Comparative Study Of English Writing Class Between Native English Teachers And Chinese Teachers

Writing as a significant way to satisfy people's need of communication, can not be "picked up" like other language skills like listening and speaking. Writing needs constantly professional training. But in Chinese middle school, English writing has been ignored since the very beginning. Since 1970s when native English speaking teachers (NESTs) began to be introduced into China, many new teaching approaches have been brought to ESL teaching in China.This thesis compared the English writing classes respectively taught by a Chinese teacher and a Canadian teacher. This study is aimed to examine the two teachers'application of task-based language teaching, process-oriented writing approach, cooperative learning, non-verbal communication and corrective feedback. The subjects of the study were 47 students (G 9) from Maple Leaf International School. Student questionnaire has been used to investigate the quality of writing class in the eyes of students. And class observation has been carried out as a direct method to examine the difference between the two teachers. At the end of the study, final examination has been conducted to examine whether there is a significant difference between the two classes. The data collected from the student questionnaire and level test was analyzed with SPSS 13.0.The result suggests that both the Chinese teacher and the Canadian teacher successfully put English learning into real life situation by applying task-based language teaching in writing class. But the Canadian teacher attached great importance to the writing process through instructing repeated revision process, while the Chinese teacher spent most of the time in explaining the useful expressions and models. The Canadian teacher also used cooperative learning in pre-writing stage and peer-editing stage, but Chinese teacher didn't. What's more, the Canadian teacher has rich face movements and body language which make the class rather relaxing and attracting. In addition, the Canadian teacher prefers to use explicit corrections, while the Chinese teacher prefers to use metal linguistic explanation. However, the result of the level test indicated that significant difference could only be found in the aspects of language. The students of both classes achieved the similar score in aspects of idea, structure and grammar.Based on the result of this study, some recommendations have been made for the teaching of ESL writing in Chinese middle school. English learning should be put into real life situation, and the students are supposed to use English in and after English class. Apart from that, Cooperative learning could be widely used in writing class not only to improve the communicative function of writing but also to enhance the social skills of students. In addition, writing process should be emphasized as well as the product.Although many researches have been done to study the teaching situation of English writing in Chinese middle school, this thesis is the first comparative study of the writing classes taught respectively by a native English-speaking teacher and a non-native English-speaking teacher.