The Process Writing Approach, Recitation And English Writing In High Schools

As one of the four language skills for communication, writing can help students master the language in an effective way. It can also reflect objectively the students'comprehensive ability of using the language.In the past 20 years, there has been a lot of fruitful discussions on English writing in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) in China. As a promising start, the Process Writing Approach has been attracting more and more attention of researchers and English teachers. However, compared with much theoretical exploration, much less efforts have been made in practical teaching. Based on the comparison between the Process Writing Approach and the traditional Recitation Approach, this thesis is aimed at exploring a new writing approach which combines the strengths of both the Process Writing Approach and the Recitation Approach. This thesis tries to deal with the following two questions:1) Can the new writing approach motivate students to write more actively and have more confidence in writing?2) Can students'writing competence be improved through the practice of the new writing approach?The teaching practice is carried out in the No. 1 Middle School of Suzhou New District. Two classes have participated in the 26-week research project, with two different teaching methods being conducted. The combination of Process Writing Approach and the Recitation Approach is carried out in the experimental class while the traditional approach in the control class. In the process of the project, two questionnaires are completed and collected before and after the experiment and three compositions of each student are used as a measure of their performance of writing skill. Some relevant data and information are then collected and analyzed.The study has indicated that the students in the experimental class have not only changed their attitudes towards English writing, but also gained more confidence in English writing. As a result, their writing skill has been greatly improved. It has been proved that the new approach is an effective way to improve students'English writing competence.