The Empirical Research On The Effect Of "Experiential English Writing" On High School Students' Reflection Ability

The New Curriculum Reform in 2004 took"cultivation of students'autonomous learning ability"as one important objective. Reflection, as an important part of the autonomous learning ability, is also an effective way to foster it. So teachers should give priority to cultivation of students'reflection ability and help them form the habit of reflection in the learning process so as to guide them to learn actively.Experiential learning is a learner-centered learning style which lays stress on the combination of "learning from doing" and "learning from thinking" for learners. Learners acquire knowledge through reflection and experience. It is an educational philosophy which could induce learners'self-thinking continually and be helpful to improve their reflection ability.On basis of the Experiential Learning theories, the researcher tried to put forward a new writing approach--"Experiential English Writing"in high schools with the hope that students' reflection ability and writing skill could be improved; their autonomous learning ability and ability for lifelong learning would be promoted.The present research focused on a teaching experiment with the purpose of fostering students' reflection through a new writing approach--"Experiential English Writing". The present research tended to answer the following questions:①Whether students' reflection ability can be fostered through"Experiential English Writing"?②Whether"Experiential English Writing"is more effective than the traditional approach in developing learner's writing proficiency? The subjects in this reserch were Senior Two students from two parallel classes in Zhangbie No. 1 Middle School. Class 1 was randomly chosen as the experimental group and asked to be taught English writing in the new approach, and class 5 was the control group which received the traditional writing instruction. The teaching experiment lasted 16 weeks. The"Experiential English Writing"consisted of eight steps:①concrete experience②experiences review③comparison and reflection④experience sharing⑤reflection from others⑥formal passage⑦peer assessment⑧summarizing reflection. The research adopted quantitative and qualitative analysis. The quantitative data came from"the questionnaire for reflective thinking"and two writing tests while the qualitative data were collected from journals and an interview after the research.The research indicated that"Experiential English Writing"could develope students'overall reflection ability. As to the four individual scales (habitual action, understanding, reflection and critical reflection) in the questionnaire, the first three of them showed statistical significance before and after the training, whereas no significant difference appeared in the last scale"critical reflection". At the same time, their writing skill was improved. Based on the research,"Experiential English Writing"was feasible and necessary in teaching practice. It was suggested that teachers should develop different strategies of reflection in the teaching process and explore more effective ways to make students involved in deeper reflective thinking.