A Study On The Effectiveness Of Model Text Recitation In English Writing Of Senior High School Students

The overall objective of senior high school English Curriculum is to develop students' comprehensive language ability, and writing is not only a very important skill in language output but also the focus and challenge for senior high school English teaching. Therefore, both the New Curriculum Standard of English and National College Entrance Examination have specific and high requirements for writing. However, there are still many problems in the current English writing of senior high school students, such as numerous grammar mistakes, limited command of vocabulary, common errors of Chinglish, poor knowledge of discourse cohesion and coherence and so on. In addition, negative attitudes of the students towards writing as well as lack of writing training also hinder the development of students' writing ability. It is well recognized that model text recitation as a Chinese traditional learning method has been playing an important role in language learning. Thus, the present study attempts to explore how to apply model text recitation to English writing teaching in senior high schools. Besides, the study is committed to research into the effectiveness of model text recitation in the students' English writing teaching, so as to improve senior high school English writing teaching and provide a new prospective for writing teaching research.Based on the theory of Krashen's input hypothesis, VanPatten's input processing theory, and Swain's output hypothesis theory, this research aims to study how to apply the learning method of traditional recitation to English writing teaching in senior high schools. In the research, the targeted selection of appropriate reciting materials is made and the guidance and training for the students' writing are carried out as well, which focus on the recitation strategies and writing practice. Further, a detailed discussion is conducted on the effectiveness of model text recitation for improving the students writing level. This study tries to address the following questions: the relation between recitation input and writing output, the application of model text recitation to senior high school English writing teaching, the correlation between model text recitation and the students' English writing interest, the possibility of solving students' English writing problems and improving the students' writing level.The subjects for this study are the 106 students selected from two classes in Grade Two of High School Attached to Shandong Normal University. The research includes teaching experiment, questionnaire and interview, which has lasted for two months, and under the active cooperation of the teachers and students, the whole process is finished smoothly. After the experiment, the data of 106 students' compositions scores is analyzed with the help of SPSS22.0, the content of the students' writing is compared and analyzed. At the same time, the data of the questionnaires results as well as the interview results is given a detailed analysis and discussion. Through comparative analysis and discussion, the research has found out that the application of model text recitation to senior school English writing teaching can improve students' level of lexical choice and sentence structure. Besides, by reciting, students learn to express themselves more naturally and appropriately. It is evident that the method has improved the students' ability of using linking words and cohesive devices which make their writing seems more compact and coherent. From the results of questionnaire and interview, it has been proved that students become more initiative, interested, and confident in English writing. Thus, it can be claimed that model text recitation is effective for improving the level of students' English writing. The research also proves that a lot of comprehensible input can contribute to high-quality output. Therefore, the study holds that the model text recitation is a feasible and effective way in English writing teaching. Based on the research findings, the present study has put forward some implications and suggestions for the application of model text recitation to senior high school English writing teaching. It is sincerely hoped that this study can provide meaningful and positive reference for senior high school English teachers, thus, enough attention can be paid to the effective application of model text recitation to senior high school English writing teaching.