On The Effectiveness In Improving Senior Middle School Student's English Writing By The Alternate Assessment Approach

The discussion and study about the issue of the cooperative peer interaction have been an educational fad. The previous studies (e.g., Selma,1991; Tyler, 1951; Cresswell, 2000; Little, 1991; Sari and Mirja, 2003; Chen, 2000; etc.) have shown that the use of assessment, in particular, self-assessment and peer assessment, in foreign language writing, can promote students' self-awareness and self-reflection. But very few English teachers in middle school have done far-reaching research on alternate assessment.The necessity of the study is that present syllabus and curriculum criteria all demand students in Chinese middle school to develop and improve the ability of expressing their feelings and opinions proficiently by writing as well as the ability of speaking and listening. The Cooperative Learning Theory and Natural Approach are two of the most important contemporary theories. They provide us with a theoretical framework and exploratory foundation to find out a way in which the students' English writing ability can be improved effectively.On the basis of reading some related literatures, the author, combining his teaching experience, put forward the following questions:1. Can middle school students be trained to use alternate assessment?2. What are the effects of alternate assessment?3. What are the attitudes towards alternate assessment?In order to answer the questions mentioned above, the study has adopted some descriptive statistics to identify the effectiveness of improving English writing by means of the alternate assessment. By interviewing 20 students, the study employed the qualitative research to investigate the students' attitudes towards the technique.In this study, the author found that the subjects in this sample could be trained to use alternate assessment in their writing, and they had positive attitudes towards it, for they believed that it could help them revise their drafts, and improve their writing proficiency.Alternate assessment was effective in improving the organization of students' compositions, and was especially helpful for high achievers. However, it showed little effect on other aspects of students' composition; neither did it prove to be helpful to lower achievers.There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter I is an introduction to the research including the orientation, aim, significance, and key questions of the research. Chapter II gave a brief literature review of the empirical studies conducted earlier. Chapter III illuminated the research's theoretical framework including the introductions of Cooperation Learning Theory and Natural Approach. Chapter IV gave an empirical answer to the questions of the research. And the last section of the thesis is the conclusions including major findings, limitations and the suggestions for future research.