Exploring Effective English Writing Teaching Approach In Junior Middle Schools:Six-step Teaching Approach To Unit-topic Writing

The paper put forwards Six-step Teaching Approach to Unit-topic Writing on the basis of practical teaching to improve present English writing teaching in Junior Middle Schools and tested the approach in practice.Junior Middle School English teaching,due to lacking of systematic writing teaching consciousness,ignorance of accumulation of language and cognitive rule and insufficient study of writing teaching,was.confronted with common fragmentation and ineffectiveness which both devoted to a subsequence that students were not willing to write papers,did not know how to write papers and had nothing to write,and that teachers were not willing to teach writing,could not teach writing and dared not to teach writing.At this point,the author came up with Six-step Teaching Approach to Unit-topic Writing which aimed at raising teachers' and students' consciousness of English writing and improving their abilities to teach and learn.This thesis consists of two main parts.And these two parts are supposed to answer the following two questions respectively:1)What is Six-step Teaching Approach to Unit-topic Writing?2)What is the application effect of the STAUW?To facilitate the discussion,the second research questions are further split into two small questions:(1)What changes in students' writing scores are presented after STAUW is implemented?(2)What changes in students' writing anxiety and writing interests are presented after STAUW is implemented?Six-step Teaching Approach to Unit-topic Writing was based on teaching theories of Constructivism(Zone of Proximal Development,Scaffolding Approach,Anchored Approach),Second Language Acquisition(the Input and Output Hypothesis)and Schema Theory.STAUW included six steps:determining the students' ZPD,creating writing situation,building-up writing scaffoldings,independent writing,collaboration and revision,and final draft and public displays,which,in practice,was stick to three principles:combining writing teaching with unit writing goals,combining writing methods with teaching environment and combining systematization with step-by-step.To exam the effects of STAUW,together with his research teammates,the author chose 5729 students of 106 classes from the 7th,8th and 9th grades of 22 Junior Middle Schools in Zhanjiang as the objects of this study.The empirical research lasted for two semesters,using methods of combination of quantitative and qualitative studies,involving examination of pre-writing/post-writing tests(for 2.1 question),questionnaires and interview(for 2.2 question).Analysis of examination of before/after tests showed that:(1)Scores of all students from classes examined gained an obvious increase(POSTT and PRET average mark of 212 classes examined:8.1&9.89,P(sig)=0.000,P<0.05).(2)Scores of urban experimental classes were higher than those of controlled classes,and scores of the rural experimental and controlled classes presented a u-shaped distribution(G7,G8 and G9 POSTT scores of UEC compared with PRET of those increased by:4.31,4.54 and 4.87;G7,G8 and G9 POSTT scores of REC compared with PRET of those increased by:1.36,0.90 and 2.51;POSTT scores of RCC of the three grades compared with PRET increased by:0.34,0.18 and 0.26).(3)The overall increasing trend of the three grades was presented as a U shape.(Compared with PRET scores,the average POSTT scores of the three grades increased by:1.65,1.49 and 2.07).(4)The experimental classes and the controlled classes improved their writing while the experimental classes implemented STAUW gained greater promotion(average score of 106 classes of PRETEC and POSTTEC:8.19 and 11.25,P(sig)=0.000,P<0.05;average score of 106 classes of PRETCC and POSTTCC:8.13 and 8.52,P(sig)?=0.000,P<0.05;EC promoted 2.66 points over CC).Analysis of questionnaires and interviews showed that:(1)Student who accepted STAUW,either he was from urban or rural areas,built a consciousness to write papers,became more familiar with unit topics,and demonstrated confidence on self-writing ability evaluation.(2)In writing,anxiety was eased and interests were enhanced.(3)Compared with traditional teaching approaches,STAUW received welcomes from students who perceived their writing ability enhanced.(4)In the process of acceptation of STAUW,students gained better knowledge and experience of improving English writing ability,and,as a result,their desire to upgrade their writing ability became stronger.STAUW enriched the existing Junior Middle School English writing teaching approaches and was positive to promote the current situation--fragmented and ineffective,and enhanced writing ability and so on.The outcomes of the research would provide theoretical ideas and practical support.