An Empirical Study Of Senior Three Students’ English Argumentative Writing Based On Online Authentic Material Reading

Based on the review of language input theory,language output theory and schema theory,this paper adopts quantitative and qualitative research methods to conduct the study.Two classes of the third grade taught by the author are the research subjects.Two research questions are proposed:1.Is it feasible to use online authentic material to assist senior three students’ English argumentative writing? What is the specific teaching model?2.What is the effect of the use of online authentic material on the "quantity" and "quality"("language output" and "opinion expression")of students’ English argumentative writing?During the 4-month teaching experiment,the author uses the teaching model of " three-stage and six-step reading online authentic materials to assist English argumentation writing",designed by the author to conduct teaching experiments in the experimental class.At the end of the teaching experiment,data from the experimental class and the control class are collected,compared and analyzed from the following aspects:(1)Independent sample T-test of "quality" total score and "quantity" total score;(2)Mean score of 15 "quantity" evaluation;(3)The average value of 7 "quantity" evaluation factors;(4)Mean score of 15 "quality" evaluation;(5)Mean value of 8 "quality" evaluation factors in 15 English argumentative writing;(6)Paired sample T-test of the total score of "quality" evaluation and "quantity" evaluation and the mean value of sub-item evaluation factors in the pre-test and post-test of the experimental class;(7)Paired sample T-test of the total score of "quality" evaluation and "quantity" evaluation and the mean value of sub-item evaluation factors in the pre-test and post-test of the control class;(8)Independent samples of T-test of "quality" evaluation and "quantity" evaluation;(9)The interview results of students in the experimental class at three proficiency levels: high,middle and low.Based on the above data analysis and discussion,the following conclusions are drawn:1.The teaching mode of using online authentic material reading to assist senior three students’ English argumentative writing is operable."The three-stage and six-step teaching model " consists of three parts(pre-reading activities,while-reading activities and after-reading activities.)and six steps(step 1: pre-reading activities,step 2: reading focus for the preparation of writing,step 3: Before writing,step 4: while-writing,step 5: after-writing,step 6: Teacher comment).This model is accepted and considered useful in this study.2.The use of online authentic materials has the following effects on the "quantity" and "quality" of English argumentative writing of senior three students:(1)The analysis of the mean scores of the experimental class and the control class shows that the mean scores of the experimental class were significantly higher than the mean scores of the control class.(2)The analysis of the average value of 7 "quantity" evaluation factors in the experimental class and the control class shows that,among the 7 "quantity" evaluation factors,there’s no significant difference between the experimental class and control class in terms of "the total number of words of the article",while significant differences are found in the rest of 6 evaluation factors.(3)The analysis of the average score of 15 "quality" evaluation scores in the experimental class and the control class shows that: among the 8 "quality" evaluation factors,no significant differences are found in the experimental class and the control class in the aspects of "innovative and unique expression of views" and "logical and hierarchical expression of views".In the aspect of "beautiful handwriting and legibility",the control class is even doing better than the experimental class class.In addition,the results of the other five factors are found to have significant improvement in the experimental class.(4)The independent samples T-test of of "quality" evaluation and "quantity" evaluation of the experimental class and the control class in the post-test indicates that there is significant differences in the experimental class and the control class in terms of the "quality" and "quantity" evaluation results of writing.The results of this study has verified that "authentic material from internet" can assist senior three students to write argumentative English essays,and achieve the expected effect.