A Strategy of Applying Cooperation Learning in the English Listening Class for Rural Students

Abstract：In the traditional English class，the listening part is often ignored and the way to teach listening is monotonous especially for rural students.Students have much difficulty in participating in the listening class.In order to build a harmonious and efficacious class，teachers can use cooperation learning to aid listening teaching.The paper is written，basing on many actual data and findings in a rural school.The paper briefly introduces the definition of cooperation learning and theoretical bases of cooperation learning in the English listening class and mainly illustrates how to carry out it scientifically and offers some useful suggestions to overcome its shortages in detail.

Key Words：Cooperation Learning；English Listening Class；Rural Students

I.The Definition of Cooperation Learning

Up till now Cooperation learning，a teaching method，has gained great success in many countries throughout the world.

All in all，cooperation learning is a kind of teaching method，students work in a group to complete a single group product，share ideas and help each other with answers and even questions，make all the members involve and understand the groups answers，and ask for help from each other before asking for the teacher，and the teacher praises and rewards the group on the base of group performance.From the definition，it is believed，cooperation learning regards teamwork as its fundamental form，with multilateral activities as its basic characteristics，teamwork performance feedback as its basic evaluation and the well-balanced development of students cognition，affection and social skills as its basic objective.

II.The Necessity and Importance of Applying Cooperation Learning

A.The Present English Listening Situation

English is regarded as both a language subject and a tool subject.A Chinese educator has said，“The main purpose of learning English is to make students master the abilities of listening，speaking，reading and writing.Generally speaking，speaking，reading and writing begin with listening.And the weakness of listening ability will restrain the other three kinds of abilities.” 1 Nowadays，there are many rural students who struggle to improve their listening ability.The present English listening worsens steadily for the following factors：

For their own reasons，firstly，compared with other English classes，students hardly concentrate on the listening class.Even though they try to do，they enjoy less or no fruits.Secondly，they cannot catch the listening information quickly in a short time.For the teacher part，they do not consider the wide discrepancies between the superior students and the inferior ones.Even some teachers give up the vulnerable groups.The way to teach listening cannot suit multi-level students.At last，some of the students have no confidence in listening and they are abandoned by the teachers and themselves，so that they are left behind far away gradually.

B.The Importance of Applying Cooperation Learning

Teachers can understand the importance of applying cooperation learning in the listening class from the following points：Reducing Anxiety；Promoting Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem；Increasing Motivation；Building Cooperation Learning.

III.The Implementation of Cooperation Learning

About the strategy of applying cooperation learning in the English listening class，the key step is to how to use it.There are some suggestions：

A.The Overall Understanding before Having English Listening Class

If teachers do not know learning reality about students，they just build castles in the air.Wang Tan writes，“Before carrying out the cooperation learning，teachers should investigate the ability of cognitive premise and characteristics of emotional premise，the two important factors，which will influence teaching efficiency.” 2The first factor refers to the basic knowledge and skills，which are related to new knowledge，such as syllable，stress，tone intonation，vocabulary and listening skills；the second one refers to some non-intellectual factors，such as interest and motivation.Thus，according to these factors，teachers will set up learning a goal，choose group members，select listening materials and carry out cooperation learning scientifically in the English listening class.

B.Making Enough Preparations for the English Listening Class

Only enough preparations are made in as to apply cooperation learning smoothly.There are three suggestions for teachers.

1.How to Set up an English Listening Goal

Goal causes action directly.Before teachers arrange the listening task，it is necessary to set up a teaching goal about what teachers teach and how teachers teach.The goal helps students reach their ultimate goal successfully.The important point is to set up a proper listening goal.

Firstly，make listening goals clear and definite.Secondly，make listening goals accessible.Thirdly，make listening goals valuable.Fourthly，make listening goals multi-level and multi-class.

2.How to Design Listening Question

After setting up proper listening goals，it is essential for teachers to design rational questions.Teachers comply with the following rules.

At first，the listening questions contain both the former knowledge and new knowledge.The new knowledge comes after the former logically.Then，the questions regard the textbook as the core of courses，which serve the middle school teaching.The next，the questions involve some important and difficult points.Teachers avoid designing questions at random.At last，there exists level and logic between a question and next question.

3.How to Motivate Their Interest

According to the survey，a research has shown that motivation is one of the most important variables.If teachers attract them correctly，they will eagerly study what teachers teach.Teachers have many ways that will increase their interests，as follows：

3.1.The Intuitive Method

The intuitive method becomes popular with most of the teachers.Teacher utilizes some objects to aid cooperation learning，such as pictures，lantern slider，multimedia products，material objects and so on.Compared to using listening organs，students feel easier and more interested when they use visual organs.Nowadays，there are some additional pictures，bound to listening material，which will inspire students to imagine the content of materials.Teachers can make use of them to fire students' enthusiasm.

3.2.The Situational Method

The situational method is also a useful way for teachers to encourage students to participate in tasks.The students remember things better that are relevant to their experiences and real life.Using authentic situation to set up a task makes students like learning.

3.3.The Game

None dislikes a joyful class.If teachers connect interesting games with listening class，Students can learn happily.Thus，students change from learning passively to learning actively in the English listening class.And cooperation learning consists of several students，so it is convenient to play games in the groups.For instance，teachers divide the listening materials into several independent parts，ask each group to listen to different parts，and call back their results in order to make up a complete story.

3.4.Making Information-gap

One excellent way to make tasks carry on interestingly and fluently is to apply information gap.In Wang Qiang book，A Course in English Language Teaching，he notes，“Information gap can arouse students' curiosities.” 3In the task，students master different information，so if they want to finish tasks，they need to obtain information from others by communicating.

Conclusion

To sum up，cooperative learning is inherently more complex than competitive or individualistic learning，because several students work together in the teamwork.Only social skills，leadership，decision-making，trust，communication，and conflict—management skills empower students to work successfully.These skills are especially important for the long-term success of learning groups.But when teachers apply cooperation learning，it is necessary to regulate cooperation learning according to the fact.In this way，rural students have listening class more successfully and efficiently.

Notes

[1] Li Lina，How to Design Various Cooperation Learning Methods.（Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2000）89.

[2] 王坦，合作學习导论.（济南：山东教育出版社，2007）125.

[3] Wang Qiang，A Course in English Language Teaching（Beijing：Higher Education Press，2006.5）222.

作者简介：

曾敏 1987年8月19日出生 资阳人。