A Study On The Effect Of Continuation Task On Junior High School Students’ English Writing

English writing is the output of language,and it is also manifestation of learners’ ability to use English language comprehensively.However,in the middle school English class,some teachers ignore the writing teaching,many students are afraid of writing.As a result,English writing has always been a weak point in English teaching."Continuation task " combines reading with writing and language imitation with original content which aims to improve students’ writing ability by making them write the removed parts at the end.Based on the input theory and output theory,this study aims to explore the application of continuation task in English writing teaching of junior high school.It specifically discusses two questions:(1)what effect does the continuation task have on the English writing performance(content、organization、language)of junior high school students?(2)What effect does the continuation task have on the students’ English writing attitude of junior high school?The subjects of this study were 64 students(32 students each from Class A and Class B)in Grade 9 of a middle school in Jiang Xi Province.During the 13-week teaching experiment,Both the experimental class and the control class completed five writing trainings and three writing tests: pre-test,post-test 1,and post-test 2.The experimental class adopted continuation task method,while the control class took a topic-writing approach.The collected data were analyzed with SPSS21.0,which included independent sample t-test and paired sample t-test,and also combined with the data from two questionnaire surveys.The results are as follows:(1)the writing performance of the experimental class has been dramatically improved,which indicates that the continuation task can effectively improve the English writing level of junior middle school students.(2)continuation task can improve the performance of content,language and organization of junior high school students’ English compositions,and the improvement in content and language is more significant.Continuation task makes the writing content more rich,sentences of writing more cohesive,writing language more accurate and tense more appropriate,which is conducive to improving students’ writing quality.(3)Continuation task can stimulate students’ interest,enhance their confidence in writing,and make students get a sense of achievement in the process of writing.Most of the students are willing to continue to use this method in the future writing class,they are no longer afraid of writing.The study has the following pedagogical implications:(1)Teachers should focus on the relationship between reading and writing,and be good at selecting interesting reading materials to promote students’ writing.Combine reading and writing to design effective and interesting writing tasks.(2)Teachers should be good at developing students’ thinking,praising students from multiple aspects,developing students’ imagination and encouraging students to brainstorm.(3)Teachers should pay more attention to students with poor proficiency and guide students to combine reading and writing to overcome their fear of writing.(4)Teachers should not only give timely feedback after class,but also give more encouragement to students.It can help students build up their confidence in English writing and learning,develop good English study habits.For teachers,they should constantly strengthen their own learning,so as to teach students better.