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【Abstract】With the development of economy and the progress of the society，English writing is gradually regarded as one of the useful ways for people to communicate with others.As for students，writing is one of the important parts in NMET （National Matriculation English Test）. However，students 'fear about writing will undoubtedly worsen students' interest in writing and easily causes polarization.So how to arise students' interest in writing and what effective strategies can be used in English writing teaching become new questions to English teachers. Cooperative writing is greatly advocated， which is just a kind of class techniques that encourage students to perform all kinds of writing activities in groups or small team to enhance the teacher-student and student-student interactions and promotes students to learn to write actively. This article attempts to try three different strategies of cooperative writing to improve students' English writing， namely， in-class writing， error-correcting， and cooperatively making wall newspaper.
【Key words】cooperative writing，in-class writing，peer correcting，writing for wall newspaper
Writing is one of the most important ways to record the human civilization history and prompt the development of human society. As an effective way to express and exchange people's thoughts and feelings with others， writing is gradually paid much attention to . However， for a long time， English teachers in our country have paid too much attention to the writing products and ignored the writing process and the consciousness of readers （Ten Chunhong， 1993； 65；Yu Fee and Zhang Huifen， 1996； 78， Tao Ying 2001； 115）. Many students and teachers focus more on writing products than on writing process such as planning the text， organization of the text， and even using proper punctuations. In some middle schools what the teachers need to do is to give a topic or a few topics for students to choose， and what the students need to do is simply to finish the composition in the limited time. This simple and traditional "teacher-centered" method of teaching writing actually dominates many English classes in middle schools. In such a learning environment and after many years of English study， students are tired of this traditional writing class and this single instruction pattern fails to meet the different levels of students in English writing and many real linguistic activities cannot be carried out flexibly. Therefore how to arise students' interest in writing and what effective strategies can be used in English writing teaching become new questions to English teachers. Cooperative writing is one of the main approaches strongly promoted by the new curriculum. The State Council （2001） points out "Encourage cooperative learning， promote exchanges among students， develop together and enhance teaching and learning"， which pays great attention to cooperative writing. So how to develop students' cooperative writing to arise the students' interest in English writing and improve their writing ability has become a problem to be solved immediately. The followings are some strategies of developing students' cooperative writing.
1.In-class writing
Pre-writing： The author guided and enlightened students on collecting materials about the content， to ensure them to be active in writing and make the students aware of certain brief information about the title. Therefore， before beginning to write， the author always gave them useful information briefly and clearly. Besides， the author often reminded the roles of group leader， who is important in the group work. For example， according to Hawking in Unit one， first the author gave the title. "A Person You Love and Respect" and gave them some necessary directions and encouraged every member in the group to participate before brainstorm. The author could makes a list and guided them to brainstorm and discuss， for example， the person's childhood studies， work， achievements and contributions to the people， country， the world or the benefits to them in their life and studies.
Brainstorming： Groups come up with as many responses to a given question or problem as possible. The group goal is not to decide on the "best" response or answer， but to come up with several. First， before writing， students need to think what they are going to write about， list good ideas and make notes. So the author puts the students in groups and gets them to practice talking about the picture or the main points to the others of the group， who should learn to listen to attentively while one member is speaking. Before writing， students need to think what they are going to write， so the author gives students opportunities， which they can use to arouse the thinking. For example ，after the author gives topic "A Country You Love" the students can try to talk about a place and give much more information about the topic in English as much as the can. The author encourages the member of each group to use their r imagination use the personal opinion about the topic.
Discussion： The researcher organized the students to discuss some questions according to the title，the theme，the sense audience，idea and so on，using who，what，when，where，where ，why， how， and then make the outline. The author may participate in the discussions to help students who have some difficulty in understanding the title. Meanwhile， the content and organization are also discussed among group members. For example， the students are going to write a paragraph about" My Hometown". Before they write their passage，they discuss what they want to write in groups of four. Every member in the group should introduce their own village，town or city orally and the recorder writes the useful sentences and the expressions. First writing： during this step each person in groups wrote the first draft on his/her own. Paying attention to the content ， organization of compositions， spelling，and grammar， students wrote their own drafts independently. They were not allowed to copy others during this period.
2.Peer correcting
After writing the draft the group members are required to exchange their work with each other. Each member of the group has chances to correct others' work. The students are encouraged to try to find and correct more errors such as punctuation，spelling， vocabulary， grammar and sentences structures. Here is an example below.
Vocabulary： Draft version： "As the other boy ran to help him，at the moment he had fallen on to the ground and 1ied quiet."
Final version： "As the other boy ran to help him，at the moment he had fallen on to the ground and lay still"
Grammar： Draft version： The boy hurt when he jumped into the hole to get the ball
Final version： The boy was hurt when he jumped into the hole to get the ball
Sentence structure： Draft version（1）： The government also makes the students also makes it easier for the students for students from minority groups to pass state exams.
Final version（1）： The government also makes it easier for the students from minority groups to pass state exams.
Draft version（2）： There used to have a bus stop.
Final version（2）： There used to be a bus stop
Here is a student's composition .His partner is required to mark and number the errors like this：
Every morning John goes to work by trains（1）. He always buys a newspaper ， it（2） helps to make the time pass more quickly . One Thursday morning， he turned on（3） the sports page . He wanted to see（4） the report about an important football match the night before . The report was such（5） interesting that he forgot to get off at his station . He didn't know it when（6） he saw the sea. He get off （7） at the next station， and had to wait Λ （8）long time for a train to go back. Of course， he arrived very late at the office. His boss were （9） very angry when Tom told him why he was late. "Work is very （10） more important than football！''
Writing the final drafts： After correcting， based on different language aspects corrected by group members， students write the final drafts carefully and quickly.
The corrected passage is as follows：
Every morning John goes to work by train. He always buys a newspaper， which helps to make the time pass more quickly. One Thursday morning， he turned to the sports page. He wanted to read the report about an important football match the night before. The report was so interesting that he forgot to get off at his station . He didn't know it until he saw the sea. He got off at the next station， and had to wait a long time for a train to go back. Of course， he arrived very late at the office. His boss was） very angry when Tom told him why he was late. "Work is much more important than football.'' Evaluation： If time and the students are permitted， a short summary is made by the author before the writing lesson ends. After class the author reads the final drafts， especially the passages written by weaker students， giving the evaluation to students as possible. Next period， the teacher will read the best composition and good expression and point out the serious errors. Giving groups rewards that are contingent on the sum of each group member's performance promotes both cooperation and the improved academic performance of every student （Slsvin，1983） . The author hasn't forgotten to praise some groups for their excellent cooperation. The author mainly gives the students praises for the groups work even if they have made only a little progress.
3. Writing for wall-newspaper
First， these groups are made up of volunteer students who work cooperatively to spend their spare time making an English wall newspaper once a month. They take charge of all the work： designing， choosing materials， drawing and writing. The topics of the writings are various， like "Good table manners"， "A beautiful country-Australia''， " How to leave a good impression in interviews" and so on. Some practical and useful suggestions about learning English and west countries' culture and customs are also included. These after-class activities enlarge students' knowledge， raise their interest in learning English and develop English writing skills as well.
The whole study and the experiment took the author more than one year， during which the author experienced the pleasure of success as well as the depression on failure. By conducting cooperative writing， students have a proper perception of the relationship between teaching and writing and the part they should take in the learning process. A kind of student-centeredness class occurs. The cooperative writing provides an environment for students to do face-to-face interaction， which is a must of means to accomplish the task. At the same time， this interaction is itself a real communication， during which the comprehensible input they get from their peers is much more than that they get from the teacher frontal class. Because of the similar age， this kind of input is likely within students' proximal zones of development， which is greatly helpful to their language acquisition and cognitive growth. The cooperative writing makes students more liked and caring to one another， resulting in a relaxed and non-threatening atmosphere which encourages them to learn actively with higher motivation and interest in writing and will in turn promote higher achievement. The cooperative writing makes students more confident. The relaxed and non-threatening atmosphere encourages them to write actively with higher motivation and interest and will in turn promote higher achievement. Students become the centre of class， which reaches the goal of new course reform， transferring from teacher-centered class to student-centered class. And in the group interaction， students' social skills are developed. In other words， in the cooperative writing， students not only improve their writing ability but also become more active and interested in English writing. It is obvious that the advantages of cooperative writing are not only improving students' writing ability， creating relaxed learning atmosphere， and providing greater interest. Cooperative writing is also a sure way to improve teaching efficiency and foster students' overall quality.
Bibliography
[1] BeeTin， T. Does talking with Peers help learning？ The role of expertise and talk in convergent group discussion tasks. Journal English for Academic purposes. 2003， （2）：53-66.
[2] Cowie， H and Berdondini， L. Children's reactions to cooperative group work： a strategy for enhancing peer relationships among bullies， victims and bystanders in Learning and Instruction. 2001，（14）： 517-530.
[3] De Guerrero， Maria C. M.； Villamil， Olga S. Activating the ZPD： Mutual Scaffolding in L2 Peer Revision. Modern Language Journal. 2000， 84 ：51-68. ducation Digest. 1993，58（8）： 63-66.
[4] 陈雪华.英语写作教学中的合作学习：实践与反思[J].安顺师范高等专科学校学报，2005（7）：5-6.
[5] 陈艳.合作学习理论在英语教学中的应用 [J].山东师范大学外国语学院学报，2003（3）：2-5.
【Key words】cooperative writing，in-class writing，peer correcting，writing for wall newspaper
Writing is one of the most important ways to record the human civilization history and prompt the development of human society. As an effective way to express and exchange people's thoughts and feelings with others， writing is gradually paid much attention to . However， for a long time， English teachers in our country have paid too much attention to the writing products and ignored the writing process and the consciousness of readers （Ten Chunhong， 1993； 65；Yu Fee and Zhang Huifen， 1996； 78， Tao Ying 2001； 115）. Many students and teachers focus more on writing products than on writing process such as planning the text， organization of the text， and even using proper punctuations. In some middle schools what the teachers need to do is to give a topic or a few topics for students to choose， and what the students need to do is simply to finish the composition in the limited time. This simple and traditional "teacher-centered" method of teaching writing actually dominates many English classes in middle schools. In such a learning environment and after many years of English study， students are tired of this traditional writing class and this single instruction pattern fails to meet the different levels of students in English writing and many real linguistic activities cannot be carried out flexibly. Therefore how to arise students' interest in writing and what effective strategies can be used in English writing teaching become new questions to English teachers. Cooperative writing is one of the main approaches strongly promoted by the new curriculum. The State Council （2001） points out "Encourage cooperative learning， promote exchanges among students， develop together and enhance teaching and learning"， which pays great attention to cooperative writing. So how to develop students' cooperative writing to arise the students' interest in English writing and improve their writing ability has become a problem to be solved immediately. The followings are some strategies of developing students' cooperative writing.
1.In-class writing
Pre-writing： The author guided and enlightened students on collecting materials about the content， to ensure them to be active in writing and make the students aware of certain brief information about the title. Therefore， before beginning to write， the author always gave them useful information briefly and clearly. Besides， the author often reminded the roles of group leader， who is important in the group work. For example， according to Hawking in Unit one， first the author gave the title. "A Person You Love and Respect" and gave them some necessary directions and encouraged every member in the group to participate before brainstorm. The author could makes a list and guided them to brainstorm and discuss， for example， the person's childhood studies， work， achievements and contributions to the people， country， the world or the benefits to them in their life and studies.
Brainstorming： Groups come up with as many responses to a given question or problem as possible. The group goal is not to decide on the "best" response or answer， but to come up with several. First， before writing， students need to think what they are going to write about， list good ideas and make notes. So the author puts the students in groups and gets them to practice talking about the picture or the main points to the others of the group， who should learn to listen to attentively while one member is speaking. Before writing， students need to think what they are going to write， so the author gives students opportunities， which they can use to arouse the thinking. For example ，after the author gives topic "A Country You Love" the students can try to talk about a place and give much more information about the topic in English as much as the can. The author encourages the member of each group to use their r imagination use the personal opinion about the topic.
Discussion： The researcher organized the students to discuss some questions according to the title，the theme，the sense audience，idea and so on，using who，what，when，where，where ，why， how， and then make the outline. The author may participate in the discussions to help students who have some difficulty in understanding the title. Meanwhile， the content and organization are also discussed among group members. For example， the students are going to write a paragraph about" My Hometown". Before they write their passage，they discuss what they want to write in groups of four. Every member in the group should introduce their own village，town or city orally and the recorder writes the useful sentences and the expressions. First writing： during this step each person in groups wrote the first draft on his/her own. Paying attention to the content ， organization of compositions， spelling，and grammar， students wrote their own drafts independently. They were not allowed to copy others during this period.
2.Peer correcting
After writing the draft the group members are required to exchange their work with each other. Each member of the group has chances to correct others' work. The students are encouraged to try to find and correct more errors such as punctuation，spelling， vocabulary， grammar and sentences structures. Here is an example below.
Vocabulary： Draft version： "As the other boy ran to help him，at the moment he had fallen on to the ground and 1ied quiet."
Final version： "As the other boy ran to help him，at the moment he had fallen on to the ground and lay still"
Grammar： Draft version： The boy hurt when he jumped into the hole to get the ball
Final version： The boy was hurt when he jumped into the hole to get the ball
Sentence structure： Draft version（1）： The government also makes the students also makes it easier for the students for students from minority groups to pass state exams.
Final version（1）： The government also makes it easier for the students from minority groups to pass state exams.
Draft version（2）： There used to have a bus stop.
Final version（2）： There used to be a bus stop
Here is a student's composition .His partner is required to mark and number the errors like this：
Every morning John goes to work by trains（1）. He always buys a newspaper ， it（2） helps to make the time pass more quickly . One Thursday morning， he turned on（3） the sports page . He wanted to see（4） the report about an important football match the night before . The report was such（5） interesting that he forgot to get off at his station . He didn't know it when（6） he saw the sea. He get off （7） at the next station， and had to wait Λ （8）long time for a train to go back. Of course， he arrived very late at the office. His boss were （9） very angry when Tom told him why he was late. "Work is very （10） more important than football！''
Writing the final drafts： After correcting， based on different language aspects corrected by group members， students write the final drafts carefully and quickly.
The corrected passage is as follows：
Every morning John goes to work by train. He always buys a newspaper， which helps to make the time pass more quickly. One Thursday morning， he turned to the sports page. He wanted to read the report about an important football match the night before. The report was so interesting that he forgot to get off at his station . He didn't know it until he saw the sea. He got off at the next station， and had to wait a long time for a train to go back. Of course， he arrived very late at the office. His boss was） very angry when Tom told him why he was late. "Work is much more important than football.'' Evaluation： If time and the students are permitted， a short summary is made by the author before the writing lesson ends. After class the author reads the final drafts， especially the passages written by weaker students， giving the evaluation to students as possible. Next period， the teacher will read the best composition and good expression and point out the serious errors. Giving groups rewards that are contingent on the sum of each group member's performance promotes both cooperation and the improved academic performance of every student （Slsvin，1983） . The author hasn't forgotten to praise some groups for their excellent cooperation. The author mainly gives the students praises for the groups work even if they have made only a little progress.
3. Writing for wall-newspaper
First， these groups are made up of volunteer students who work cooperatively to spend their spare time making an English wall newspaper once a month. They take charge of all the work： designing， choosing materials， drawing and writing. The topics of the writings are various， like "Good table manners"， "A beautiful country-Australia''， " How to leave a good impression in interviews" and so on. Some practical and useful suggestions about learning English and west countries' culture and customs are also included. These after-class activities enlarge students' knowledge， raise their interest in learning English and develop English writing skills as well.
The whole study and the experiment took the author more than one year， during which the author experienced the pleasure of success as well as the depression on failure. By conducting cooperative writing， students have a proper perception of the relationship between teaching and writing and the part they should take in the learning process. A kind of student-centeredness class occurs. The cooperative writing provides an environment for students to do face-to-face interaction， which is a must of means to accomplish the task. At the same time， this interaction is itself a real communication， during which the comprehensible input they get from their peers is much more than that they get from the teacher frontal class. Because of the similar age， this kind of input is likely within students' proximal zones of development， which is greatly helpful to their language acquisition and cognitive growth. The cooperative writing makes students more liked and caring to one another， resulting in a relaxed and non-threatening atmosphere which encourages them to learn actively with higher motivation and interest in writing and will in turn promote higher achievement. The cooperative writing makes students more confident. The relaxed and non-threatening atmosphere encourages them to write actively with higher motivation and interest and will in turn promote higher achievement. Students become the centre of class， which reaches the goal of new course reform， transferring from teacher-centered class to student-centered class. And in the group interaction， students' social skills are developed. In other words， in the cooperative writing， students not only improve their writing ability but also become more active and interested in English writing. It is obvious that the advantages of cooperative writing are not only improving students' writing ability， creating relaxed learning atmosphere， and providing greater interest. Cooperative writing is also a sure way to improve teaching efficiency and foster students' overall quality.
Bibliography
[1] BeeTin， T. Does talking with Peers help learning？ The role of expertise and talk in convergent group discussion tasks. Journal English for Academic purposes. 2003， （2）：53-66.
[2] Cowie， H and Berdondini， L. Children's reactions to cooperative group work： a strategy for enhancing peer relationships among bullies， victims and bystanders in Learning and Instruction. 2001，（14）： 517-530.
[3] De Guerrero， Maria C. M.； Villamil， Olga S. Activating the ZPD： Mutual Scaffolding in L2 Peer Revision. Modern Language Journal. 2000， 84 ：51-68. ducation Digest. 1993，58（8）： 63-66.
[4] 陈雪华.英语写作教学中的合作学习：实践与反思[J].安顺师范高等专科学校学报，2005（7）：5-6.
[5] 陈艳.合作学习理论在英语教学中的应用 [J].山东师范大学外国语学院学报，2003（3）：2-5.