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3.3 Improving students’spoken English paper51.com Cooperativelearning is beneficial to the improvement of students’ spoken English. InEnglish learning, cooperative learning provides so many communicative chancesfor students to use the target language. And the communicative content isusually close to students’ real life. “A solid linguistic foundation is crucialto improving spoken English. Accurate and clear pronunciation, few grammarmistakes, appropriate vocabulary contribute to successful communication.”(张维友,2004:94). Communicating orally and successfully is one of the important aims inlearning English. Cooperative learning theory regards communication as a languagelearning means (林立, 王之江, 2005:63). In real life communication, conversation is oneof the most common forms. In English classroom of cooperative learning,students can improve their capacity of using English, especially the spokenEnglish. In the process of teaching, teachers should develop the students’language capacity and communicative capacity. English communicative capacity isan important standard to measure the level of students’ language acquisition.The communicative approach believes “Language is a means of communication, andthe purpose of Foreign Language Teaching lays in an attempt to teach a degreewhere communication takes place without the use of mother tongue, so that thelearners are allowed to benefit from healthy ideas and culture of the targetlanguage country.”(张正东,黄泰铨,1999:426). http://www.paper51.com 3.4 Developing students’English independent learning and individual character copyright paper51.com
Cooperativelearning is beneficial to students’ independent learning of English andindividual character. Independent learning means the ability to take charge ofone’s learning. Students perform input and output of knowledge throughindependent thinking and practicing. The teaching effect is influenced by the students’autonomy in learning. In fact, most of students are used to the traditionalclassroom formats, they sit in rows listening and writing, and the teacherstands in the front of the classroom and talks endlessly. When the teacher usescooperative learning in English classroom, the teacher’s talking is less thanbefore. Group activities replace much of the teacher’s talking in the processof learning. In English classroom, the teacher only teaches the text main idea,and then assigns the learning tasks to each group, encouraging students to helpeach other and finish the task through group activity. Students understand thepurpose of their learning programmes, and take the responsibilityfor their own learning. They know learning goal, and take initiatives inplanning and execute the learning activities. Finally, they review theirlearning and evaluate its effectiveness. At the right moment, the teachershould guide and control the activities in cooperative groups. The teacher and studentsare more communicative in the cooperative learning classroom. So, theircommunicative styles vary to fit their learning style, and their communicativecontent is close to real life. paper51.com |