A Study On The Application Of Multiliteracies Pedagogy To English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

As one of the four basic skills of language learning,English writing has always been an important content of English teaching,through which students can further understand the essence of language and improve their English written expression ability.Nevertheless,the current situation of English writing teaching in senior high schools is not optimistic.Teachers mostly adopt the traditional English writing teaching method,which overemphasizes memorizing writing sentences and applying templates and cannot effectively motivate students to write and improve their writing performance.Therefore,it is a question worth exploring how to integrate new teaching concepts into the teaching of English writing and innovate writing teaching methods to improve students’ writing ability.The New London Group put forward the theory of multiliteracies in1996,which brought inspiration to English teaching.The multiliteracies pedagogy advocates that teachers use verbal and non-verbal symbol systems(such as images,audio,video,and gestures)to create a multimodal language learning environment for students,and students use multimedia resources and various symbolic resources to acquire language and culture.Such a relaxed and enjoyable learning atmosphere is helpful in increasing students’ motivation to learn.Therefore,this study combines the multiliteracies pedagogy with senior high school English writing teaching,adopting the four steps of its teaching model as the basic teaching framework,namely situated practice,overt instruction,critical framing,and transformed practice,in an attempt to construct a new English writing teaching paradigm and apply it in the senior high school English writing classrooms,hoping to improve the current English writing teaching.Based on the research purpose,this study explored the following two questions:(1)What implementation effects does the multiliteracies pedagogy have on senior high school students’ English writing?(2)How can the teacher apply the multiliteracies pedagogy in senior high school English writing teaching to improve students’ writing performance?The researcher selected two classes of senior students in a senior high school in Zunyi as the research subjects,Class 13 was chosen to be the experimental class(EC)and Class 14 was the control class(CC).A three-month teaching experiment was conducted in the EC using the multiliteracies pedagogy and the CC using the traditional writing teaching method.Before the experiment,the researcher conducted a writing pretest in the two classes and investigated students’ cognition of writing in the EC through questionnaire method.During the experiment,the researcher further explored the teaching paradigm of multiliteracies pedagogy and applied it to the writing teaching in the EC.After the experiment,the researcher carried out a post-test of writing in both classes,and conducted a post-questionnaire survey in the EC,combined with the interview method to learn about students’ attitudes towards the multiliteracies pedagogy and its implementation effect in English writing in the EC.By analyzing the data obtained from the experiment,the major findings of the research are as follows: Firstly,the multiliteracies pedagogy is helpful in improving senior high school students’ English writing performance.Secondly,the multiliteracies pedagogy has a positive effect on students’ attitudes towards writing,interests in writing and habits of writing.Thirdly,in the teaching of English writing in senior high school,the teacher can construct a teaching paradigm of multiliteracies pedagogy and apply it in teaching practice.To some extent,this study confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of the application of the multiliteracies pedagogy in senior high school English writing teaching,and it has certain implications for English writing teaching.At the same time,there are still some limitations and shortcomings in this study.It is expected that subsequent researchers can further investigate and explore the teaching paradigm of multiliteracies to better promote the teaching of English writing.