2。1。 The advantages of cooperative learning

 Though it is a relatively new approach, it is warmly welcomed in almost schools all over the world (Johnson & Johnson, 1989), and is regarded as an effective teaching method in second/foreign language teaching by scholars abroad and at home。 Ellis, A。K。 & Fouts, J。T。, well-known education reviewers in USA, asserted that cooperative learning must be one of the biggest educational reforms if it is not the only one。 Vermette P。 an educationalist in USA, believe that cooperative learning is the most important and successful education reform over the past decade。 The research in our country began comparatively late, and it is not mature。 But it is highly advocated by most Chinese scholars。

Researchers and practitioners have found that students working in small cooperative groups can develop the type of intellectual exchange that fosters creative thinking and productive problem solving。 The results of research in mainstream education show that cooperative learning increases the sense of intimacy, self -confidence。 The results of Slavin (1990) show when the group is encouraged to gain success and when each member of the group takes responsibility, the cooperative learning fosters the progress of students。 He believes that in cases that the success of learners' is dependent on the assistance of  others, the learners tend to cooperate so it is better to pide the materials among the group members and  to ask them to share his ideas with others 。 Rose and Flender (1996, cited in McCafferty et al。 2006) showed that there is a significant difference between traditional and cooperative learning groups in reading comprehension。 Slavin and Karweit (1984, cited in McCafferty et al。 2006) analyzed the group learning in a yearlong study among nine graders in mathematics classes。 The results confirmed that cooperative learning is more promising。 文献综述

2。2。 The elements of cooperative learning

A successful cooperative learning has a number of advantages。 Actually, there are five elements that define cooperative learning and to make cooperative learning successful。 Positive interdependence is the first element of cooperative learning。 With the sense that “we sink or swim together” (Johnson et al, 1989), members of a group share the same goals and perceive that working together is inpidually and collectively beneficial, and success needs every member’s effort (Johnson et al, 1989)。 The second element is inpidual accountability。 With inpidual accountability, each member holds the belief that it is important for him/her to learn the material。 They have the responsibility to work hard and spare no effort to make a contribution to their group (Kagan, 1990)。 The third element is quality of group interaction process。 It requires students to be clustered together in a tight group, in face if each other, so that they can have certain necessary interchange to achieve the task。 The fourth element is interpersonal and small group skills。 Placing the students who are not equipped with these skills in a group and informing them to cooperate did guarantee that they can manage it。 Mostly, they are unable to do it effectively (Johnson& Johnson, 1994)。 Thus it is essential to teach the group members cooperative skills。 Last but not the least, it is crucial for students to possess sufficient social skills, including appropriate leadership, communication, trust and conflict resolution skills so that they could cooperate effectively。

2。3。 The techniques of cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is an approach。 To adopt it, there are different forms and techniques。

1。 Students teams—achievement pisions (STAD), in which students are pided into study groups of four。 What’s more, the group members should be heterogeneous in academic records, genders, races or other aspects。 In STAD, the teacher gives a lesson first, and then students in the same group learn together and help each other to grasp the teaching content。 Finally, all students are required to take a test by inpidual。 At this time, they are not allowed to help each other, even if they are in the same group。 The score in this test is used to compare with the mean score of tests in the past。 How much he/she progresses, how much score he/she gets。 Then add up the scores of all group members。 Those groups that reach certain standard can gain recognition or other rewards。