CooperativeLearninginEnglishClass

《CooperativeLearninginEnglishClass》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《CooperativeLearninginEnglishClass（16页珍藏版）》请在装配图网上搜索。

1、英语课堂的合作学习 Cooperative Learning in English Class Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………..……………………….. 1 Key words……………………………………………..……………………………… 1 I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………1 II. Theoretical Grounds…………………………….…………………….3 2.1 Brndura’s Social Learning Theory…………………..……………………….3 2.2

2、 Vigotski’s Theory of “Zone of Proximal Development”………..…………...3 2.3 Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory…………………….……………….4 2.4 The Theory of Constructivism………………………………….…………….4 III. Strategies for Cooperative Learning…………………………………4 3.1 Forming Groups…………………………………………………………………4 3.1.1 Close seat

3、 group…………………………………………….…………….4 3.1.2 Ability group ……………………………………………….……………….5 3.1.3 Interest group ……………………………………………………………...6 3.1.4 Mixture group……………………………………………….………………6 3.2 Designing Team Activities…………………………………….…………………6 3.2.1 One-minute Papers……………………………………….………………6 3.2.2 Round Robin B

4、rainstorming…………………………….…………………6 3.2.3 Interview………………………………………………….…………….....7 3.3 Students’ Roles in Cooperation…………………………………………………7 3.4 Teacher’s Role in Cooperative Learning…………………….…………………8 3.4.1 Teacher as manager and organizer ……………………….……………….9 3.4.2 Teacher as participant and language

5、resource………….……………..10 3.4.3 Teacher as facilitator ………………………………...…………………10 IV.Disadvantages and Problems…………………………..……………. 10 4.1 Class Control……………………………………………….…………………11 4.2 Inactive Learners in Cooperative Activity………………….……………….11 4.3 Insufficient Cooperative Work……………………………….……………....12

6、 4.4 Unreasonable Question……………………………………………………12 V.Advantages and Significance ……………………………………….. 12 VI.Conclusion……………………………………………………………13 References……………………………………………………………………………...14 Cooperative 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，

7、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, s

8、tudents 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 studen

9、ts, 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 tea

10、ching, 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 le

11、arning 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

12、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 knowledg

13、e 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 li

14、stening 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; th

15、ey 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

16、. 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

17、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 communicatio

18、n 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. Cooperativ

19、e 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

20、 & 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 t

21、eacher 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 pers

22、onalities of students, enhance relationship or friendship between partners, enlarge student’s 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 auton

23、omy, 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 compet

24、itive 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 st

25、udents because of teacher’s participation. II.Theoretical Grounds The 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 Johnson’s Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota.

26、 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 starte

27、d 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

28、 concept of cooperative learning is based on the following theories: 2.1 Brndura’s 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 provid

29、e students a natural environment for interaction, and make sure that cognitive act can be developed well. 2.2 Vigotski’s Theory of “Zone of Proximal Development” It notes that the disparity between a learner’s actual ability of solving the problem by himself (or herself) and his (or her) abilit

30、y which has made progress by the help of his better-skilled classmates or his teacher is the disparity between a learner’s 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 i

31、n 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 Piaget’s Cognitive De

32、velopment Theory It 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. T

33、he pattern of cooperation provides much more opportunity for students to improve their ability of cognition. 2.4 The Theory of Constructivism Constructivism 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

34、 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 (G

35、uo Yanbing, 2002). III. Strategies for cooperative learning 3.1 Forming Groups Forming 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. Form

36、ing 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 Group As time limited, it is not a wise option to change students’ seat to do a cooperative activity in a class, so sometimes we

37、 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 divide

38、d 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 s

39、tudents 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,

40、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

41、 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 report

42、er, 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 student’s ability in every group is not the same

43、. 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

44、 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 everyone’s

45、 effort, not one person. In this atmosphere, solidarity and each other’s 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

46、 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 i

47、n 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 r

48、elationship. 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 Group A group is regarded as a mixture of male and fe

49、male 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 spe

50、ak before counter-sexes. 3.2 Designing Team Activities Here are 3 team activities: One-minute paper, Round Robin Brainstorming, and Interview (Guo Xiangju, 2004). 3.2.1 One-minute Papers One-minute papers can be used to facilitate a group discussion or to provide feedback to the teacher. Thi

51、s activity focuses students on the content. Papers should be immediately followed by a team discussion, making good use of these papers. It can develop students’ ability of finding and solving problems. After discussing the content together, they may have a deep impression of the content. William (1

52、991) pointed that students can understand a passage much better after discussing in groups rather than passively listening. 3.2.2 Round Robin Brainstorming Round robin brainstorming can be used in this situation, a question has several kinds of answers, and students are given time to think about,

53、after thinking, members of team share ideas and the team recorder writes down the answers. For example, Unit7 Living with Disease (book I, Grade 2 of Senior Middle School), after finishing a first listening of passage, there is a question in the book, “If you were a disease detective, what would you

54、 do to learn more about a new disease?” This question is to develop students’ skill of thinking according to some information of disease. Students discuss in different groups to express their ideas about this, and many answers can be collected, such as, A: If I were a disease detective, I would co

55、llect important information about this new disease. B: If I were a disease detective, I would visit the sick person and find out the detailed information. C: If I were a disease detective, I would find out the symptoms of this new disease. D: If I were a disease detective, I would look for viruse

56、s or bacteria in blood samples in the lab. E: … 3.2.3 Interview Interview is a multi-roles activity; it is a good activity for each member to practice. Each member has his own role, this activity give everyone a deep sense of cooperation and responsibility for his group. Take Unit 9 the Earth Sum

57、mit (bookⅠ, of Grade 2 of Senior Middle school); Many kinds of environment problems are collected in this unit. For example, it is a situation that there is plenty of coal under the ground in a village, and more and more are explored in present years. According to this situation, a reporter intervie

58、wed a native citizen, a businessman, a worker and an environmentalist, and students play their different role and cooperate in their own groups to achieve this interview. Interview is a much more difficult cooperative activity in English class. It is challenging students’ integrated communication sk

59、ill, which contains listening, speaking, and thinking. 3.3 Students’ Roles in Cooperation Students are the king actors in cooperative learning, and they must change their passive roles for active ones. Compared with students who obtained knowledge passively and had no freedom except obeying to t

60、eacher’s order in traditional English learning class, students are the main actors in cooperative learning class, and the classroom is their stage. “Their major roles are collaborator and active participator. It is useful to think how these new roles influence the processes and activities students c

61、onduct before, during, and after learning” (M.B.Tinzmann, B. F. Jones, T. F. Fennimore and J. Bakker, 1990). For example, before learning, students set goals and plan learning tasks; during learning, they work together to accomplish tasks and monitor their progress; and after learning, they assess t

62、heir performance and plan for future learning. They have a right to choose the topic which their group members are interested in and they can participate in several cooperative works to practice their communicate skills. They have their own comprehension of the topic of cooperative work, and they ca

63、n talk what their opinions are freely, and they have ability to decide what each individual has to do and how to do in cooperation. Under this free environment everyone has a sense of responsibility of group, and have awareness of cooperation. They must realize that success of group is from each ind

64、ividual’s effort. As to students, self-regulated learning is important in cooperative classrooms. Students learn to take responsibility for monitoring, adjusting, self-questioning, and questioning each other. Such self-regulating activities are critical for students to learn today, and they are muc

65、h better learned within a group that shares responsibility for learning. Monitoring is checking one's progress toward goals. Adjusting refers to changes students make, based on monitoring, in what they are doing to reach their goals. Students can further develop their self-regulating abilities when

66、each group shares its ideas with other groups and gets feedback from them. Self-assessment in cooperative English learning classroom is also a new responsibility of students; it is intimately related to ongoing monitoring of one's progress toward achievement of learning goals. M.B.Tinzmann, B. F. Jones, T. F. Fennimore and J. Bakker (1990) pointed out, “In a cooperative classroom, assessment means more than just assigning a grade. It means evaluating whether one has learned what one intends to