The Application Of The "Length-approach" To Writing To Improve L2 Learning In The High Middle School

The "Length-approach" is a new type of writing-teaching method first proposed by Wang Chuming (2000) aimed to get writing achievements as well as overall English proficiency for the college students in our country. The method has been under experiments in the Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and some other universities in china for years and has appealed to the nationwide English researchers because of its great prosperity.The approach not only proves Swain's (1985) comprehensible output theory to be of great significance in the second language leaning in China, which claims the importance of meaningful use of the learned language to promote language competence, but also can enlighten the English teaching in the high middle schools in China at the time of taking up the New English Curricular Principles designed by the Ministry of Education advocating fostering the students ability of using languages. According to the New English Curricular Principles the students shall take an active part in the learning course during which they can not only construct knowledge, strengthen their language ability but also fulfill the teaching task and realize the teaching objects through experience,participation,cooperation and exploration.Aimed at exploring efficient teaching method fit for the students in the high school in Chinese context through carrying out the "Length-approach" to writing, this study investigates the effectiveness of the "Length-approach" to writing in promoting English learning at the high school level. The subjects chosen for the study are 90 students from two intermediate classes of Grade Three from Sanhe No.2 Middle School., Hebei Province. The subjects, 45 boys and 45 girls ,are at the average age of 17,32 and all of them have received English classroom instruction for at least five years. One class with 45 students is the controlled group, which uses the traditional "Model-approach" to writing and the other class with 45 students is the experimental group, which adopts the "Length-approach" to writing .After three months teaching using the "Length-approach" and the "Model-approach", both groups were tested on the English proficiency and English writing level at the end of the semester. The data , which wascollected by experimental and questionnaire methods, was analyzed and the results are discussed in terms of how meaningful the actual mean difference was and what impact the "Length-approach" to writing has in promoting English learning in the high middle school.The results of this research indicate that the "Length-approach" to writing is of great significance in English teaching for the high school students in the Chinese context, because of its efficiency in promoting students language proficiency. As indicated by Li Li (Li Li, 2004), it is very necessary to move the approach down from the university level to the teaching field in the middle schools "at least the high middle school".