A Study On The Present Situation Of English Writing Teaching In Rural Junior Middle Schools In Penglai

Listening,speaking,reading and writing constitute four major skills of students' English proficiency,among which writing is the hardest to the students.Over the past years following popularity of English learning,writing has long been ignored.Both teachers and students feel head-scratching about English writing.On the one hand,teachers focus on vocabulary,grammar and reading,while putting aside writing.As a result,systematic English writing teaching has not yet been shaped in most junior middle schools of China.One possible reason for retarded development of English writing teaching is that the correction of compositions is time-and energy-consuming.On the other hand,students have no interest nor confidence in writing.The writing process lacks proper interaction.Consequently,most students often rack their brains to reach the requirement of words,even if what they write makes no sense in English or appears to be Chinglish.Data analysis of the writing part in successive senior high school entrance examinations suggest that students perform poorly in writing.All this suffices to indicate that there is still a striking gap between the new curriculum standards on English writing and the present situation of English writing teaching in China's junior middle schools.To sum up,English writing is a hurdle to not only English learning,but also English teaching,and the problem is more prominent in China's rural junior middle schools.Thus,improvement of English writing teaching in China's rural junior middle schools based on a deeper understanding of its development status has been an issue of great concern.The purpose of this research is to explore effective methods to improve junior middle school English writing teaching by investigating into the current status of junior middle school English writing teaching and summarizing the existing problems.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the attitude of teachers towards English writing teaching?(2)What are methods adopted by teachers in their English writing teaching activities?(3)What about effects of junior middle school English writing teaching?(Based on students' test scores in the senior high school entrance examinations).This research chooses 60 English teachers in rural junior middle schools of Penglai,Shandong,and analyzes English papers of students from ten classes participating in the senior high school entrance examinations.Meanwhile,five teachers are selected as representatives for an in-depth interview.The research methods are the questionnaire survey,the interview and the analysis of students' composition.The findings of this paper are as follows: First of all,the English writing teaching in junior middle school is relatively backward.Many English teachers pay more attention to language points and grammar,but ignore the training of students' writing skills.Teachers place more emphasis on the compositions than the process guidance.Secondly,students do not realize the importance of English writing and the significance of grasping the writing skills.It is mainly manifested in their lack of interest in English writing and good writing habits.Psychologically speaking,students lack the confidence and motivation in English writing.They do not like writing and are unwilling to write.And meanwhile,teachers' correction method is traditional and out-of-date and they show randomness in writing teaching.From the students' compositions the author found the following disadvantages: Poor abilities to read the question,process the information and grasp the key points;Weakness in basic language knowledge and basic language skill;Poor abilities in basic wring and language output;Chinglish thinking,monotonous language form and meager vocabulary;Lack of the ability to grasp the discourse overall and the necessary writing skill.Based on the findings and problems the author provides some conductive suggestions.