Cooperative Learninginthe Task—Based Class English Teaching

劉葉

1.Introduction

Nowadays，cooperative learning is a kind of new teaching theory and strategy system that characterized with student-center and group activities for a common aim of improving students intellectual and emotional quality.At the same time，the task-based class teaching has been widely accepted and used as an effective way to improve the ability of students learning.So exploring the cooperative learning in the task- based teaching is very necessary.

2.Literature Review

2.1 The Cooperative Learning.Slavin （1995），who defined cooperative learning as“instructional methods in which students of all performance levels work together in small groups toward a group goal”.

Johnson，and Holubec （1998） regard CL as“the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning”.

Olsen & Kagans definition which is “group learning activities organized so that learning is depended 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 & Kagan，1992：112）

2.2 The Relationship between Cooperative Learning and Task-based teaching in English class.According to Piagets constructivism view，knowledge learning is a process of constant psychologically constructing； a process of experiencing，discovering and creating.By means of carrying out tasks，students interact and cooperate with each other，participate in the real，natural and meaningful activities，connect and combine，and construct the language system by themselves.It will be the most effective way of language learning.

3.Methodology

It includes the research questions，subjects，instruments and the procedures of data collection.

3.1 Research Questions

1.Whether the task-based cooperative learning can improve junior middle school students' English learning ability？

2.What are advantages of cooperative learning approach？

3.2 Research Subject.Gaochang Junior Middle School in Hebei province

3.3 Research Instruments.Pre-test and post-test and a questionnaire

3.3.1 Pre-test and Post-test.In the first two weeks，teachers of Class two use the traditional method to teach reading，then give the students a test which if of average difficulty.While in the latter two weeks，teachers use cooperative tasked-based method to assist their reading teaching.And then give the students another test of the equal quality with the previous one.

3.3.2 A Questionnaire.It was one of the essential instruments used by the present author.And it was based on cooperative learning in task-based English class.

4.Results and Discussion of the Results

The research data for analysis to examine the effectiveness of cooperative learning came from the pre-test and post-test and the students answers of the questionnaire.

4.1 The total marks in pre-test and post-test：From the total marks we can see that the mean score in former two weeks cannot be improved dramatically.After the two weeks，the average score was improved 0.6.

4.2 The Result if Questionnaire.According to the pre-experiment questionnaire，only 56% of the students answered that they are good at English.However，after the experiment，the percentage became 83%.

Only 56% of the students answered that they are interested in English.However，after the experiment，the percentage became 83%.

Only 53% of the students answered that they believe in themselves when they study English.However，after the experiment，the percentage became 75%.

Only 61% of the students answered that they want to do the homework.However，after the experiment，the percentage became more than 80%.

4.3 The Conclusion.In conclusion，the cooperative learning approach improves students ability in English class.What is more，cooperative activities can be helpful to build up greater learner confidence and self- esteem.We can see that CL in the Task-based teaching can help students form positive attitude.This means that the cooperative learning approaches give students a stage to communicate.So cooperative learning in task-based English teaching is very necessary.

References：

[1]Johnson，R.T & Johnson.D.W.1994.Learning together.

[2]Slavin，R.E.1995.Cooperative Learning.Boston： Allyn & Bacon.

[3]Olsen，R&S.Kagan.About Cooperative Learning.In C.Kessler（ed.） Cooperative Languge Learning： A Teachers Resource Book[M].New York： Prentice Hall，1992.