2.2.2 Cooperation among Students 6

3. Research Design 7

3.1 Research Questions 7

3.2 Research Participants 7

3.3 Research Methods and Procedures 7

4. Date Collection and Date Analysis 8

5. Conclusion 13

5.1 Findings 13

5.1.1 Unclear Objectives of Cooperative Learning 13

5.1.2 Unreasonable Grouping 13

5.1.3 Lack of Effective Evaluation 14

5.2 Suggestions on Improving the Implementation of Cooperative Learning 14

5.2.1 Reasonable Grouping 15

5.2.2 Well Organized Task 15

5.2.3 Effective Monitor and Evaluation 15

References: 17

Appendix 18

1. Introduction

According to Compulsory General English curriculum standards，the main goals of Compulsory basic English are to stimulate and develop students' interest in learning English, help students build self-confidence, help students develop good learning habits and get effective learning strategies. What my study want to deal with is how to exert students’ main role in teaching procedure, let students take part in the tasks actively and be willing to explore. And cooperative learning can help students in middle school to participate in English class actively. 

1.1 Background and Significance of the Study

English education has improved from teacher-centered, surface-level, rote instruction to a learner-centered, task-based approach. And the object of English education is to improve the students’ abilities of English communication and cooperation. Cooperative learning is considered as an effective student-centered method in language education for improving students’ communicative skills, and their critical thinking . 

Cooperative learning is first put forward in the early years of 1970s by David Koonts ----an American educator. And in recent decades, cooperative learning has received more attention and getting more popular. “It’s applied in almost every school content area including language instruction and, increasingly, in college and university contexts all over the world” (Johnson and Johnson, 1989). So popular as it is used in China. Cooperative learning is widely used by Chinese English teachers.The New English Curriculum advocates stimulating and developing students' interest in learning English, help students build self-confidence, help students develop good learning habits and get effective learning strategies. In contrast, improving the test scores is more valued in real teaching procedure in Chinese middle schools.  Lots of English teaching programs are still teacher-centered, surface-level, rote instruction . Thus, it’s important for middle school English teaching to use various methods and techniques to arouse learner’s interest and learning enthusiasm. Many scholars regard cooperative learning is as a good teaching technique that can help students to participate in learning more effectively in middle school English.  But still many Chinese teachers’ understanding of the benefits and uses on a practical level of cooperative work is insufficient . Thus how to implement cooperative education more effectively under the guidance of the New English Curriculum is important to study.

1.2 The Research’s General Contents and Main Innovations