A Study On The Effect Of The Task-based Length Approach On English Writing Anxiety And English Writing Achievement Of Junior High School Students

The Length Approach is a new kind of English writing–teaching approach proposed by ProfessorWang Chuming (2000). It takes Swain’s comprehensible output hypothesis as its theoretical base, aiming atboosting students’ English writing confidence and enhancing students’ English writing competence bymeans of designing English writing tasks that can stimulate writing desire and writing interest, which leadsto gradually increased length of compositions. The successful application of the Length Approach incollege sheds some light on the teaching of English writing in high schools as well. The Task-based LengthApproach first proposed by Wang Fujin (2007) is adapted from the Length Approach. It is claimed to beeffective in stimulating positive attitudes towards English writing among senior high school students,resulting in significant improvement of English writing achievement.The present study is an empirical study attempting to find out the effect of the Task-based LengthApproach on English writing anxiety and English writing achievement of junior high school students. Twoclasses in Grade9in No.14Middle School of Wuwei, Gansu, were selected as subjects. All of the subjectswere grouped as high-level group (G1) and low-level group (G2) so that the effect of the Task-basedLength Approach on subjects with different English proficiency could be examined. The researchinstruments included:(1) The English writing anxiety scale adopted by Guo and Qing (2010), which hadbeen adapted from Y-S Cheng’s Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) was utilized toexamine subjects’ English writing anxiety. It concluded20items, which were categorized into four factors:Teaching-oriented Anxiety, Conception Anxiety, Avoidance Behavior and Confidence Anxiety.(2) Writingtests were used to test subjects’ English writing achievement.(3) An interview outline was designed inaccordance with Wang Fujin’s (2007) questionnaire. It was given to the subjects in experimental class (EC)at the end of the semester, aiming at inquiring into students’ attitudes towards the Task-based LengthApproach. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were adopted in the study. Qualitative analysis mainlyinvolved the analysis from the interview. Quantitative mainly included descriptive statistics andpaired-sample T test. The effect of the Task-based Length Approach was revealed by means of comparisonof data from the pre-test and post-test. The results showed that:(1) The Task-based Length Approach could significantly decrease Conception Anxiety and ConfidenceAnxiety of subjects in both G1and G2. But the effect on Teaching-oriented Anxiety and AvoidanceBehavior was not significant. There was a slight decrease of Teaching-oriented Anxiety among G2subjects while for G1subjects, a mild increase appeared. Experimental approach has affected subjects’ AvoidanceBehavior to some extent, but it was still serious.(2) The Task-based Length Approach has significantly enhanced the English writing achievement inboth groups. Especially for G1subjects, the significance level reached0.01. However, experimentalapproach failed to enhance the English writing achievement of subjects whose pre-test scores fell to0to3.(3) The interview results showed that subjects generally welcomed the Task-based Length Approach.They commonly thought that they had something to say on the writing topics, and the sample analysis anddiscussions in the class were really necessary because it helped them establish a clearer mind when writing.However, most subjects clamed they felt uncomfortable for the decrease of error correction from theteacher.This was only a tentative study about the application of the Task-based Length Approach to juniorhigh school students. Limited by factors such as research time and small number of subjects, the long-termeffect of the Task-based Length Approach needs further research.