An Experimental Research On Improving Students’ English Writing Performance In Junior High Schools By Reading-to-Write

Writing is a continuous process to search for the most effective language to communicatethoughts and emotions. After years of English teaching practice in junior high school, theauthor found that the vast majority of students in English writing are far from ideal. In China,English writing is always the weakest segment of English teaching. Junior high schoolstudents are relatively weak in English and lack of attention and interest in writing, this studyattempts to introduce reading-to-write to train students’ basic writing skills. The experimentshows reading-to-write has positive effects on English writing. It helps the students learn howto use the language appropriately and achieve coherence and unity in the whole writingprocess. It is generally believed that because reading and writing are so interconnected and aresuch mutually enhancing activities that one cannot hope to become a good writer withoutbeing a good reader.The present thesis, whose theoretical bases are schema theory, Krashen’s comprehensibleInput Hypothesis, Swain’s comprehensible Output Hypothesis, and relevant researches onreading and writing, and puts forward the reading-based English writing instructive approachwith the purpose of providing some new ideas for the writing instruction. To verify the effectof this approach, the researcher carries out an experimental study to compare the effectivenessof Reading-based Writing Instruction and traditional knowledge-based Writing Instruction onimproving junior high school students’ writing performance. The research questions to beaddressed in this study are as follows:1). Is reading-to-write method better in improvingjunior high school students’ writing performance than the traditional method?2). Canreading-to-write method enrich junior high school students’ writing strategies?3). Canreading-to-write method arouse junior high school students’ writing interest? Therefore,90junior high school students who are all from Grade Three in YongNingMiddle School participated in the experiment according to the method of integrating writingwith reading. The experiment lasted8weeks and each week the students took2classes(Every lesson lasts45minutes). The instruments of this study were two writing tests and2questionnaires. Pretest and posttest were carried out in order to get data on writingcompetence before and after the experiment. Two questionnaires were conducted toinvestigate the students’ interest changes and the use of reading and writing strategies. All thedata are collected and analyzed to compare the changes of students’ writing performancebefore and after the experiment.The result shows that both approaches can improve students’ writing performance, butReading-to-Write Instruction produces a better teaching outcome, because it can arousestudents’ interest and self-confidence, improve students’ English writing strategies, andexpand students’ writing ideas. Meanwhile the research indicates that, the teachers undertakemore challenges under Reading-to-Write approach. They need to use strategies expertlyduring the teaching process and develop themselves through the teaching practice.Though the experiment has been finished as it is planned, the present study fails to avoidsome limitations, such as the small sample number, a relatively short experimental time andimperfect research methods, etc. Therefore, the results leave much to be improved and ishoped that further research.