A Study On The Application Of Recitation-Imitation Method To English Writing Teaching In Middle Schools From The Perspective Of Memetics

Writing,the most important language skill to be mastered,is an effective means to test students’ comprehensive knowledge and proficiency in English.In recent years,many domestic scholars have been studying some foreign teaching methods in writing,such as process teaching approach,to guide the teaching of writing,while recitation-imitation teaching method,a traditional teaching method,has not been given its due attention and status in foreign language teaching.With the theoretical support for this traditional teaching method from memetics,this paper tries to explore the effectiveness of recitation-imitation teaching method from the perspective of memetics in improving writing proficiency and writing motivation of middle school students at different language proficiency levels.And it aims to tackle the following three questions:(1)What are the effects of this recitation-imitation method from the perspective of memetics on students’ motivation in practicing English writing?(2)How does recitation-imitation method from the perspective of memetics influence the writing proficiency of middle school students ?(3)What are the differences,if any,in the improvement of students’ writing proficiency for students of high-score group and low-score group respectively?A three-month long empirical experiment was carried out.A total of 79 students of Grade Nine from Hangzhou Normal University Affiliated Cangqian Middle School participated in this experiment.Class 1 is the experimental class(39).The students were divided into one high-score group(19)and one low-score group(20).And class 2 is the control class(40).During the experiment,the teacher provided recitation-imitation teaching method from the perspective of memetics to the students in the experimental class,while students from the control class received the traditional writing learning method.Both the qualitative and quantitative methods of research were employed and different research instruments like writing tests and questionnaires were used in this experiment.A pretest was administered to test students’ writing proficiency before the experiment.The different effects of recitation-imitation method from the perspective of memetics on writing proficiency were tested by comparing the scores of different aspects in students’ writing within the two groups of different English proficiency.In addition,a questionnaire was used to test the effectiveness of this teaching method on students’ writing motivation.After the data of questionnaires and writing were collected,the analysis was done by using SPSS 25.0 and EXCEL.The results show that recitation-imitation from the perspective of memetics can improve students’ motivation and interest.This teaching method not only helps to enhance students’ English writing proficiency,but also has differences in improving writing proficiency of students in different levels.As far as vocabulary,language use and mechanics are concerned,this teaching method was slightly better for the students in low-score group.While in the high-score group,students have more progress in the content,organization and vocabulary of the composition.Furthermore,the questionnaires suggested that the recitation-imitation method from the perspective of memetics has a positive effect on students’ writing motivation in practicing English writing.The study suggests that the teacher should give enough writing practice and timely feedback and thus enrich students’ meme pool when he teaches students of different English levels writing so as to enhance students’ writing proficiency and motivation in practicing English writing.