An Action Research Into The Effects Of The Process Writing On Senior Three Students’ English Writing Ability

Senior three students have already had a large vocabulary, and they have had a good knowledge of English grammar as well. However, when writing an English essay, they usually feel lack of words. They often write essays using one or two sentence patterns without variety. They are not able to make proper use of the words and expressions they have learned. It is related to the traditional way of teaching English writing. Based on the traditional way, students and teachers spend much time on English writing, but there is little improvement in students’ writing ability. In order to strengthen senior three students’ confidence in English writing and improve their writing ability, the author decides to carry out the action research into the process writing among her students.The teaching mode of the process writing that the author adopts includes six steps: pre-writing, drafting, peer-editing, self-editing, second writing and teacher’s feedback. The author carries out a three-round action research and each round includes plan, action, observe and reflect. At the end of each round, the author reflects on the teaching and analyzes students’ essays in order to change the research plans and activities for the next round. In the first round, the author asks students to write four English essays according to the six steps of the process writing. After reflection, the author finds some problems in the steps of pre-writing and peer-editing. So in the second round, in the step of pre-writing, the division of group discussion is based on students’ English level and seat arrangement, rather than just seat arrangement. In the step of peer-editing, the students give feedback to their partners according to the table of criteria of evaluating English writing. In the third round, the author makes those criteria more specific to help students give full and accurate feedback to their partners. The author asks students to finish their second writing after class instead of in class.By analyzing students’ questionnaire, student interview, the score of students’ essays in tests and students’ essays, the author draws the following conclusions. Firstly, before this action research,20.84% of the students are interested in English writing. After the action research,43.75% of the students take interest in English writing. It shows that this research changes senior three students’ attitude towards English writing, and strengthen their confidence in English writing. Secondly, students’ grades in English writing improve gradually in the four major English tests, and the improvement of those average students is remarkable. It indicates that this research helps students get higher grades in the writing part in English tests, especially those average students. Thirdly, during the three round action research, the students make progress in their English writing. They can use accurate words and complex sentence patterns to express their meanings. And they can also use more link words and expressions to make their essays more coherent. The author thus concludes that this research strengthens students’ ability to use English in a proper way and to think in a logical way. Therefore, students’ English writing ability improves a lot. Finally, this research enables teachers and students to modify the steps of the process writing, to effectively find and solve senior three students’ problems with English writing, and to gradually improve their English writing ability with much writing practice.We can get some inspiration about teaching English writing from this research. Firstly, English teachers should play an important part in students’ English writing activities. Secondly, students ought to know clearly about the criteria of evaluating English writing.