Abstract：In recent years, as a new and effective teaching method, Cooperative Learning is becoming more and more popular with scholars both at home and abroad and they have made academic studies on it. Though Cooperative Learning has been widely studied by predecessors, educationalists emphasize more on theory but not on empirical study. Especially, they don’t pay much more attention to the empirical study of oral English. The application of combining theory and practical teaching still leaves much to be desired.
In this study, a questionnaire investigation will be done first to find out the current situation of Independent College students’ oral English and then the chosen subjects will receive an experimental training of Cooperative Learning. By applying the basic theory and strategy of Cooperative Learning, as well as analyzing and discussing the experimental results, we have discovered that it is really useful to change the situation, in which students in independent colleges are difficult to rectify their so-called “dumb English”. We hope to make more practical contribution to English teaching in independent colleges, especially to oral English teaching.
Key words: independent colleges students; Cooperative Learning; oral English; case study
中文摘要：近年来，合作学习法作为一种新型有效的教学方法，越来越受到国内外学者的重视，并对其作出学术研究。但是，尽管前人对合作学习法的研究较为广泛，但大多侧重于理论上，特别是在利用合作学习方法运用在英语口语方面的实证研究，在理论与实际教学的联系上仍有不足之处。
本研究首先采取问卷调查法，了解普通高等学校独立学院学生英语口语的现状，而后选取实验对象进行合作学习的培养研究。通过对合作学习法的基本理论和策略的运用，以及对实验结果的分析和讨论，研究发现，运用合作学习法能够有效地改善独立学院学生开口难，哑巴英语的现状，我们希望本研究能够为普通高等学校独立学院英语教学，特别是英语口语教学方面做出一些有实践意义的贡献。
关键词：独立学院学生；合作学习法；英语口语；案例研究
