An Empirical Study Of Reading-for-writing In Senior High School English Teaching Based On Text Interpretation

The implementation of the New Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(2017,NCSS)and the reform of National Matriculation English Test(NMET)have urged the transformation of English teaching from “exam-oriented” to“application-oriented”.The NCSS stresses that the English core competencies include four elements: language ability,cultural awareness,learning ability and thinking capacity.While English reading is the main channel for developing subject core competencies,writing competence mirrors the levels of them.Although recent years more and more English teachers have combined reading with writing in reading instructions,there remains not enough exploration of text thematic meanings,deep learning of text content,appreciation and imitation of text languages and structures,resulting in the low efficiency of teaching reading.Consequently,based on Krashen’s Input Theory,Swain’s Output Theory,Schema Theory and Activity Theory together with other studies for teaching reading and writing at home and abroad,this research strives to put forward a teaching mode integrating reading and writing from the perspective of text interpretation.The research is also dedicated to explore how to design reading activities by means of deep interpretation of thematic meanings,text content,text language and genres through real contexts and suitable reading-for-writing activities catering for students’ learning situation so that students’ reading and writing interest and competence can be enhanced.This research is conducted among 102 students in senior grade one in J Middle School from Shantou,Guang Dong Province and lasts for 15 weeks.Class 9 is the control class and Class 10 is the experimental class.In class 9,separated reading and writing teaching mode are carried out while reading-for-writing based on text interpretation is carried out in Class 10.Through quantitative and qualitative analyses,the research aims to explore the following questions:(1)How can the reading-for-writing teaching based on text interpretation affect students’ interest in reading and writing ?(2)What effects does this teaching mode have on students’ writing process in terms of writing content,organization,language expression,coherence and handwriting?As the study shows,the research proves to be feasible and effective.For one thing,students have shown more passion on reading and writing,especially reading from the textbook and they have a positive attitude towards this teaching method.For another,students’ overall writing ability has improved.It can be seen that they are likely to use correct words,they are not missing key points in content,their awareness of text organization has strengthened and that they have better handwriting than ever before.Several conclusions and inspiration can be drawn from this research.(1)Reading and writing are interrelated and indivisible.Only when we interpret the text in depth and enforce language output through input can we pave way for the cultivation of writing competence.(2)It is of vital importance to create new contexts and enrich meaningful learning activities to activate students’ interest and motivation so as to improve the efficiency of learning and teaching.(3)Text interpretation plays a key role in implementing the New Curriculum Standard and the mode of reading-for-writing based on it proves to be beneficial to promote teachers’ professional techniques.