Based On The Constructivist The Stents Theory Of High School English Writing Teaching

English writing is a practice of the writer's comprehensive skill in using the language. Writing takes up 25 points out of 150 in the yearly national university entrance examination of English in Shanghai. This proportion is a clear indication of the importance of writing in high school English teaching. Ding Wangdao, an English expert said that writing in English learning is of great importance and is irreplaceable (Ding Wangdao, 1999). The Teaching Program of English for Middle school stipulates that "composition shows the capability to express oneself and to communicate in the form of writing. One of the goals in English teaching is to help students develop elementary writing capability". Important as it is, writing has not been given due attention in real teaching. Writing in most Chinese middle-schools can be described as "the teacher dominates, the teacher lectures and students listen." It is self-evident that the current way of teaching writing has little efficiency. Currently, there are numerous reforms of teaching in middle-schools home and abroad.The present research takes the Scaffold Teaching Method in the constructive teaching model as its guiding principle. It explores for an ideal general design for English composition and for a scaffold that organizes with effectives elements in the teaching of English writing. The theory is intended to provide high-school English teachers with a better guideline in their teaching of English composition. The author is convinced that the research will contribute to the improvement of the teaching of English writing.This thesis has five chapters. The first chapter compares real situations of how teachers teach English composition and how students write according to the Teaching Program of English for Middle school. The major problems in teaching are that teachers' vision have been limited to the national university entrance examination, so the disproportionate emphasis has been laid upon vocabulary and grammar but not to the development of students' aptitude in writing; the majority of teachers do not have a systematic and objective criterion to evaluate students' writing and therefore do not give full play to students initiative in writing. On the side of the students, students do not have a proper understanding of English composition, lack motivation to write. In their writing, there is the influence of the mother tongue, which frequently produces "Chinglish". Some students often make grammar mistakes and lack enough expressions and sentence structures in the writing. Still other students are poor in planning their articles and the writings are logically unclear, therefore they are usually difficult to read.The second chapter begins with an understanding of the construction theory, the Scaffold Theory and Vygotsky's theory of the "Most Recent Development Area". The teaching pattern of writing under the theory of Scaffold is that the teacher promotes a higher level of recognition of the students by offering the students essential help.On the basis of the Scaffold Theory, the third chapter endeavors to apply this theory to the teaching of English composition. The chapter gives a detailed proposal of how teachers shall function as the "scaffold", i.e., to cultivate a proactive mentality in writing, to promote mutual help among students in writing as a scaffold, to use assessment as a scaffold, and to provide writing skills as a scaffold.The fourth chapter combines the theory and real teaching. The author chooses proper topic and conducts the research in real case teaching. The effectiveness of the experiment can be proved from comparison between the controlled class and the other, the feedback and the sample articles from the students.The fifth chapter gives the advantages and disadvantages of the Scaffold theory in English writing. The research shows that the theory contributes to cooperative learning, and students can learn from each other. It also helps the students have a clear understanding of the strategy in writing, thus making great progress in the structure and content of the writing, which promotes their writing ability and contributes to their interest in writing as well. Meanwhile, it contributes to the improvement of teaching assessment. Of course, this thesis points out the short-comings of the theory and suggests some subjects for further researches.In the appendixes, the thesis provides the feedback from the students, the assessment charts, and students' sample articles.