A convenient method to synthesize starch/lactic acid copolymer was studied in this work. Copolymer of starch graft with lactic acid (LA) was directly prepared by reaction of cornstarch with lactic acid in sodium hydroxide (NaOH) aqueous solution as a catalyst. The product was characterized by IR and WAXD, and the good adhesion between the two components has been observed by SEM. The results showed that the highest grafting degree could reach 33.60% when the graft copolymerization was carried in 0.40 mol·L-1 NaOH aqueous for 9 h at 90°C with the 1: 5~6 ratio of starch and lactic acid.