Effects Of Anchored Instruction On English Writing Of Senior High School Students

This study, guided by the constructivist anchored instruction theory, explores the effects of anchored instruction on English writing of senior high school students through teaching experiments over one semester. The major data source includes a pre-experiment questionnaire and a post-experiment questionnaire, on-going interviews, end-of-semester written questions and answers sheets, and classroom observations. Based on the data analysis, the major findings of the study are as follows:Firstly, the pre-experiment questionnaire and the following interview indicate that most students lack intrinsic motivation for English writing. Some of them are even afraid of English writing. Most of them have difficulty in writing with a small vocabulary, Chinese way of thinking and different genres. Besides, quite a few students lack a sense of cooperation and ineffective in autonomous learning. Most students hope they can improve their writing skills.Secondly, data analysis show that after a semester of anchored instruction, most students show obvious improvement in their interest, confidence and attitudes toward writing. In addition, quite a number of the students are capable of using more advanced vocabulary, sentence structures and expressions. They have gradually improved their ability to analyse the structures and genres with different styles. The results also show that most students have improved their learning autonomy, collaborative abilities and the habit of self-correction and reflectionBased on the findings, suggestions are put forward for English teachers on how to stimulate students’ interest in English writing and improve their collaborative learning abilities, with the hope to promote more study on the connections between English writing instruction and students’ problems and needs.