With the development of the reform in basic education, greater emphasis has been put on the training of the students’ communicative abilities of using language, which is one of the main aims in English teaching in Junior High School. Reading plays an important role for Senior High School students who are going to attend the college entrance examination. But most students have difficulty in reading and dealing with texts. Traditionally, our classroom is teacher-centered, that is, teacher dominates the whole class and is regarded as the unique authority. While teaching reading, many teachers keep talking even explain or translate the text word by word. Students do nothing but take notes of what the teachers say mechanically. Students are accustomed to believing in their teacher. The chances for them to participate in real communication in classroom are too limited. This kind of ‘Teacher centered’ form should be altered in English reading class. It is necessary to build an effective model of teaching English reading, providing English teachers with a reference, promoting the efficient operation of the English Curriculum Criteria, and facilitating the development of students’ reading competence of English. Besides, students’ learning styles can be changed from passive reception into the one of cooperation and exploration. Klien (2000) considers cooperative learning has changed what students do in class and has transformed the traditional teacher’s talk, students’ listening pattern that has transcended all of educational history.
Nowadays, the New Curriculum Criteria has been carried out all over the country and it advocates cooperation in teaching and learning, but for most of the teachers in Junior High School it is quite a new approach to apply in their daily teaching though many researchers in and abroad have done researches into it. There are still a lot of difficulties and problems in how to apply cooperative learning in English reading class. So it is quite necessary to do the research into Cooperative reading.
II. The Study of Cooperative Learning
2.1 The Definition of Cooperative Learning
Though Cooperative Learning has so long history and many researchers have been engaged in researches on cooperative learning, so far linguists can’t make up a concise and an accurate definition. Many scholars proposed their own but actually rather similar definitions, so there have been many definitions of cooperative learning.
Roger T. Johnson and David W. Johnson (1989, 1994) defined that cooperative learning is a relationship in a group of students that requires positive interdependence, inpidual accountability, interpersonal skills, face to face promotional interaction and processing. Lavin defined that Cooperative Learning as “instructional methods in which students of all performance levels work together in small groups toward a group goal”. (Slavin 43-69). “Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve they understanding of a subject, each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. ” (Stephen 98-99) Wang tan expressed “cooperative learning is a system of teaching strategy which promotes the students to cooperate in heterogeneous teams toward a common goal and are rewarded according to the success of the team”. (Wang tan 73).
From the above definitions, the author of this thesis draws such a definition that cooperative learning is an approach to teaching and learning in which students at various performance levels form pair or small cooperative team. Within the groups they spend much time engaging discussion and use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. They create positive interdependence among group members and work together in order to meet a shared goal. Students and teacher are in a state of dynamic cooperation and together establish an intimate learning and social atmosphere in the classroom. 合作学习在中学英语阅读教学中的应用(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_9517.html