A Teaching Research On Authentic Writing In Chinese Curriculum

As is well known to all, in terms of Chinese writing teaching, much emphasis has been put on authentic writing in the curriculum of Chinese. The traditional authentic writing, not only advocating writing objective reality, expressing subjective true emotions and feelings but also attaching great importance to the sincerity of selfhood, has been playing a positive role in the practice of writing teaching in both elementary and high schools during the past years. However, when reflected on from its theoretical base and real practice, such problems as misreading the essence of authentic writing, neglecting rational writing ability and depriving of students' subjectival consciousness can be found, thus greatly undermining its effectiveness in teaching. Facing these problems, with context-cognition theory, authentic assessment theory and the whole language theory as the theoretical base, this research makes an attempt to redefine the connotation of authentic writing--authentic targets, contexts, writing tasks and multi-dimensional curriculum forms, deepening the understanding about writing essence, giving an explanation of the role rational cognition plays in writing, and meanwhile, correctly positioning the writing subjects. It is with the logical beginning that teaching objectives are designed, and curriculum contents are able to be developed, besides, teaching and assessment strategies are laid out. In addition, strictly complying with the developed writing curriculum contents, the research designs textbook sample chapters and compiles sample papers for writing tests so as to be able to provide teachers with effective examples and materials for writing teaching, so that teachers find it easy to teach, and students are not only pleased to learn but they can really learn something from it, resulting in effective teaching in authentic writing. From here, it can be concluded that a new theoretical horizon and practice base is therefore supplied for China's Chinese writing teaching by the theoretical system and practice materials of authentic writing teaching in Chinese curriculum created by this research. The dissertation is made up of five chapters.Chapter One. Rational reflection upon the traditional authentic writing in Chinese curriculum. The connotation of this traditional authentic writing has its theoretical foundation. This theory is based on traditional linguistics linguistically and philosophically; it also bases its methodology on Chinese traditional pattern of thinking which emphasizes thinking as a whole, intuitional understanding and intention, tending to replace perception with emotional judgement; besides, it regards China's culture of honesty and faith as a basis for ethics, also referring to a moral culture featuring as faith, respect and seriousness. Then follows the reflection on that based on the theoretical base mentioned above: with traditional mirror-mode theory of reflection criticized by linguists, the limitations and feasibility of the original view of describing objective reality are reflected on; with conventional thinking mode transferring in the course of modern times as well as an appeal for logical analysis and scientific rational thinking, deviation and shortcomings occur in writing teaching aimed at subjectively true feelings; through an analysis of the phenomenon of "culture locking" in writing, the author reflects on the distortion and transformation that the focus on the sincerity of writing personality has suffered from in writing practice. As the main point of my research, three problems and inspirations are concluded in the end.Chapter Two. The basic theory of authentic writing in Chinese curriculum. Being faced with a deficiency of the theory of traditional authentic writing in Chinese curriculum, a connotation system, based on context cognition theory, authentic assessment theory and the whole language theory, is put forward, consisting of authentic goals(writing acts close to real living world), authentic contexts(natural living contexts, cultural practice contexts and physical contexts), authentic contexts, authentic writing assignments(complicated but meaningful tasks, dynamic-exploration writing process, high-level cognition participation and application of multi-subject knowledge) and curriculum forms of authentic writing(multi-dimensional integrated curriculum)as well. Moreover, a theoretical defending is carried out from such three respects as times advancing, discipline knowledge state and students' individual development.Chapter Three. The objective system of authentic writing teaching in Chinese curriculum. Starting with theoretical connotation in authentic writing in Chinese curriculum, the author indicates the transformation in value orientation in writing teaching objectives-from post-metaphor culture to before-metaphor, from individual introspection to socialized rational cognition, from cultural locking to cultural self-determination, further outlining the target system in Chinese authentic writing.Chapter Four. Teaching contents of authentic writing teaching in Chinese curriculum. Centering on how to attain the objectives, as one of the key points of my dissertation, it is aimed at discussing how to develop the teaching contents of authentic writing in Chinese curriculum. In order to better serve for practice, the dissertation constructs a structural frame with the writing teaching contents of "essential factors of curriculum contents plus textbook sample chapters": First, the traditional writing curriculum contents are updated, supplemented and extended to a greater degree, by means of withdrawing some factors such as "literary style knowledge of functional stylistic theory", "writing knowledge of cognition" and "writing activities". Second, textbook sample chapters are compiled and written by centering around them, displaying a possible form of textbookalization. Last, detailed measures are given considering the transformation from writing curriculum contents to teaching contents.Chapter Five. Teaching strategies and evaluation. Combining connotation and objectives with teaching contents, the research, on one hand, comes up with a teaching strategy led by task-based teaching, supported by "new-concept" modifying and driven by multi-dimensional curriculum developing, and on the other hand discusses assessment strategies on authentic writing in the light of the making and compiling of test papers as well as authentic assessment.