An Empirical Study On Peer-assisted Learning In Continuation Writing Teaching In Senior High Schools

Nowadays,students' ability of finishing continuation writing task is relatively low and there are not many studies on this brand-new type of writing.Conforming to the curriculum standards(2003),the application of peer-assisted learning will ensure students more opportunities to interacting,experiencing as well as exploring.Based on Krashen's Input Hypothesis and Swain's Output Hypothesis,Interactive Alignment Model as well as Constructivism Theory,applying peer-assisted learning model in continuation writing teaching is practical and of great value to improve students' proficiency of continuation writing.This study aims to explore the effects on students' continuation writing competence and interest resulting from the peer-assisted learning model,through an empirical research.It is intended to discuss three research questions:(1)Can the application of peer-assisted learning model improve students' attitudes towards continuation writing task?(2)How does the peer-assisted learning model improve students' competence of finishing continuation writing task?(3)Will the low-level learners improve more significantly with the help of peer-assisted learning model,or high-level learners make greater progress?76 students from two classes(304 and 307)in Fengming High School in Tongxiang participated in the experiment.In the process which lasted 12 weeks,Class304 is the experimental class taught by peer-assisted learning method following the four steps: text comprehension,plot design,language performance,peer response,while Class 307 is the control class taught by the traditional method.Pre-test,post-test and pre-questionnaire were conducted in both classes before and after the experiment,while post-questionnaire and an interview were carried out only in the experimentalclass to find out the effects of peer-assisted learning model in continuation writing.Based on the data and analysis from the experiment,the following conclusions are achieved:(1)The application of peer-assisted learning model can greatly improve the students' attitudes towards continuation writing,especially in terms of promoting their interest and confidence.(2)PAL plays an effective part in improving the students' achievement of continuation writing task,embodied in the following aspects like the competence of reading comprehension,plot design and language performance as well as their scores of the task.(3)With the help of peer-assisted learning model,all the participants make great progress in continuation writing,and the low-level learners improve more significantly than high-level learners.Besides,it's worth noting that the students in group B,that is high-level students matching with low-level students,made the greatest progress in continuation writing.According to the research findings,some pedagogical implications are proposed afterwards,hoping to provide some suggestions to English teachers.The limitations as well as future suggestions are also presented at the end of the thesis.