An Action Research Of English Micro-Writing Teaching In Senior High School

As a fundamental skill that must be taught and trained,writing is a significant form of output as well as an important part of English learning.With the implementation of new writing tasks like summary writing and continuation writing in college entrance examination of Zhejiang,English writing teaching is increasingly emphasized.However,since English writing is involved with the complex cognitive process and sociocultural factors,English writing teaching is faced with challenges.And to meet the new requirements put forward in the new curriculum,English teachers begin to put too much emphasis on the systematicity and sufficiency of teaching content of writing class.However,in a time-limited English writing class,delivering too much writing knowledge and writing strategies may go beyond the learners' cognitive load and lead to the inefficiency of writing learning at last.Thus,the teaching content of writing class needs to be miniaturized and more precise.Micro-writing teaching is a kind of writing teaching with specific teaching aims and teaching content mainly in the form of certain writing techniques based on the writing learning situation.Through the presentation of teachers and practice,learners will have a better evaluation of the writing skills and be expected to apply the writing skills independently.So,this research aims to improve the effects of writing teaching and solve the puzzles and difficulties of learners in current writing through micro-writing teaching so as to improve learners' writing ability in a real sense.The research questions in this thesis are as following: 1)What problems do participants have in writing? 2)How does micro-writing teaching influence learners' writing performance? 3)What aspects of writing are affected by micro-writing teaching?As an action research,this research was carried out in a class of Grade 12 in a common high school.The research lasted for one semester.Through the cycle of “Plan— Reflection— Adjustment— Re-Plan— Re-Adjustment”,40 students were selected as participants to carry out English micro-writing teaching to improve the learners' writing ability.And the data were collected from writing tests,interview and classroom observation.According to the results and analysis,the research finds,firstly,learners have certain puzzles and difficulties that affect their writing performance,which are mainly involved with their proficiency of language,writing strategy and thinking ability.Secondly,micro-writing teaching can improve learners' writing performance through solving learners' puzzles and difficulties effectively with the miniaturized teaching aims and contents which are specific and based on learning situation.Thirdly,micro-writing teaching has a positive effect on learners' writing in the aspects of writing motives,writing skills,writing strategies and thinking ability.Finally,based on the major findings of this research,this thesis offers some pedagogical suggestions for teachers from the aspects of the design of teaching aims and content of micro-writing,the cultivation of writing thinking skills in micro-writing teaching and the importance of teachers' own thinking ability.