合作学习在大学英语课堂的应用研究

论文总字数：44597字

摘 要

当今这个信息化的社会，要求人们更好的交流与合作。合作是成功的催化剂，因此学会与他人合作是时代的呼唤，也是自身发展的必然要求。学校是培养学生合作精神和能力的重要场所。在学校中，培养学生的合作精神主要是通过合作学习来实现的。合作学习是新课程所倡导的一种学习方式，改变了过于强调接受学习的现状，给予学生合作的机会，培养团队精神和责任感，调动学生学习英语的积极性，有利于激发学生的求知欲望，充分发挥学生的潜能，形成积极有效的学习氛围，从而全面提高教学质量。

本文通过大学英语课堂合作学习方式的具体实验，旨在探究合作学习在大学英语课堂中应用的实际作用，进一步证明合作学习可以调动学生英语学习的兴趣，提高学生自主学习和交际合作能力，从而有效地提高大学英语的教学效果。

关键词：合作学习；英语教学；互动；交际能力

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Introduction to Cooperative Learning 2

2.2 Theoretical Basis of the Research 4

2.3 Related Studies 5

3. The Methods of Cooperative Learning in College English Class 6

3.1 Cultivating Students’ Respect for Others’ Suggestions 7

3.2 Encouraging Students to Express Their Own Ideas 7

3.3 Leading Students to Compete Mutually and Reach a Consensus 8

3.4 Enlightening Students to Cooperate Mutually to Expand Their Thinking 8

3.5 Guiding Students to Learn about the Value of Individual and Collective Intelligence in Interaction 9

4. The Study on Cooperative Learning in College English Class 11

4.1 Aims and Research Question 11

4.2 Subjects 11

4.3 Instruments 11

4.4 Experimental Procedure 12

4.5 Data Collection and Analysis 13

4.6 Findings and Limitations 14

5. Conclusion 15

Works Cited 18

1. Introduction

For a long time, traditional teaching model has been adopted in most teaching activities. Under traditional teaching model, more emphasis has been paid to improve students’ examination score, and as a result, students’ practical ability, say, cooperative competence, creative competence, etc., has been ignored. The current state of college English learning seems not so optimistic even a lot of changes have been done to the requirements of educational reform. The students just learn, listen, imitate and take in the knowledge passively. In order to help students deal better with the challenges of our rapidly developing society, a new teaching method, cooperative learning, needs to be applied in English teaching. It is an effective way of learning, since it can stimulate students more actively in learning and foster real problem-solving ability.

As an efficient teaching method, theoretical and practical basis can be provided to support cooperative learning in college English teaching. There are a lot of research about cooperative learning both home and abroad, but there are also some limitations. In this thesis, the practical investigation is employed and some interrelated tactics concerning the existing questions are put forward to offer some references to the application of cooperative learning in college English class.

Carrying out the cooperative learning can not only inspire the students to learn English on their own initiative but also can improve their scholastic attainment. Of course, it can cultivate their cooperative spirit and their ability to communicate. In addition, it can improve their cognitive ability as well. It could help the freshmen adapt to the college study and life as soon as possible and help the senior to grasp the lesson adequately so as to improve their own knowledge level. For these reasons, studying the cooperative learning in college English class is beneficial to both teachers and students. The teachers can work better and the students can improve their own English level and performance.

This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter one introduces the research background, significance and methods. Chapter two is the literature review of the thesis, and it introduces the definition of cooperative learning, theoretical basis of the research and related studies. Chapter three puts forward the methods of carrying out cooperative learning in college English class. Chapter four presents the study of cooperative learning in college English class. The last chapter is the conclusion. Through the analysis of the cooperative learning, it can arouse students’ interest in learning English, improve students’ self-learning ability and communicative cooperation, thus effectively improving the quality of college English teaching.

2. Literature Review

Cooperative learning is of great significance and necessity in college English teaching, and more teachers and students should have a full understanding of it. In the literature review of the thesis, the following contents will be presented, including the definition of cooperative learning, the theoretical basis of cooperative learning, and related studies of cooperative learning.

2.1 Introduction to Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a new teaching and learning strategy in teaching practice, which is a learner-centered, task-based approach. It first rose in the 1960s in America, and has made great progress and become a teaching theory and strategy in mid-80s in the western world.

The brothers of Johnsons define cooperative learning as “the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning” (Johnson and Johnson, 1989: 38). Teachers’ main task is to create a cooperative learning environment which inspires both collaboration within team and competition between teams in language teaching. In this way, students involved in group learning may cooperate within the group while the group as a whole competes against other groups by sharing and achieving a common goal and achieving the goal by their joint efforts (Wu Dongling, 2009: 19).

The main approaches of cooperative learning include the following factors. The first one is grouping. Selecting group members is a big problem, which determines whether cooperative learning would be good or not. There are some ways of grouping. However, in college English class, there are two common ways: students select their own group members or teachers group the students directly. The second factor is the size of groups. Study groups are often formed according to the seating arrangement and different grouping forms have different group numbers. The size of each group should be determined according to the different characteristics of the classes. For instance, for a listening class, the teacher can organize students in groups of two to five students. For a writing class, a group of two or three students can be better, so their writing can be checked for each other and then be checked by the teacher. The third factor is space division. How to divide the group space may decide how the groups act. Likewise, a proper space division will greatly be good to learning efficiency. Members in the same group should sit closely to communicate and share in an easy way. The fourth factor is teaching plan preparation. It is no doubt that a good teaching plan is very important for every teacher. In cooperative learning class, teachers should make sure that every student in a group has at least one learning task. Then, the students can discuss and cooperate to go through the tasks. The fifth factor is task assignment. When assigning tasks, teachers should ensure the participation of all students. Some students can be required to make a summary, some responsible for the content comprehension, some responsible for the vocabulary, others to take notes, etc.

After confirming the teaching objectives, teachers have to group students properly, divide the space, prepare the teaching plan and lastly assign the tasks to the “right” student. It is very important to ensure the right task given to the right student; only in this way can we make discussion and friendly competition exist in and between groups. Therefore, cooperative learning method is characterized with scientificity, practicality and systematicness.

From the theory and practice of cooperative learning at home and abroad, according to the members involved in the cooperative learning group, cooperative learning activities can be broadly divided into five types: teacher-student cooperation, student-student cooperation, independent thinking, teacher-teacher cooperation and full cooperation. Firstly, teacher-student cooperation is a traditional classroom cooperation, characterized by being teacher-led and student-centered, which emphasizes the exchange and cooperation between teachers and students. Secondly, for traditional teaching ignores peer assistance, student-student cooperation focuses on the interaction between students and use cooperative learning to achieve teaching objectives. Thirdly, cooperative learning creates a participatory classroom atmosphere of cooperation and competition, but independent thinking of students cannot be ignored when implementing cooperative learning (Garibaldi, 1979: 145). Fourthly, teacher-teacher cooperation stresses on cooperation among teachers, including collective preparation, collaboration in classroom teaching, teaching seminars, teaching evaluation which is an important element of teacher-teacher cooperation. Fifthly, full cooperation includes cooperation between students and students, teachers and students, teachers and school administrators, school and family, school and community, general education and special education for all-round cooperation.

2.2 Theoretical Basis of the Research

According to the literatures at home and abroad, it is found that the theoretical basis of cooperative learning is very massive and scientific. It covers a wide range of content. In general, cooperative learning is based on the theory of constructivism, motivational theory, and theory of social cohesiveness.

Constructivism, a learning theory, became very popular in the Euro-American countries in the late 1980s. It has been exerting great influence on every field of every subject at an accelerating speed, especially making a tremendous impact on education. The basic precondition of constructivism is that learners are required to construct their knowledge through the interaction between their previous knowledge and the new knowledge that they are learning. Learners interact with the knowledge, the learning environment and with other learners. Through interaction, learners’ perception of knowledge will be changed or altered.

Motivational perspectives on cooperative learning mainly focus on the reward or goal structures. In this perspective, cooperative learning creates situations; individual personal goals can only be achieved if the group is successful. Motivation is based upon the fact that group incentives induce students to encourage goal-directed behaviours within the group. Methods developed in relation to motivational theory have group rewards built in (Zhang Li, 2009: 153).

The social cohesion perspective focuses on the fact that students want one another to succeed and that is why they help one another learn. The main difference between the motivational and social cohesion perspectives lies in the fact that the former emphasizes that group members help each other partly because it benefits them as well, whereas the latter holds that they help their team because they care about the group (Li Yuxiang, 2005: 123).

2.3 Related Studies

Cooperative learning started in Britain in eighteenth century, and it was introduced in 19th century in America. But it has not caused enough attention in educational circles, the process of development was very difficult, and the progress produced no effects. Until the 1960s, Johnson, DW and Johnson, RT started to train the teachers at the University of Minnesota how to use cooperative learning in teaching, and they established the “Cooperative Learning Center”. From then on, cooperative learning has been popularized in North America and other countries and regions (Zhang Li, 2009: 155).

Cooperative learning has greatly improved the teaching efficiency and in recent years it is the most important and the most successful teaching reform, especially in the past twenty years. Cooperative learning, as an important teaching method has been widely used in the field of teaching, and its operation mechanism is becoming more and more mature. In 1989，Johnson, DW and Johnson, RT pointed out that compared with competitive learning, cooperative learning can improve the students’ academic performance much more effectively, develop relationships, love, support and devotion to enhance the students’ confidence and improve the students’ psychological quality and social skills after their experimental research on the study of more than 600 test reports (Zhang Xiaoling, 2002: 42).

Thus we can see cooperative learning method has attracted many researchers from abroad, but quite limited research has been done about cooperative learning in English teaching especially in college English teaching.

In China, college English has long been one of the most important subjects in higher education. Compared with the foreign countries, Chinese college English teaching has exposed many shortcomings under traditional teaching model. Cooperative learning can effectively arouse the enthusiasm of students, enhance students’ communicative ability and improve the students’ ability of using English. Therefore, it is very necessary to regard the cooperative learning method as a main learning strategy. From the end of 1980s and the beginning of the early 1990s, the research of the cooperative learning and experiment had been made in China.

Wang Tan is an early systematic researcher in the cooperation learning field. In his book The Basic Concept of Cooperative Learning, he points out that cooperative learning is a creative and effective teaching theory and strategic system which is widely used in many countries in the world. In this thesis, he researches the basic concepts of cooperative learning from interactive view, goal view, form view, situation view, evaluation view and teacher and student perspective (Wang Tan, 2002: 68). Wang Hongyu points out that there are many errors in the implementation of research and the classroom teaching process which exposes some obvious problems of current domestic cooperative learning. Wang Hongyu concludes from a number of facts whether cooperative learning is beneficial to the college English classroom teaching (Wang Hongyu, 1991: 81). Zhang Li believes that foreign language teaching mode should be transformed into student-centered and group cooperative learning is an effective mode to reestablish students’ subjectivity (Zhang Li, 2009: 154).

With the help of the theories above, some experiments about cooperative learning in English teaching reform have been carried out in some areas of China, which have made practical and fruitful research results.

Although the history of cooperative learning is not very long, the trends show quite a broader and brighter future. The researchers analyze the advantages and disadvantages of cooperative learning and offer a range of solutions from many aspects. In recent years, the study on the application of cooperative learning in college English classroom has brought growing attention and interest at home and abroad. A growing number of educators began to focus on the role and impact of cooperative learning in college English classroom. And they also have begun to practice demonstrating the actual effect of this method. We can foresee that the research on the application of cooperative learning in college English classroom can be better refined and more mature.

3. The Methods of Cooperative Learning in College English Class

In order to apply cooperative learning efficiently in college English class, teachers should pay attention to the following methods, say, cultivating students’ respect for others’ suggestion, encouraging students to express their own ideas, leading students to compete mutually and reach a consensus, enlightening students to cooperate mutually to expand their thinking, and guiding students to learn about the value of individual and collective intelligence in interaction.

3.1 Cultivating Students’ Respect for Others’ Suggestions

During the process of cooperative learning, respect should be shown to each other, which is the precondition about good relationship. The respect is not only student-to-teacher but also teacher-to-student. Only when the students respect their teacher can they pay their full attention to the teacher in class, so that they can catch every point the teacher said. In a way, it is helpful to save much time because teachers do not need to repeat the details. And students should give some responses timely, so that the teacher can feel pleasant and enjoyable.

Each member will not admit defeat and will debate for his or her view. In cooperative learning, each member including those low-level students will get the opportunity to engage in cooperative learning activities and get development. Of course, the performances of them are different, and sometimes, some students with low level will be even excluded by others unconsciously. Therefore, students should cultivate their respect for others’ suggestion, even when the suggestions are given by some underachievers. This principle will prevent the phenomenon that some low-level students don’t engage in and make sure each member in group has something to do. As a result, everybody finish his or her task through mutual help and the group will conduct their cooperation actively.

3.2 Encouraging Students to Express Their Own Ideas

Students in college are about 20 years old or so. At this age, people have their own opinions on many things. Primary school students like doing what their teachers tell them to do while college students are used to thinking a lot after being told to do something. They need a stage to express their thoughts instead of doing it as they are told. So when cooperative learning is used in college English, it is easier for the students to accept it. Therefore, teachers should encourage students to express their own ideas actively. When the group discussion is ongoing, the teacher should walk around and pay attention to the students’ talking. The teacher can even take part in a group discussion, listen to them and give suggestion to them. In this period, the teacher leads the group members’ mind to the question, help them to solve some problems if needed, and offer them some useful information (Cohen, 1988: 36). This may help students to improve their personal innovation. Then absolutely the effect of the class will be greatly improved. Even when students’ answers are incorrect, as long as they dare to express ideas actively, teachers should praise them.

3.3 Leading Students to Compete Mutually and Reach a Consensus

In cooperative learning, differences in opinions will occur all the time, and then, teachers should lead students to compete mutually and finally reach a consensus. In this process, both students’ understanding of the problem and their communication capacity will be enhanced. When some members in the group come up with different opinions, other members should do their best to discuss with each other actively. Positive interdependence is the cores of cooperative learning. Students have a sense that they are in the same boat. If one member gets success or fails, the others will get the same result.

In fact, cooperative learning needs mutual competition which should include competition within teams and competition with one group. On one hand, through the competition of cooperative learning, members within the same group will be aware that they must rely on each other’s effort to achieve their own goal. On the other hand, as to the competition within one group, it means that each group should have a proper evaluation about other member’s performance such as personal participation, activeness, enthusiasm and creativity. As a result, internal competition within a group will be formed to arouse group members’ enthusiasm to engage in cooperative learning and to assure the improvement of the entire group.

3.4 Enlightening Students to Cooperate Mutually to Expand Their Thinking

Interdependent relationship between group members is the most basic condition of group activities; without this premise, any effective cooperation or mutual assistance activities will become impossible. So in collaborative teaching, the teacher pays particular attention to the relationship between the members of a group. In the process of establishing cooperation team, teachers should guide the team to make a division of labor within the group based on each student’s talents and make sure that each member has his responsibility. At the same time, teachers should foster students’ sense of cooperation consciously, so that students can understand that within the working group, only if everyone succeeds can they succeed; if a person does not perform his duty, the entire group will not be able to achieve learning goals; in order to complete common tasks, group members are encouraged to support each other, perform mutual collaboration, and create a relationship of solidarity. During group activities, the teacher must be good at observing, understanding the team learning situation timely, and resolutely put an end to their dominance in class (Ding Jiqun, 2007: 127). Teachers should provide the students with a harmonious, comfortable, ambitious collaborative learning environment. Only in this way can students’ thinking be expanded.

3.5 Guiding Students to Learn about the Value of Individual and Collective Intelligence in Interaction

In applying cooperative learning, only when students have realized the value of both individual and collective intelligence in interaction, can they be really willing to take an active part in the learning process. In order to help students realize the importance of collective intelligence, teachers can put up some famous saying about the power of collective on the classroom wall like “Two heads are always better than one” and “The wisdom of the masses exceeds that of the wisest individual.” In addition, the teacher can put up some interesting pictures about the power of collective on the wall. Of course, it is more important for teachers to summarize the results of cooperative learning, and highlight the power of collective intelligence in an obvious way. In addition, learning the value of collective intelligence alone is insufficient to arouse students’ enthusiasm in cooperative learning. Students should also feel their value in the collective, and only in this way can they be really interested in joining cooperative learning.

Nothing is absolutely perfect in the world and there is no exception with cooperative learning. There are some disadvantages in the practical application of cooperative learning, which have exerted a negative effect on the efficiency of cooperative learning. The first disadvantage is classroom silence. Because most of the members cannot speak well or simply open their mouth, they do not want or can not use English with partners in discussions and communication. As a result, cooperative learning activities cannot be effectively carried out. The second disadvantage is negative participation of team members. The members of some groups are different in learning levels and the top students talk a lot while others have to be listeners and the teachers just ask for the answers of questions. This phenomenon will lead to a consequence that discussion is just a form and has no active influence. The third disadvantage is the lack of competition among group members. This phenomenon relieves the pressure of study. The competitiveness is reduced in the group activities. Some even cheat in the activity. The fourth disadvantage is the ineffective guidance on cooperation skills. In cooperative English teaching, some teachers still focus on helping students to solve some learning problems and ignore the training of students’ learning strategies, discussion methods, especially cooperation skills.

In order to efficiently apply cooperative learning method, it can be used in combination with other teaching methods. Firstly, self-study method can be applied. Although cooperative learning method will provide students opportunities to solve problems together, students should solve some problems within their capacity independently. Otherwise, excessive dependence on cooperation will reduce students’ autonomous learning awareness. Secondly, task-driven teaching method can be applied. The negative participation of team members sometimes is caused by inappropriate tasks. Therefore, teachers should design a practical learning task for each group member, and require them to complete the task on time with good quality. Thirdly, lecturing method can be applied. It is the most traditional teaching method, and it is indispensable for the efficient application of cooperative learning method. It is necessary for teachers to clarify all the details of cooperative learning, and make some supplements when necessary. No matter which teaching method is used in combination with cooperative learning, the role of teacher should been given enough attention. Teacher is a leader of knowledge, while students are listeners and thinkers; teacher is an information offer, while the students are information combiner; teacher is the interactive helper, while students are friends who need help. The teacher in cooperative learning in college English provides a comprehensive role. In cooperative learning in college English class, the teacher should lead students to think in right way and finally get the right answer, after grouping and assigning tasks. In this case, teachers’ duty is to lead students, help them and offer related information.

4. The Study on Cooperative Learning in College English Class

4.1 Aims and Research Question

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