英语课程与教材分析

1、Cooperative Learning in Junior Middle School English ClassABSTRACTWith the continuous advance of the new curriculum reform, it is supposed to encourage develop students four basic language skills listening, speaking, reading and writing by the way of exploration, practice and cooperation. As a resul

2、t, the group cooperative learning was put on the agenda. Cooperative learning was firstly advocated and implemented by the famous American educator David Koonts in the 1970s (Putnam 1997). It suggests that the whole class should be divided into learning groups, in which all the students are given eq

3、ual attention and equal chance to demonstrate themselves. In recent years, cooperative learning has aroused much interest of foreign language teaching researchers and practitioners. Group cooperative learning builds an open language learning environment for students, which provides students the abil

4、ity to multi- channel access to the language. It fully embodies the educational view of the people oriented educational.中文摘要摘要: 英语新课程标准要求我们要通过合作、交流、实践和探究等多种方式来发展学生的听、说、读、写四项基本语言技能。由此，小组合作学习被提上了日程。合作学习在20世纪70年代由美国著名教育家David Koonts (Putnam 1997) 首先倡导并实施，即把班级分成以小组为单位的学习集体，在实施教学活动中，充分发挥每一个学生的积极性，用不同的合作学

5、习方式展示自我，从而提高每个学生的语言表达能力。合作学习模式在国内越来越受到外语教学者的关注。小组合作学习给学生提供了有利和充分的英语语言学习环境，充分体现了以人为本的教育观点。The Culture of Learning in ChinaThe Chinese education system is designed to employ traditional teaching approaches based on teacher- centered education. Most school and curricula are styled to serve the goals of

6、 the use of individualistic learning, in which most class time is spent with the teacher lecturing and the students watching, listening and taking notes. The students work individually on assignments, and cooperation is discouraged. As a result, traditional educators build the learning process based

7、 on a centralized teacher concept, which creates a teacher- centered, authoritarian classroom environments where learners are continuously made aware of their ignorance; where they are expected to react to immediate stimuli without opportunities to process their learning; where every discrete detail

8、 of oral or written expression is analyzed; and where learning activities are irrelevant or annoying rather that relevant and helpful.As far as Language classes are concerned, the most crucial problem resulting from the teacher- centered pattern is that in spite of so many years hard study in Englis

9、h, students always turn out to be poor in speaking, lacking of communicating skills and cooperation spirit, not even the habit of thinking in English when speaking in English. The typical outputs of teacher- centered pattern are students with the features of passive, static, unexpressive, poor in sp

10、eaking and communication; though maybe good at writing and reading. By the way of teaching and learning, students can seldom use English as a living language, which is the terminal and true aim of learning a foreign language, even after so many years of hard study.With the reform of the teaching syl

11、labus, the highlighting of the students foreign language communicating skills, and the rising concept of “student- centered”, the traditional model of learning, the culture of learning, especially the learning of a foreign language has been changing and will continue to change. Analysis on the Engli

12、sh Course books of Jiangsu Version Due to the rapid development of economy and communication with outside world, the reform of English teaching at all level, especial fundamental level becomes urgent.The present Junior English textbooks for Jiangsu have a number of distinct characteristics as follow

13、s:1) The textbooks are rich in information; they cover a broad area, including Chinese history, geography, plants, animals, astronomy, environmental protection, tourism, scientific, festivals, cultural practices and other fields. It fully shows the concept of modern education theory of multiple inte

14、lligences; students learn a lot beyond English as a language simply.2) The course books offer students a lot of opportunities for the different tasks in a variety of forms such as stories, dialogues, letters, games, songs, it is favorable to form the students initiative, activity and creativity. 3)

15、Speaking practice provided in the book is more closely connected to life. Large vocabularies, specific requirements, wide choice of reading are the main features of the textbook, the course books do well in the convergence of primary English teaching and junior middle school English teaching. Purpos

16、e of Research Cooperative learning (CL) is one of the most inviting, creative and effective teaching learning methodological system in the world. Throughout the twentieth century, and particularly in recent years, there is a growing consensus among researchers about the positive effects of CL on stu

17、dents achievement, as well as a rapidly growing number of educators using CL at all levels of schooling and in many subjects areas. It is believed that CL helps to improve the classroom atmosphere through reducing anxiety and promoting self- confidence. The most important is that CL offers task- bas

18、ed interaction that is believes to be favorable to Second Language Acquisition.By applying CL into teaching practice, we have changed teacher- centered classroom into student- centered; “duck- filling” method into autonomous learning. As it helps greatly in improving the teaching result, activates t

19、he class cooperation habits, and builds up the non- cognize quality of students, it is highly praised as “the most important and successful education reform since the last decade”, “It is at least one of, if not the only one, the most striking reform in contemporary education reform” commented by fa

20、mous American educators Ellis, A. E. and Fouts, J. E. in their book “Research on Educational Innovations” (Ellis, A. E. and Fouts, J. E., 1997:85). With the rapid development of education reform in China, cooperative learning, as one of the important approach of learning, has been widely accepted an

21、d practiced in teaching and learning especially in elementary school and middle school.By far, cooperative learning as an important research project has been carried on in almost all over the world for decades. Mostly, both home and abroad, Cooperative Learning is broad concept which contains multi-

22、 layer and different meanings. Because of this, education reforms or education theories with “cooperative” in the title or keywords are often seen. The research on the cooperative learning started in the United States in 1970s. Johnson. D. W., Johnson, R. T. are the most famous researchers in this a

23、rea of cooperative learning Methods and so on. Slavin, R. E.s (Slavin, R. E, 1978a: 39-49) famous book Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice helps its author gains the fame. In China, it was much later for the cooperative learning theory was introduced in Chinas teaching practice. The

24、 theoretical and practical research on the application of Cooperative Learning theory in English is still fresh. Based on the cooperative learning theory, its studies and activities, the interaction in cooperative learning can be categorized as the following four kinds: that is, interaction among te

25、achers and students, interaction among teachers, interaction among students, and interaction among all. As to the well- known researchers in this field of China, we can find scholars such as Wang Tang (2002), Zeng Qi(2000), and some teachers in the first teaching line, mostly primary school and midd

26、le school teachers. Some books and papers are published as the result of research.Techniques of applying CLAfter decades application, CL develops various techniques, among them the most widely used and researched CL techniques are as following: Student Team and Achievement Division (Slavin, 1983), D

27、iscussion Group Sharan, S. (1980), Jigsaw (Lie, A, 1992), Numbered Heads Together (Kagan, 1990), etc.Student Teams and Achievement DivisionsSTAD, a peer- tutoring technique, is based on raising students motivation for learning by focusing on cooperation of members within each team, following six sta

28、ges:(a) organizing small heterogeneous groups,(b) presenting the teaching unit,(c) assigning cooperative peer group work on a worksheet.(d) giving an individual quiz,(e) computing students scores, (f) announcing the group scores on the bulletin board and rewarding the winning group.The STAD techniqu

29、es aims at raising student motivation, which presumes a growing relationship between the incentive value of success and probability of success.Discussion GroupThe DG activity and its principles derive largely from the philosophical outlook of John Dewey, further developed by Sharan (Sharan, 1990: 65

30、). Effective study in DG requires the social skills and function of peers ideas, cooperation and sharing of information, mutual help, talking in turn, serving as group leader, and so on. All of these are basic skills for interpersonal and multilateral communication. Teachers role is to set up tasks

31、that facilitate the acquisition of these skills and that at the same time serve a language- teaching goal.Role AnalysisWithin the frame of lesson and approach, there is a range of roles that a teacher may adopt, and a range of corresponding learner roles as well. In CL the teacher is no longer a tra

32、nsmitter of martial, but maintains various roles. And important aspect of effective teaching is the facility with which a teacher can move in and out of these various roles and enable learners to do likewise. Also, the students roles are different from what their act in traditional teaching model. B

33、efore applying the CL, teachers should make clear what their roles are, and help students to know what they need to do, especially for those group leaders.Teachers rolesThe teachers act as the following roles in CL:(1) OrganizerThe teacher should make a good preparation before every class. He/ She n

34、eeds to know what factors lead to successful group work, and needs to be able to analyze the reasons that cause group to fail. He/ She should also take into account the content and requirement of group activities, be aware of the beneficial way of dividing the groups, and prepare cards, pictures, an

35、d kinds of forms in advance if needed.(2) InstructorThe teacher should instruct learners how to carry out some activities, make sure that every student understands the task and requirement beforehand. Native language is permitted if the task is too complicated.(3) DemonstratorThe teacher can be an i

36、nterpreter or an actor and demonstrate the activities by asking the questions round the class, or by getting one group to do some simple activities in front of the class. Important phrases and sentence structures can be provided.(4) MonitorDuring activities, the teacher may move quickly around the c

37、lass, see to it that everyone is properly prepared and actively involved. Be available as a “resource” for language queries, and “on- the spot check” and a “sound- board” for ideas, opinions. The teacher should participate in group work to ensure that groups remain on task and are working together,

38、to give monitor and help when needed, see to it that gross errors do not remain unchallenged, and gather data on situations and their inter-language for use in follow- up feedback session, accuracy work, and remedial language work.(5) ControllerControl time. The teacher should stop the activities if

39、 most groups have finished the tasks in case that student may get bored or start talking about other things.(6) EvaluatorThe teacher should evaluate the performance of each group, give feedback.Besides the above roles, the teachers should assume the role of an advisor for whatever contingency might

40、arise during the process of group work. He is a “servant” rather than the “master” of the group.Learners rolesLearners have the following responsibilities in the application of CL:(1) Quickly form the groups as required. Keep good relationship with other group members. Be ready to devote to group wo

41、rk.(2) Carefully decide on special problems, contribute to the ways of dealing with the group work. Provide ideas and suggestions.(3) Actively engage in group activities. Be individual accountable for the part he/ she plays, interact with other members face to face.(4) Carefully listen to what other

42、 members say and seeks helpful ideas and insights. Request clarification when needed.(5) Fluently and precisely present the group task to the whole class.(6) Faithfully fill in self- monitoring form.Group leaders rolesGroup leader should be randomly chosen. He can make the difference between a succe

43、ssful and unsuccessful implementation of CL activities. He generally has the following responsibilities:(1) Keep the group activities going by encouraging all to take part and by tactfully bottling up any monologists?(2) Summarizes from time to time and help the group members evaluate their progress

44、 so as to be sure that each member understands what has been said and so that no one is left behind.(3) Keep trace of the time to be sure that the group can accomplish its task in the time allotted.(4) Tie together all the ideas, conclusions and generalization in a final summary as needed.(5) Fill i

45、n cooperative group reflection form to reflect the process of group work to the teacher.Potential effectiveness of applying CL Researchers studying the effects of cooperative learning have obtained positive outcomes. Johnson and Johnson (1998) documented more than 800 studies that have conducted on

46、CL. Reviews indicate that CL, as opposed to teacher- frontal instruction, result in higher student achievement, increases student- esteem, and improves peer relations (Johnson & Johnson, 1991). Although it is not possible to discuss all the researchers fully, the author just give a brief review

47、of those well known studies as following. A. Increased achievement Researchers studying the effects of CL on achievement have most often compares CL with two methods for organizing learning: individualistic learning and competitive learning. Johnson & Johnson (1991) used a meta- analysis methodo

48、logy to examine the result of 323 studies comparing CL with individualistic and competitive learning and revealed that more than 50% of the findings were statistically significant in favor of CL, and only 10% favored individualistic or competitive learning, with the average “cooperator” performing a

49、bout 3/5 of a standard deviation higher that the average competitor or individualistic learner.B. Improve self- esteem Another important outcome of CL is the positive effects on students self-esteem. Improve self- esteem can result from achieving challenging goals, from gaining the respect of others

50、, and from favorable comparison with others. Johnson and Johnson (1989) reviewed the research on cooperative, individualistic, and competitive learning as they relate to self- esteem. Among 77 students, about 53% of the findings were statistically significant in favor of cooperation, while less than

51、 1% favored competition. The average cooperators self- esteem was 3/5 of a standard deviation higher that of the average person working independently.C. Increased peer acceptance and racial friendshipResearchers have shown that CL experience fosters friendship among classmates, even those students who are with disabilities are accep