A Study On The Efficacy Of Recitation For The Development Of High School Students’ English Writing Proficiency

In China, English learning and teaching in senior high school has attracted much attention. However, teachers and students do not attach importance to English writing which has been the weakest point in senior school teaching. Chinese students are short of enough English input because they are limited to the native language environment. So they lack vocabulary, and there are many grammar mistakes and Chinglish expressions in their writing. Many English teaching researchers and experts believe that recitation is a good way to standardize English pronunciation and intonation, accumulate language knowledge, cultivate students’language sense and inspire their enthusiasm for learning English. They also do research on recitation used in students’writing effectively. However, empirical studies on recitation used in senior high school English writing are quite few.The paper analyzes the situation of English writing teaching in senior high schools in China and existing problems in students’writing. We suggest that it is necessary to integrate writing practices with recitation with consideration of these problems and of the demand of English writing in the New English Curriculum for Chinese Senior Middle Schools,Based on Krashen’s input theory, memory theory and Swain’s output theory, the research explores application of recitation to English writing teaching in senior high school in China. In terms of research methodology, this research includes a questionnaire and an experiment.The whole experiment lasted for 25 weeks. Subjects are 107 students in two classes in grade 2 in Wenhui high school in Shishou City of Hubei Province. Recitation was applied to the teaching of English writing in the experiment class. A pre-test and a post-test of English writing are held in both Experiment Class and Control Class. In the course of the experiment, students in the experiment class received two vocabulary tests to analyze the effectiveness of recitation on chunks. The author carried out a post-experiment questionnaire in order to have a deep understanding of the effects of recitation on learners’ writing performance.Through the theoretical and empirical researches, it shows that the recitation can help students to memorize vocabulary and sentence patterns, reduce mistakes in grammar, and improve students’writing proficiency. What’s more, from the questionnaire and interview it is revealed that a majority of students hold a positive attitude towards recitation and English writing. The present research is worth generalizing. Passage recitation can be an effective way in English learning. Teachers and students should change the doubtful or even negative attitude towards recitation but make full of this simple method in their teaching and learning to achieve a better result.Although designed carefully, this study suffers from limitation. Firstly, the sample in this study is actually small. Secondly, the data collection techniques are truly simple. In addition, whether the test papers used in this study are reliable and valid needs further confirmation. What’s more, how the differences in other aspects of individuals affects the efficiency of recitation remains to be seen. In view of limitations mentioned above, thus, the majority of the results obtained in this study can be improved and it is believed that further research will give rise to more overall and accurate results.