ChapterⅠ Introduction
1.1Research Background and Research Orientation
As we all know, vocabulary is the key to any language teaching and learning. It is also clear thatthe task of vocabulary learning is an arduous one for learners themselves, especially for the EFL learner.However, despite the importance of vocabulary, it is often neglected in the literature of English teachingand learning, either consciously or unconsciously (Hedge, 2002). Fortunately, recent years have seen arenewed interest in the questions which need to be addressed regarding vocabulary learning. Hedgepresented an agenda of those questions as follows:-- What strategies do learners use to acquire new words or to retain them?-- What exactly do learners learn about a word when they acquire it?-- How is a second language learner’s mental lexicon organized and how does it develop over time?-- In the initial stages of learning a foreign language, which words are the most useful to learn?-- Why are some words easier to learn than others?-- How do learners build an understanding of the relationships among words?As a result, researchers set out to find the answers to these questions with studies, including “linguisticstudies which focus on what relationships exist among words in the lexical system of the English languageand acquisition studies which focus on how vocabulary is learned” (Hedge, 2002). For instance, Hatch(2001) discovered five essential learning steps of vocabulary learning, namely, encountering new words,getting the word form, getting the word meaning, consolidating word form and meaning in memory, andusing the word. Allen (2002) explored techniques in teaching vocabulary for beginner, intermediate, andadvanced learners. All the studies provide both theoretical and practical bases for English vocabularyteaching and learning.
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1.2 Research Significance
There are strong reasons to demonstrate the effectiveness of cooperative learning in Englishvocabulary teaching and learning in EFL context and the significance of the present research can bedescribed as follows.On the one hand, cooperative learning is a new teaching and learning method in China.Traditionally, vocabulary is explicitly presented and instructed by the teacher, but it is passively learned bystudents who are often required to do a large quantity of memory exercises and practice. In this thesis,the traditional way of teaching English vocabulary will be called the Non-cooperative Learning Modelwhile the application of cooperative learning to English vocabulary teaching named the CooperativeLearning Model. By comparing these two vocabulary instruction models in facilitating Englishvocabulary learning, we will find out their different learning effects. But only a few studies haveexplored the effects of cooperative learning on English vocabulary teaching and learning. Thus, theempirical findings from the present study may shed light on the issue whether the CL model is effective inEnglish vocabulary teaching and learning.On the other hand, the results of this research may provide implications on or insights into effectivevocabulary teaching in Chinese context and suggestions for vocabulary teaching and learning in a formalclassroom setting. English teachers often find themselves in a tricky situation when it comes to whichmethod is the best for vocabulary teaching. And students may feel bored and frustrated when they facethe task of vocabulary learning. Therefore, whether the cooperative learning model proves to beeffective or not, it will give both the teachers and the students a chance to try a new way of vocabularyteaching and learning.
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Chapter II Literature Review
2. 1 Related Researches on Cooperative Learning Home and Abroad
Studies and researches on cooperative learning at home began in the 1980s and have been more andmore flourishing in recent years, the most outstanding of which are those conducted in Zhejiang andShandong provinces.From the year 1989 on, researchers like Sheng Qunli in the Education Department of HangzhouUniversity in applying group CL instruction as a subtopic of “The Exploration of Personal OptimizationEducation” and the results indicated that group CL instruction could lead to gains in increasing academicachievement, promoting super development of students’ personality, and fostering cooperative spirit andinteractive competence (Sheng Qunli & Zheng Shuzhen, 2006). Later, “Cooperative Instruction:Research and Experiment”, a large project held by Shandong Research Institute of Education Science,began in 1993 and underwent research in hundreds of schools from kindergarten to college level covering 9provinces over a period of 6 years; the findings of this project demonstrated that cooperative instructionimproved students’ participation degree and academic achievement while promoting their development ofcreative spirit and practical competence (Wang Tan, 2001).
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2.2 Related Studies of Vocabulary Learning in China and Abroad
The researchers began to realize the importance of studying vocabulary learning strategies since 1970s,and came out with a lot of reports. In their reports, there are various opinions, research methods, andresults. In China, we have yielded heartening fruits of this topic. This study is focused on combingthe theories of researches on correlation between vocabulary learning strategies and English achievement. The researches on vocabulary learning strategies started from 1980s in China. After a decade, itbecame a hot topic of research, and achieved significant progress. Researches on this issue have gainedfruitful achievements since 2000. Studies in this field in China mainly focused on college Englishteaching. Researchers did both case studies and empirical studies to test that vocabulary learningstrategies affect English achievements. Basing on the observations of a successful and a less successfullanguage learners, Wen’s (1996) study points out that different learning strategies lead to different learningoutcomes. And Gu (1994) further states that successful language learners use different vocabularyteaming strategies towards different sort of vocabularies while less successful language learners tend to userote learning strategies which is widely believed as inefficient learning strategies. Most college studentsprefer to use meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies in learning vocabulary. Gu&Johnson says thatlearning outcomes are predictable if learners use meta-cognitive leaning strategies like active learning andselective attention. Learning from context, encoding memory, oral repetition strategies are less but still positively correlated to learning outcomes, but visual repetition and recitation oriented go the opposite way.Wu&Wang’s investigation which is in reference to O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990) classification of learningstrategies shows the sequence of popularity in choosing cognitive vocabulary learning strategies ispracticing, associating, guessing, context, classifying, rote learning and looking up the dictionaries.What’s more, of all the strategies they listed, context, flexible use of dictionaries, guessing, and classifyingare beneficial to learning vocabularies. From another point of view, Zhang Ping made a distinctionbetween Basic English vocabulary learning and Professional English vocabulary learning. And her studyshows that in learning Basic English vocabularies, guessing is testified to be the most relevant strategy, andlooking-up, reading, association, classifying, context, practicing, teamwork come successively; in learningProfessional English vocabularies, the relevance to English achievements goes like extensive reading,guessing, classifying, context and looking-up.
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Chapter III Theoretical Foundation.... 10
3. 1 Definition of Cooperative Learning ....... 10
3. 2 Basic Elements of Cooperative Learning........11
3. 3 Methods of Cooperative Learning ......... 13
Chapter IV Research Design...... 15
4. 1 Research Questions........ 15
4. 2 Research Subjects .......... 15
4. 3 Research Method ........... 15
4. 4 Research Instruments ..... 17
4. 5 Research Procedure........ 19
Chapter V Results and Discussion ........ 27
5. 1 Results of the Present Study........... 27
5. 2 Discussion...... 35
Chapter V Results and Discussion
This chapter mainly focuses on reporting, interpreting and discussing the results obtained from theinstructional experiment, aiming at finding out the effects of the two models of instruction on vocabularylearning as well as how the cooperative learning model affect the subjects’ interpersonal relationship.The chapter consists of two sections: results of the present study and discussions of the findings. In thefirst section, the results of the pretest are presented to provide information on whether the two classes are atthe same level in terms of their English proficiency and their knowledge of the target words andexpressions; and the results of the questionnaire before the experiment were also presented to reflect thepresent situation of the subjects’ interpersonal relationship. Then the results of the post-test are discussedas to whether the cooperative learning model and the non-cooperative learning model would causesignificant difference in the two classes’ vocabulary achievements. In the second section, discussions onthese analyses are summarized. Before we analyzed the scores of the English entrance examination and the test of target words andexpressions through Independent Samples Test (SPSS12. 0), we first employed SPSS12. 0 to find outwhether the to-be-analyzed data was in normal distribution, which was the prerequisite for us to analyzedata with Independent Samples T-Test (see Table4. 1 and Table 4. 2).
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Conclusion
This section summarizes the major findings in relation to two issues addressed in the researchquestions of the present study, i. e. , the effects of the cooperative learning model and the non-cooperativelearning model on vocabulary learning in terms of achievement and the effects of the cooperative learningmodel on interpersonal relationship. Thus, two major findings can be concluded as follows:(1) The participants’ overall performance or achievement between the two models of instruction does reachsignificant difference degree, for the findings points out that the two models of teaching have differenteffect on the participants’ vocabulary learning achievement. This is quite different from previous studies.On the one hand, the cooperative learning instruction model can help the students in the experimental classof the present study make much progress in English vocabulary learning. Students would like to makeevery inpidual effort to improve their vocabulary so that they could compete with other classmates indictations or other forms of vocabulary tests. As a result, the vocabulary learning achievement betweenstudents in the experimental class and the ones in the control class was absolutely different after theexperiment. To some extent, this finding supports one of the Johnson brothers’ ideas that an ideal classshould consist of competitive learning, and inpidual learning at the same time, with cooperative learningas the base of the class (Johnson D. W. & Johnson R. T. , 1999, translated by Wu Xinchun, Zheng Qiu &Zhang Jie, 2004).
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References (omitted)