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摘 要

如何在英语课堂教学中有效地运用合作学习已经成为教育界讨论的一个热点话题。本文首先介绍初中英语课堂合作学习的理念和影响合作学习的两种不同的性格：内向型和外向型。然后，本文以初中英语课本一个单元为例，把一个班的学生分成内向型、外向型和混合型三组，通过分析三组学生在合作学习中的表现来探究性格差异对合作学习的影响。最终得出结论：不同性格的人在合作学习中的表现不同，影响了合作学习的效果。内向组更倾向于听力；外向组倾向于口语表达；而混合性格的学生则是偏向于综合技能。因此，合作学习分组需要考虑学生性格的多样性，达到组内平衡，提高英语合作学习的效率。

关键词：合作学习；性格差异；内向型；外向型；学习效果

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Cooperative Learning and Different Personalities 3

3.1 Cooperative Learning 3

3.2 Personality 4

4. English Cooperative Learning in Middle School Class with Different Personalities 6

4.1 The introversion group---listening group 7

4.2 The extroversion group---speaking group 10

4.3 The EX-IN mixed group--- integrated group 12

5. Analysis of the Case 13

5.1 Feedback of students from different groups 14

5.2 Enlightenment to English Cooperative Learning 15

6. Conclusion 15

Works Cited 17

1. Introduction

As is known to all, Cooperative learning is one of the most populous models in the teaching field. It has become a widespread educational approach in the United States since 1970. It is a creative and effective approach that we often used in the class which contributes to improving the leaning ability of students. It is a structured, systematic instructional strategy in which small groups work together toward a common goal. In the English class, teachers play the role of guiders while students are the main body to take part in the class, at this time, cooperative learning should be taken into the class for every group to have cooperation especially when teachers assign tasks.

With the development of education, more and more people realized that learning English is of great importance in class. Cooperative Learning is one of the efficient methods we have been used in class. The course standard points out that, the reform of English course should consider the interests of students, the experience of life and cognitive level. It proposed the learning methods of practice, experience, participation, cooperation and communication to develop students’ competence of comprehensive linguistic performance. Meanwhile, there exist a lot of factors that will affect learning, such as: motivation, emotion, personality, will and interest. All of these are nonintellectual factors. And of all the factors, personality is an important one that has a great influence on the learners in Cooperative Learning. Extroversion and Introversion are the two main forms. They have their own superior position to promote language learning and also, some inferior position to block learning. Therefore, it"s significant to study the teaching strategies through analyzing the students" extroverted and introverted personalities. Only in this way can we improve the teaching quality in Cooperative Learning. Combining different personalities with Cooperative Learning, teachers should praise them in the right time and assign various kinds of tasks in cooperation in that students have different personalities. In a word, it is necessary to study the relation between different personalities and cooperative learning in order to improve the efficiency of learning.

2. Literature Review

Cooperative Learning has recently become a heated discussion that arouses great attention among people. A lot of experts are interested in doing researches on Cooperative Learning and different personalities. As for students, it is very important to realize their personalities and take full use of it in English Cooperative Learning Class. Cooperative Learning has so far attracted many researchers from various perspectives both at home and abroad. In the linguistic area, Cook (1991:14) first put forward “The learners’ personality may promote or restrain the development of second language acquisition.” With respect to Cooperative Learning, Panitz (1996:27) deem that Cooperative Learning groups work through the small groups, with the help of students’ ability, personality to reach a common goal. Apart from this, according to Personality type in the foreign or second language classroom:theoretical and empirical perspectives, Oxford (1997:33) think carefully about the relationship between personality and foreign language. Liu Fengge, Sun Lina (2005:15) put forward that nonintellectual factors such as motivation, emotion and personality will directly affect English Learning so that teachers should think highly of nonintellectual factors. Yin Yan (2006:6) holds that personality differences have great influence on Language Learning and we can take the MBTI(Myers Briggs Indicator ) to evaluate and based on this, our language can be innovated. According to A study on the Interaction between Personality and English Cooperative Learning, You Yan（2006:15）proposes that only if the teacher cares for the individual personality can Cooperative Learning improve students’ performance and promote their good personality. Besides, in the article of Wang Jialing (2007:31), he is aimed at finding out the relationship between personality differences and English Learning, which shows that it has great influence on students’ listening and reading. It reveals that extroverted students are good at listening while introverted students are expert in reading. What’s more, the author Peng Jingfei (2007:13) also considers the personality differences, probes into the deeper relationship between English Learning and personalities in order to improve the efficiency of English Learning. As we know, there goes a saying that “by nature, near together; by practice far apart.” According to this, Yao Ying (2009:31) considers how to organize quality-oriented education to those who are introverted and the best way is to help them increase their confidence. In the paper of JiaoYu Li Lun Yan Jiu, Qi Ying and Wu Chunlei (2011:11) do a research on oral English study under personality differences, which analyzes the conclusion and proposes some strategies to solve the problem. They believe that teachers should arouse the enthusiasm of students so that they can learn English well. In the paper A study on Cooperative Learning in Middle School class, Qin Xigen (2012:14) makes a research on students in middle school when having a cooperative learning, he compares the performance of boys and girls to draw a conclusion that useful strategies should be taken to improve the efficiency of Cooperative Learning. As for Jiang Pinwang (2014:34), he studies the efficiency of improving the Cooperative Learning class, to divide groups, explicit tasks, standardize the flow, cultivate cooperated skills and select the link.

The previous literatures are good attempts to study what are cooperative learning and personality and the relation between them. Nevertheless, little attention was paid to develop the efficiency of Cooperative Learning under personality differences. In the thesis, the author discusses the problems that exist in today’s English teaching class and how to improve the competence of both individuals and groups with different personalities. Both teachers and students should be given some suggestions in order to improve students’ competence of study and teachers’ competence of teaching. The teacher performs Cooperative Learning by dividing students into various groups according to their personalities. This paper aims to find out whether individuals who have different personalities can succeed in English Cooperative Learning Class.

3. Cooperative Learning and Different Personalities

3.1 Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning appeared in 1970s in America. It is first introduced and carried out by David Koonts. (1971:13) “Cooperative Learning is a structured and systematic strategy in which small groups work together in order to reach a common goal. Within cooperative activities, individuals find outcomes that are favorable to themselves and beneficial to all the other group members.” Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to improve their learning skills and strategies. As we can see from the class, students are organized into small groups after receiving instruction and requirement from the teacher. Then, they work through the assignment and all group members try to understand and complete it. Cooperative efforts result striving for corporate benefit so that all group members receive from each others’ efforts, recognizing that all group members share a common goal, knowing that one’s colleagues, and feeling proud and celebrating when a group member is recognized for achievement. In cooperative learning situations, there is a active interdependence among students’ goal attainments; students feel that they can reach their learning goals only if other students in the learning group can reach their goals as well. Cooperative learning offers teacher ways to respond to students who represent a wide range of abilities. It supplies a structure for providing content support for students of different English levels. It gives students opportunities to learn from one another rather than receiving information from the teacher or text alone so that students can get flexible knowledge through cooperation. Proper cooperative tasks stimulate students to thinking deeply and help English learners develop the language skills. They not only learn much more effectively, but also gain valuable thinking and communicative skills. We often have a cooperative learning in before class, while class and after class, and of all he three, while class is the most important that we can take high efficiency in cooperative learning. The usage of cooperative learning in class is the most extensive and wide-ranging. During the class, teachers guide the English Teaching and students are the main bodies. First of all, students should be divided into several groups scientifically and reasonably, according to their personalities, gender, abilities to learn English and the grade they ever achieved in order to keep a balance between each group when they are assigned tasks. Secondly, usually during a class, there are various tasks, such as pair work, group discussion, role play, homework, or correct mistakes, different tasks should be treated differently. Finally, it is necessary to have an assessment in time, including self-assessment, peer assessment, formative assessment and process assessment to understand the insufficient of each student.

3.2 Personality

Since the 1970s, domestic and international numerous psychologists and linguists began to study the effect of personality of foreign language learning. The results confirmed that the learners’ type of personality and emotional state will directly influence their learning behavior and results. Compared with attitude and motivation, personality factors have received important attention in the study of the Cooperative Learning. There is no generally agreed definition of the term according to psychologists. One definition of personality is “the more or less stable and enduring organization of a person"s character, intellect and temperament, which determines his unique adjustment to the environment.” (Eysenck, 1964:15). As is reported by researchers, personality is definitely one of the most important factors linked to Cooperative Learning. In the eyes of teachers, the personality of their students conposes a major factor contributing to success or failure in language learning. The learners’ personality is always performed by their ways which they prefer. (Tang Yongming, 2003:8).

Although the personality variables differently, linguists classify it into two forms: extroversion and introversion. Generally speaking, the former is more ready to respond to questions in class, more active to converse with native speakers, while the latter may have an overall understanding of the language structures and good at listening.

Extroversion and introversion are potentially two important factors in the English Cooperative Learning class. In fact, extroversion is an important measure of self-confidence. Generally speaking, it may refer to the tendency to be outgoing and interested in people and things in the environment. The typical extroverts are sociable, lively and active, like practical jokes, parties, and have many friends, need to have people to talk to, or to accompany them. Extroverted students are labeled as outgoing, adventuresome, sociable, talkative, and not fond of learning by themselves. They enjoy excitement, take chances and make correct decisions. Conversely introversion refers to the tendency to withdraw from social interaction and be preoccupied with inner thoughts and feelings. An introverted person is very quiet and likes reading books rather than making friends. When having an English Cooperative Leaning class, teachers should think deeply of students’ personality differences. Different personalities will directly affect our learning. The extroverts may study well at speaking because they are outgoing and willing to show themselves in the front. The introverts may be good at listening or doing exercise because of their carefulness, they can have a comprehensive understanding in acquisition and the form of English. I suggest that students should be divided into three groups to make a study to find out whether students under personality differences can succeed in cooperative tasks.

4. English Cooperative Learning in Middle School Class under Different Personalities

In the previous parts, we have known the past research on cooperative study. There are various kinds of means to perform Cooperative Learning, such as: pair work, group work, discussion, role play, etc. In the following part, we use different kinds of means when in cooperation. They will be performed into tasks. Besides, we can also find that the two main personalities— extroversion and introversion, have different effect on learning. With the Cooperative Learning having been used and little study on extroversion and introversion being done in teaching in the secondary school, I will further study the English Cooperative Learning in Middle School class under different personalities.

As educators, we have been taught to “take control in the classroom" and to “motivate students to learn." Therefore, it is essential to take Cooperative Learning when having an English lesson to improve the efficiency of learning English. However, learners with different personalities: introversion and extroversion, may have a great influence on English learning. In this case, to study what is each kind of student good at is necessary when they have cooperation so that English Learning will have great breakthrough and progress.

According to You Yan (2006:17), there are two major hypotheses regarding the relationship between EX/IN and Cooperative Learning. The first一which has been the most widely researched is that extroverted learners will do better in acquiring basic interpersonal communication skills. The rationale for this hypothesis is that sociability (an essential feature of extroversion) will result in more opportunities to practice, more input, and more success in communicating in Cooperative Learning. The second hypothesis is that introverted learners will do better at developing cognitive academic language ability. The rationale for this hypothesis comes from studies show that introverted learners typically enjoy more academic success, perhaps because they spend more time reading and writing. If everything is equal, extroverts are good at speaking than introverts, but listening and reading comprehension are weak link.

A paper from Journal of Changchun Normal University (Humanities and social Sciences) points out that introverts tend to be more precise while extroverts tend to be fluent. Extroverts are good at communication, willing to receive challenges and tell his words. They are ready to speak anytime and anywhere while introverts prefer reading and doing exercises.

Based on this study in this part, 54 students will be divided into 3 groups according to a test from Niman, the extroversion group, the introversion group and the mixed group of about 18 students a group. Tasks will be assigned to each group when cooperated. Then, we analyze their performance for learning English to measure whether students with personality differences will perform differently. We take the English book 7A U8 as an example.

4.1 The introversion group---listening group

The students will be divided into 3 groups, and this part mainly talks about the introversion group, what are the characteristics of the group? How do they perform when they are having an English cooperative lesson? Maybe after the discussion, some suggestions should be given to both teachers and students. In this part, students will have a group discussion in cooperation.

4.1.1 Characteristics of the group members

The introversion group has 18 students, who prefer to stay in quiet places. They are reserved for people, longer than introspection, like immersed in the book. Unless they communicate with close friends, they usually keep a certain distance with strangers or those they are not familiar with. They like making plans before actions and doing things on an impulse. They don’t like the excitement so they always hold cautious attitudes towards daily events. Also, Wen Qiufang (1996:12) put forward that, typical introverts are more silent, they will feel uncomfortable on many occasions and they do like the orderly way of life. They can understand a passage well and do exercises correctly. What’s more, listening is a way to show students themselves in that they can calm down whenever and wherever. As we know, listening requires students to think fully and accurately, so introverted students made use of the advantages in the mind in this regard, whereas extroverted students are inferior because of their carelessness. All in all, introverts can get higher scores than extroverts in listening part.

4.1.2 Performance in the English Cooperative Class

Cooperative Learning has been used widely in English class. As we know, personality is one of the most important factors. In the English class, the teacher takes the unit8 as an example. Listening is the most important step to learn English and further study. The integrated skills part, what can I wear, which is a part of listening. Before the part, the teacher divides the group in order to have a better comparison. The teacher assigns tasks in this part. Firstly, select the right thing they hear about. Next, fill in a table when listening. After the two tasks, a group discussion will be given to students to have cooperation about what they fill in. Then, some students from each group will be asked to explain and check answers.

Task1. Sandy and her mum are talking about what to wear. Listen to their conversation. Write S for Sandy and M for Sandy’s mum in the correct boxes.

1. A white sweater 6. A pair of red shoes
2. A pair of jeans 7. A blue blouse
3. A pair of white shoes 8. A pair of red and white shoes
4. A white T-shirt 9. A red sweater
5. A purple skirt

Task2. Listen to the conversation again. Fill in the table below.

As for the introverts, they are careful when listening, and their answers are almost correct. They make fewer mistakes than others. They should cooperate with each other after doing the listening exercises under the guidance of the teacher. When having a discussion about how to do it and tell some skills or key words, they perform well in order. They have mental advantages than others students in listening part, so they can carefully and calmly do the exercises. During the period, they write down some key words, such as the time, the color, and quickly write down answers. After several minutes, they cooperate with each other and explain why they do like this. However, when answering questions, although they have correct answers, they still cannot speak it out loudly and fluently. They are shy and are not willing to speak in front of the class. All in all, the accuracy in IN group is higher than other groups, but they lack experience and courage to speak, so sometimes they are shy when answering questions, at this time, teachers ought to give them more opportunities and encouragement.

4.1.3 Some suggestions to the group

First of all, teachers should strive to do less criticism and more encouragement in order to enhance learners’ confidence. Teachers should also give them enough patience and guidance to increase their courage psychologically, help them to overcome difficulties and gradually fill weakness. Next, teachers also need to give students praise and encouragement in order to close the distance between teachers and students and let students gradually close to the classroom. Then, students should clearly know the lack of them, try to be more confident in class and let the group full of power and vitality and try to make the cooperation more vivid instead of limiting in a circle or listening itself. The comprehensive development is vital to every student.

4.2 The extroversion group---speaking group

There are 20 students in this group to have a cooperative class. How do you know the extroverts? Can they perform well when they cooperated? Will they improve the efficiency of cooperative learning? In comparison with the former group, what advantages do they have? In this part, students will have a role play in cooperation.

4.2.1 Characteristics of the group

We may often some people who are outgoing willing to communicate with others, they often have a lot of friends, like to go to the party and are eager to find some stimulation. They are good at seize the opportunity to perform and impulsive. One aspect is that they feel good and perform actively, they like to live changeably, and they always full of confidence and are willing to share their ideas to others. These characteristics help them perform well in a cooperative class because they can organize themselves and know what will they do exactly. They will have a happy discussion about questions and they can share ideas to each other and have a better conclusion. Due to their characteristics, speaking may give them chances to demonstrate especially in role play, and discussions. However, they may lack patience and cannot think deeply and thoughtfully.

4.2.2 Performance in the English Cooperative Class

In English learning class, you may often see students who are extroverted often put up their hands. They are ready to answer questions and show themselves in that they are good at speaking and their characteristics make them do so. As is known to all, speaking is one of the four skills to learn English well and it is the most important factor to promote learning. A student with fluent speaking may learn well in every aspect. What will they do when they have cooperation? We also the book U8, welcome to the unit part as an example. The teacher asks students to listen to the tape and have a role play after the tape, and try to imitate the conversation about intonation and pronunciation. Here is a conversation between Eddie and Hobo.

Task1.

H: What are you doing, Eddie?

E: I am thinking about what to wear.

H: Dogs don’t wear clothes, Eddie.

E: Oh yes, that’s right.

H: You’re so lazy.

After listening to the tape, the students begin the discussion about the conversation. As a result, students in Ex group discuss vehemently. Then, some students from each group are invited to the front to demonstrate. As for the EX group, They act lively of the two characters. However, the In group silently looking at the book and read the sentences without enthusiasm and the mixed group perform calmly. The EX group are confident and outgoing. They prefer to have a try actively and coordinate with teachers, and often achieve idea effect in a short time.

After the role play, the teacher asks students to finish some pictures and put some words in the correct boxes. Several minutes after, we find some Ex group students spell wrong even if there exists correct spelling, from this we can see, they are careless sometimes and maybe do not have the patience to check the answer again. Even when they cooperate with their members, they talk more and do less.

4.2.3 Some suggestions to the group

From the performance we can see, they are careless sometimes. As for teachers, they should set a time limit when they raise up questions in order to increase the difficulty and to make up for the characteristics of their immature and impatience. They have talent in speaking, however, they lack skills of listening when cooperated. As for students themselves, it is important to spend more time doing exercises and learning the skills of studying English so that they can improve themselves when having a cooperative lesson and fit in the cooperated group.

4.3 The EX-IN mixed group--- integrated group

There are some students who have the personality between the introverts and extroverts. We call them have mixed personalities. Do they perform best of all the three groups? Will they do well in speaking, listening or other types of exercises? Can they cooperate well in an English class? In this part, students will have pair work, group discussion in cooperation.

4.3.1 Characteristics of the mixed group

In the previous parts, we can see the advantages and disadvantages that the two kinds of students have. The introverts are good at listening and doing exercises but weak in speaking while extroverts are opposite to the former. Therefore, let us see the students of the mixed group. This kind of students is more stable, gentle and full of affinity. In cooperative learning, they can take the class as social networking sites, they are willing to communicate with their team members and ready to help others. In our English class, this kind of students is necessary to make our class more vivid and lively.

4.3.2 Performance in the English cooperative class

There are some students who are both extroverted and introverted, they often perform balanced in every aspect. They are easy-going and ready to help others whenever and wherever. They always have a good performance in the class. Here, we take the U8, the reading part as an example.

Good evening, ladies and gentleman. Welcome to our fashion show. I am Middle from Class 1, Grade 7.Today we are going to show you different styles of clothes.

Look at me. I am wearing sports clothes and a pair of trainers. Trainers are light and comfortable and are popular among young people.

Here comes Simon. He is wearing a purple shirt and a pair of grey trousers. His red and grey tie matches his clothes. He looks smart.

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