A Case Study Of Teachers As Mediators In Teaching English Writing In Senior High School

English writing is an effective means for students to use English language skills comprehensively.During the process of English writing in senior high school,it includes:topic-choice,idea-generation,first draft,peer revision,second draft and teacher revision.Among them,teachers as mediators play an important role in the whole process of writing.Teachers provide diverse writing activities and plenty of opportunities for students to interact during writing process,and they pay attention to the richness of writing content,the correctness of expression and the logic of writing structure.Therefore,it can better improve students'potential ability to write successfully and independently.Based on the significance of teacher as a mediator in writing process,a case study is conducted in Z senior high school of Beijing to investigate teacher mediation in English writing classes for improving the effectiveness of teacher as a mediator.This study first analyzes teachers' teaching practices of teacher mediation in common English writing classes through recording the teaching steps and interactive language between teachers and students.Meanwhile,teachers'mediational ways and pattern on students'writing is also analyzed through observation.Then,it investigates students' perceptions on the importance and implementation of teacher mediation by questionnaires.At last,group interviews towards relative teachers are carried out to investigate their attitudes to teachers as mediators.The paper finds that:first,in most cases,teachers' mediational pattern is:reminding students of the problems that occurred-narrowing down the location of the problem-providing hints-giving the correct answer-explaining the reason if necessary.Besides,teachers tend to use explicit hinting strategies to promote students'English writing in language errors;second,there are differences between students' expectations and teachers' practice on teacher mediation.That is,teacher's practice of mediational role is not exactly what students expect.Therefore,it is suggested teachers should always keep an eye on students' needs and trends so as to adjust their mediational role at any time,and give maximum play to their role;third,the results of group interviews show that teachers' views and their practice on mediation are basically the same,but their implementation of teacher mediation is limited.Therefore,it is suggested that teachers should strengthen theoretical learning of mediation,enhancing their awareness of adopting mediational tools,adopting various techniques based on learners'responsivity and creating the mediated learning opportunities in English class.Although this is a case study,it also expects to bring some implications to English teachers in China.