The Application Of Problem-based Learning To English Argumentative Writing In Senior High Schools

The final purpose of English learning is the cultivation of output competence,including speaking and writing.The level of writing is reflected by the amount of language input and practice.However,writing as the last lesson of a Module,teachers don't attach enough importance to it.Teachers often assign writing as homework,and few of them carry out error analysis of students' writings after correcting them.Instead teachers incline to ask students to recite sample writings and translate sentences.On the other hand,argumentative writing is different from other writing genres,in terms of the higher demand on students' logical thinking and abilities of problem analysis and solving.As research shows,learners make common mistakes in augumentative writing,such as poor content,unclear argument,powerless supporting ideas,and many grammar mistakes etc.According to New Curriculum Standards'(2017)requirement of cultivating students' competence of applying knowledge to realistic problems,this thesis will introduce PBL into argumentative writing,which uses the questions as beginning and regards students as center.With the advancement of questions,students apply language into problem-solving and writing products by cooperative discussion and individual writing.The purpose is to improve students' argumentative writing competence,which includes four contents: relevance,explicitness,sufficiency and coherence,and language accuracy and the improvement of writing interest.The data of this research mainlycomes from the two classes of Longquan Middle school.The author carried out the research of PBL writing teaching in the school for three months,including pre and post questionnaires for comparing the changes of students' writing attitude before and after the experiment,analysis of students' argumentative writing texts including the writing competence in content and in language,and an interview at the end of the experiment.At last,the author adopted SPSS 25.0 to analyze the date in questionnaires,three writing tasks and got the following results: 1.the application of PBL improved students' interest in English writing;2.to sum up,students' argumentative writing competence in content was improved after comparing their writing task 1 and task 3,especially in sufficiency of supporting details;3,writing accuracy was improved by self and peer evaluation in PBL model.Therefore,it is effective to apply PBL into argumentative writing teaching.In PBL Writing class,teacher put students at the discussion of daily problems,which motivated them to pay attention to the life around and attempt to solve the problem they might encounter in their lives with independent thinking and cooperative spirit.Meanwhile,teachers should be aware of their identity as a guide,and help students acquire knowledge,think actively and write effectively with step-by-step questions.