A Study On The Effect Of Length Approach In Senior High School English Writing

Length Approach is a method of English writing proposed by Wang Chuming,which is based on some important L2 theories and insightful observations of the current situation of English writing teaching in China.It aims to gradually increase the length of writing by designing writing tasks that can stimulate students’ enthusiasm for English writing.It enables students to gain a sense of accomplishment,thereby reducing English writing anxiety,improving their self-efficacy,writing confidence and the ability to use English.Length Approach has achieved great success in the practice of college English writing,and it also provides a new teaching method for high school English teaching.This thesis attempts to verify the effect of Length Approach of students’ English writing self-efficacy and English writing achievement through empirical research in a senior high school.And it is committed to answering three questions:(1)Can Length Approach improve students’ English writing self-efficacy in senior high school?(2)Can Length Approach improve students’ English writing achievement in senior high school?(3)What effect does Length Approach have on the writing content,language use,vocabulary,mechanics and organization of the students’ English writing?In this study,108 subjects were selected from two classes in the second grade of Zhouqu Middle School in Lanzhou New District,Gansu Province,and each class has 54 students.The students carried out a four-month Length Approach teaching experiment.The experiment process includes: English writing pre-test,pre-test questionnaire,Length Approach teaching,English writing pre-test and post-test questionnaire.The research instruments includes:(1)The English Writing Self-efficacy Scale is adapted from Wang Yuanni’s master thesis “A study of the relationship between self-efficacy and English writing achievements”(2012).(2)English composition tests are used to reveal students’ English writing achievement.The research method is quantitative analysis and the data were carried out by SPSS 22.0.The research shows:(1)Length Approach can improve the writing self-efficacy of students in the experiment class,especially for students’ writing skill self-efficacy.(2)Length Approach can largely improve the English writing performance of students in the experiment class.(3)According to five dimensions from Jacob’s scaling of marking composition(1981),Length Approach can improve students’ writing vocabulary,mechanics and language use.However,it has little influence on students’ writing content.Therefore,teachers should fully understand the students’ self-efficacy and introduce Length Approach to help students make greater progress.This thesis is only an exploratory study on the application of Length Approach in senior high schools.Due to the influence of experimental time constraints and small samples,the long-term effect of Length Approach in the application of senior high school writing need to be deepened and further researched.