论文总字数：38101字

摘 要

本文以合作学习方法为基础，综合当前诸多的合作学习理论研究成果，对现如今初中英语写作课堂教学的现状及特点进行分析。本文作者对两个班级进行了教学实验，并区分为实验组和控制组。对控制组采用传统教学模式进行教学，对实验组釆用小组合作学习模式。五个月的实验教学后，对相关数据进行了分析。统计结果分析表明：实验组作文成绩明显优于控制组，该教学模式能够提高学生写作的兴趣并能促进其自主学习能力的发展。因此该研究对初中英语写作教学具有一定的理论及实际意义。

关键词：初中英语；合作学习； 小组写作

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 The definition of Cooperative Learning 1

2.2 Theoretical bases of Cooperative Learning 2

3. The Significance and Necessity of Cooperative Learning in Writing in Junior High School 4

3.1 The significance of Cooperative Learning in writing 4

3.2 The necessity of using Cooperative Learning in junior middle school English writing teaching 8

4. The Case Study on Cooperative Learning in English writing 8

4.1 The purpose of the study 9

4.2 The design of the study 9

4.3 The results of the study 9

4.4 The advantages of Cooperative Learning in writing teaching 12

5. Conclusion 14

Works Cited 16

Appendix I: Pre-test paper 17

Appendix II: Post-test paper 18

Appendix III: 英语作文评分细则 19

1. Introduction

With the opening up policy, China is greatly blended in the whole world. English, as one of most important international languages is playing a more and more important role. As we all know in the modern society, more and more attentions are paid to a person’s consciousness of cooperation and the ability to communicate with the others. And one of communication ways is writing in foreign languages if dealing with foreigners.

Generally speaking, English teaching in middle schools has made great progress in the past several decades in China: the scale of teaching is expanded constantly, and the teaching level is raised up continuously. Teachers’ personal quality is greatly promoted on the whole, etc. However, the development of our English teaching can’t completely meet the needs of the economical and social development. For example, during the daily English teaching, too much notice is paid to the knowledge itself, rather than the useful skills of the language like English speaking and writing. Now, students who learn English have realized the importance of English writing, and they are quite willing to acquire the skills of English writing for further use in their study and daily life. So this paper will focus on how to improve students’ ability of writing. And the author will pay attention to the Cooperative Learning method applied to the English writing teaching. In the following part of the paper, the author will divided the paper into five parts:

The first part, the author will introduce some definition and theories of Cooperative Learning. And the second part, the author will analyze the present situation of English writing in junior high school and the third part the author will present a study which is related to Cooperative Learning method in English writing teaching. The last two parts will focus on the advantages of Cooperative Learning method in English writing and draw a conclusion according to the research in Cooperative Learning method.

2. Literature Review

2.1 The definition of Cooperative Learning

As to be known Cooperative Learning sprung up in the United States in the early 1970s, and was a creative and effective teaching theory and strategy, which have made substantial progress in the mid-70s to mid-80s. Because it can improve social psychological atmosphere, enhance the academic performance of students in a large area and promote students to form good non-cognitive quality and other aspects of remarkable effectiveness. Cooperative Learning has drawn attention from countries around the world in a short time and has become one of the contemporary mainstream teaching theories and strategies, known as the most important and successful teaching reform in recent years. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Cooperative Learning research and experiment also appeared in our country, and has yielded better achievements. After many years of research and development at home and abroad, Cooperative Learning has become a mature theory of teaching. It is now applied widely in the world, and in our country it is a hot word in both middle schools and colleges. In order to carry out Cooperative Learning more effectively, we must study the connotation of Cooperative Learning seriously. The following is the definition of some domestic and overseas Cooperative Learning research of Cooperative Learning.

One of the famous professor Slavin, the main representative of Cooperative Learning, points out: Cooperative Learning is to instigate students to engage in learning activities based on the team, and to rely on the results of their entire team for award or recognition of classroom teaching technology (Slavin 32). Johnson brothers say: Cooperative Learning is the use of group teaching, which enables students to maximize their own and others’ learning by joint activities (Johnson，Johnson and Hulubec 45). Wang Tan, the scholar of our country, thinks: Cooperative Learning is a form of classroom teaching, which is mainly based on the organization of group learning. According to certain cooperative progress and methods, Cooperative Learning urges students to learn together in the heterogeneous group, which cooperative relationships contributed to students’ cognitive, emotional teaching strategy system (Wang 54).

2.2 Theoretical bases of Cooperative Learning

It is generally believed that Cooperative Learning is a teaching tactic that organizes the students to study in group, and by means of coordination of activities between teachers and students to complete the study task. The emergence and development of Cooperative Learning has a solid base and scientific theory development. The theoretical basis of Cooperative Learning is mainly manifested in the following aspects:

2.2.1 Constructivism Theory

Constructivism learning theory is that “The learning process does not mean learners accept knowledge passively or the process of outside-in transfer, but the process of constructing their knowledge and experience actively, which is put forward by Gao Wen (Gao 23). That is to say, the result of learning is the student’s individual knowledge experience has been reorganized, instead of accepting the knowledge.” Teaching is to promote the cooperation between the students and make students understand the different points of view. Students discuss and communicate with each other in teachers’ organization and guidance, so that teachers and students can share everyone’s point of view and the wisdom together, and complete the meaning of knowledge construction. Therefore, cooperative learning has received extensive attention and study by constructivists.

2.2.2 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky proposed the famous ZPD assumptions. He thought: The psychological development of children had two levels: first level is the actual level of development; the second is the level of potential development. When children are in someone’s help or cooperating with partners to solve the problem, they would show the level of psychological development, and the difference between these two levels is called ZPD (Vysgotsy 38). In a word, ZPD means a space between the current development and the potential development of kids. Therefore, the teaching should be prior to the development of children so that to create the zone of proximal development and prompt children to reach the level of potential development. In the two levels of dynamic interaction process, children’s psychological level develops from low to high constantly. Children cooperating with each other in the ZPD can show the more advanced than any single activity. Different students can make good for deficiency in the cooperation, deepen understanding of the problem and improve the quality of learning.

2.2.3 Social Exchange Theory

In a cooperative group, the members possess different levels of wisdom, knowledge structure and mode of thinking, which contributes to mutual enlightenment and supplement. And in the crash of the communication, they can create a new insight and complete learning tasks together with the collective force (Kafka 1935). In Cooperative Learning, students don’t need to worry about the failure and intension of study, nor hold the teacher’s authority in awe. They have a common goal and provide the motivation for each other, which makes them encourage each other, assist each other and love each other. Teacher use aggregate performance as an award to influence the students actively with the pressure of group who have poor motivation, perseverance and responsibility. By doing so, the motivation of study would come in to being, which improves learning results.

3. The Significance and Necessity of Cooperative Learning in Writing in Junior High School

As a kind of out-put language skill, English writing occupies an important place in language applied ability. However, English writing teaching is a weak link for teachers, and students also feel it is one of the difficult points. Traditional product approach has many flaws, for example, the teachers always pay more attention to students’ final products quality and be accuracy of the article wording, which leads to neglecting the whole process of writing. In fact, when it comes to writing, many students turn pale at the mention of a tiger, lose confidence and even produce a feeling of fear. So how to improve students’ ability of writing is a problem worth pondering.

3.1 The significance of Cooperative Learning in writing

The new curriculum standard point out that cooperation is the important way of learning. Under the guidance of teachers, carrying out group activities orderly is an important classroom teaching method.

First, Cooperative Learning can stimulate creativity, and it is helpful to cultivate students’ cooperative consciousness and skills. Second, Cooperative Learning is conducive to communication between students and the development of team spirit. Students have different backgrounds, different experiences and views of things in a different way. Cooperative Learning can help students have more chances to expose their ideas and share each other’s point of view. So it is effective to apply the Cooperative Learning to writing. And the following will focus on the present situation and mode of English writing.

3.1.1 The present situation and features of English writing

With the purpose of drills, English writing teaching is intended to improve students’ ability of expressing ideas fluently through the written language. Writing is a mental activity, which is peculiar to human and reflects the intention and motivation of writing objectively. 

As a kind of written form’s initiative skill, English writing is not only a process where human use language to express ideas, but also a process of discovering, analyzing and solving problems. It can reflect students’ ability of organizing thoughts and language competence. English writing, as a monomial form of communication and one of the four basic language skills, has gained more and more attention. The ministry of education examines the traditional English writing teaching model, according to full-time compulsory education of ordinary senior middle school English new curriculum standard, which is promulgated newly. Proceeding from the feature of writing itself and the actual situation of students, it advocates Task-Based Teaching and Cooperative Teaching. With the goal of cultivating students’ comprehensive ability of using language, it also clears “Personalization, communication, diversification” as the standard of writing, emphasizing the content and the students’ own responsibility and so on (Zhou 30).

However, for a long time, how to teach English writing effectively has always been plagued by numerous English writing teachers. Especially in high school, how to lay a solid foundation, let the students have substance in speech, be able to write, and even be good at writing are big problems the middle school English teachers are faced with.

3.1.2 The model and characteristics of the cooperative English writing

Under the theory of Cooperative Learning, English writing teaching emphasizes the process of writing, rather than just the result. The theoretical basis of the teaching model of English writing is Communicative Theory. The theory of Cooperative Learning is actually a way of Communicative Theory, which carries it out entirely. Communicative Approach, also known as function method, is developed in the early 1970s. At present, the theory has become one of the biggest schools of foreign language teaching. The starting point of the communicative approach is to express ideas in communicative activities. The purpose of it is to cultivate students to master the skill of communicative skill. And it demands communication in the teaching process and uses authentic language to communicate in the real social situations.

Of course, it is not suitable for our students to implement the communication principle in an extreme way. At present, many foreign schools have adopted a cooperative teaching method based on communicative theory to conduct writing teaching. Communicative theory regards writing itself as a communicative activity. “Verbal auditory verbal, visual and verbal kinesthesia isn’t isolated perception. In the process of spoken or written language, various senses will cooperate with each other and replenish each other”. The application of cooperative learning is the process of writing focusing on the students. In this process, a variety of students’ perception could play a role and achieve a certain degree of balance. Students, in this critical stage, also timely get teachers or classmates’ help, feedback and guidance. The teamwork writing has a positive impact on cultivating the absorption of writing ability, arousing students’ enthusiasms, and exploiting thinking ability.

Under the theory of Cooperative Learning, writing teaching cooperation theory emphasizes on the grammatical form, which is the challenge to the traditional teaching method, and aims to turn teachers’ attention from the evaluation, assessment of student products to the help of students so that to pay more attention to the process of writing. In the writing process, by means of pre-writing activities, thinking, research, discussion, conception and modification to help them. Flower and Hayes’s theory of cognitive processes of writing, points out writing is a complex, targeted, cyclical activities (Flower and Hayes 45). Teachers’ responsibilities in the process of writing is to stimulate students’ learning motivation, create a relaxed, free writing environment, and let them repeat writing and modify so that to explore new ideas, improve the content of article through diverse writing activities. Teachers should be ready to provide the necessary information and language help for students at any time, until it is finished.

In order to better understand the cooperative learning theory of writing teaching, we put the main differences between it and the traditional mode of writing teaching and are summarized as follows: (Zhao 14)

3.2 The necessity of using Cooperative Learning in junior middle school

English Writing Teaching

English writing is an indispensable basic skill in English language learning. In order to improve the level of junior high school students in English writing, writing teaching reform is imperative. Through the study of cooperative learning, analysis of the shortcomings of the traditional teaching methods, the interpretation of the new curriculum reform and the new English Curriculum Standard, and the reflection on present situation of English writing teaching in junior middle school, we can draw the conclusion that cooperation learning has a very big advantage on the promotion of junior middle school English writing teaching.
The change of teaching mode is not only changes in teaching methods and means, but also a change of the teaching idea. It is to achieve the transformation from the teacher as the center, simply imparting knowledge and skills of the language teaching thought and practice to the student as the center, which doesn’t only teach the language knowledge and skills, but also pays more attention to the cultivation of the change of teaching thought and practice in the practical application of language ability and autonomous learning ability. In the teaching of English writing teacher must do the “students’ center”, and it is bound to change the traditional writing teaching model and apply the cooperative learning mode into the English writing teaching. If teachers can always design scientific and standardized activities, it is greatly bound to change the current writing teaching situation. However, in teaching practice, teachers should pay attention to making cooperative learning design more scientific, effective and can’t become a mere formality or grandstanding.

4. The Case Study on Cooperative Learning in English writing

With the help of my junior high school English teacher, I applied the theory of cooperative learning into the usual writing teaching, which improved the students’ learning interest of writing and writing performance. In order to verify the positive role of the cooperative learning theory in English writing in junior high school, I took the form of experimental research. The following will present the experimental studies.

4.1 The purpose of the study

Through the practice of collaborative writing teaching, this study reformed the old teaching method of English writing and explored to English writing teaching. How to effectively use collaborative writing mode of teaching, to stimulate students’ interest in writing, and to improve their writing ability are main tasks of the study. And to cultivate students’ cooperative learning consciousness and ability of self-evaluation in the writing culture so as to improve the students’ Comprehensive English achievement.

4.2 The design of the study

1. The study of location: the fourth middle school in Lianshui

2. The experiment objects: class (10) and (6) Grade 2, the English teacher of two classes is the same person; the number of the students is the same too.
3. Specific time: from 2015.10 to 2016.03, and totally 20 lessons
4. The choice of materials: two classes use the same textbook; textbook is the junior middle school English version of Yilin eight grades. In addition, two classes are equipped with the same grade numbering English workbook. The difference between the two classes is different teaching method. The experimental class uses cooperative learning method in English writing teaching, and the control class uses the traditional teaching method. The class (10) is the experimental class, and the class (6) is the control class.

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