, and most of the students have a low sense of cooperation.
(2) Suggestions for Using Cooperative Learning more Effectively
a. Suggestions for English teaching within Cooperative Learning
Pay attention to the cultivation of students’ autonomous learning competenceIn the process of CL, teachers’ teaching should focus on cultivating students’autonomous learning ability, which is the basis of CL. Because the group cooperationrequires that students can use the available learning resources to preview theknowledge and understand what deficiencies they still have in the learning process.Teachers can take advantage of group activities so that group members cancomplement and remind each other about the content of knowledge, and then make itbecome more effective to achieve the cultivation of students’ autonomous learningability.
reference(omitted)