Differential Teaching Of English Writing In Rural High Schools: A Survey Study

The primary aim of learning a language is to communicate, and writing is an effectivemeans of achieving the aim. Writing plays an important role in high school English teaching, forit directly influences the quality of high school English teaching and decides students’ Englishscores to some extent. Therefore the significance of writing in English study can not beemphasized too much either in language learning or examinations. It deserves good knowledgeand careful study.However, English writing remains inadequate and weak in our high school English teaching,which troubles teachers and students very much. It is especially true of the rural high schools inview of the weakness and differences of their students’ English writing. Most of the studentsthere have no good writing habits and show little interest in English writing, taking a passiveattitude towards writing and even giving it up; besides, due to the lack of educational resources,teaching effect is far from being ideal. All the problems are difficult to solve by the traditionalteaching methods. Hence a try of new teaching methods is badly needed to change the situation.So the writer studied the theories of constructivism, multiple intelligence, humanism and zone ofproximal, surveyed the literature of English writing teaching and differential teaching at homeand abroad, reflected years’ teaching experience, and carried out a differential teaching researchof writing among103students in two classes of Grade Two.The research consists of four stages, each of which lasts about one month. In the first andsecond stages students are systematically trained from vocabulary, sentences, to paragraphs.Basic writing skills are reinforced and drilled with a focus on five basic sentence patterns andshort paragraph writing. In the third and fourth stages, guided writing and communicativewriting training are carried out with a focus on narrative, expository and practical writing.To practice differential teaching, based on students’ English proficiency, the teacher firstdivides the class into three task groups: basic group, improvement group, and development group.The proportion is1:2:1. The proficiency of students in the same group is almost the same, sothey can compete with each other. Accordingly, basic goals, improvement goals, anddevelopment goals are provided to the three groups respectively. The students should achievetheir own goals and attempt to achieve the higher ones. Then the students of task groups aredivided into six study groups, among which competitions often take place. Class teaching, groupteaching and individual teaching are integrated according to different teaching tasks. Teachingevaluation is mainly to encourage and praise students. For example, students in improvementgroup can go to development group on account of their progresses. In addition, the writer adopts many teaching methods, including sentence recitation and writing habit development, to improvestudents’ English writing skills and competence.Through interviews, questionnaires and tests, the writer studied the results of the teachingpractice and drew a conclusion that differential teaching of English writing in rural high schoolsis applicable. Compared with the traditional teaching models, differential teaching paysindividual attention to more students, and therefore students are more enthusiastic and theclassroom atmosphere is more harmonious. It can meet the different requirements of students,and cultivate students’ interest, habit and ability in writing. Moreover, it helps to develop theirself-confidence and form good characters. Finally, it can maximize the limited educationalresources and students’ initiative, gradually improving the English writing proficiency andEnglish scores of all students.In the differential teaching research, the writer finds several problems that need furtherstudies: how to pay individual attention to every student; how to adapt teaching aims andmaterials to individual student; how to improve teachers’ skills and competence required bydifferential teaching. In the future, the writer will continue the research and practice to improvethe effectiveness of differential teaching in high schools.