An Empirical Study On The Application Of Memetic Theory To English Writing Teaching In Junior Middle School

Writing has been entitled great significance in both English teaching and learning.For long time, writing has been crucial part in English test and a key criterion in measuring learners’ English comprehensive ability. However, there is still a great discrepancy between learners’ English writing ability and general requirements.Therefore, how to improve learners’ English writing competence has become an urgent problem.Memetics is a new theory based on Darwin’s Evolution Theory to explain the rules of culture evolution. With further study of memetics, the theory finds itself a place in the research area of psychology, anthropology and sociology. Memetic theory also shed new light for the new research-- combination of language teaching and language memes, and it provides a new perspective for writing research.This research attempts to combine memetic theory and English writing teaching.Based on memes’ completed lifecycle, Memetic Writing Teaching Model is constructed and applied to practical teaching in this research. By means of systemic input of language memes and continuous practice, this research tries to explore influence of the English writing teaching model on junior middle school students’ English writing competence. And it aims at answering the following questions:(1) What is the English writing teaching model based on the lifecycle of memes?(2) What effects does the English writing teaching model exert on junior middle school students’ English writing competence?(3) What limitations does the teaching model reveal with practical application in this research?This research adopts proficiency tests, questionnaire, interview and teaching journal as research instruments. The teaching experiment is conducted in a junior middle school and it involves 26 students. Through sixteen weeks training and data analysis collected from the experiment, the research gets the following findings:(1) The English writing teaching model based on the complete lifecycle of memes is that language input-memorization-language output-interaction, which is called MemeticEnglish Writing Teaching Model.(2) The Memetic English Writing Teaching Model exerts a positive effect on improving junior middle school students’ English writing competence. Particularly, the influence of the model is embodied mainly in three aspects, namely, vocabulary, sentence structure and coherence.(3) The Memetic English Writing Teaching Model involves outstanding limitations from two aspects:firstly, it does not achieve perfect combination of teachers’ authoritative instrument and students’ interest; secondly, it is limited to English writing skill and it has less positive influence on other language skills.This research not only enriches teaching forms of English writing in junior middle school but also improves the leaners’ English writing ability, and it to some extent provides references for English writing teaching in the future.