A Study On The Application Of The Continuation Task In English Writing

Writing plays an important role in English learning and occupies large amount of scores in exam-oriented education.In addition,the core quality of English subject and the new curriculum standard require to cultivate students' language and thinking ability.Linguistic scholars and English teachers have been devoted to the teaching methods of English writing.The Continuation Task was put forward as a method,aiming to promote students' writing ability.Therefore,this study aims to explore whether the Continuation Task can be effective in improving students' writing ability and increase their interests in writing.The two research questions are presented as follows:(1)What is the effect of Continuation Task on improving students' English writing ability in senior high school?(2)What is the change of students' attitudes towards English writing after application of the Continuation Task on writing ?The research instruments involve tests,questionnaires and interviews.A14-week teaching experiment was conducted.The subjects were 90 students in two parallel classes in a senior high school in Gansu Province.One class was the experimental class,which was taught with the method of the Continuation Task.The other class was the control class,which adopted the traditional teaching method of writing.A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was adopted.Aftercollecting and sorting out the data and the,SPSS17.0 was employed to analyze the data of the tests and questionnaires,and the method of transcription was applied to analyze the content of the interview.The results of tests in this thesis show that the application of the Continuation Task is effective not only on improving students' writing ability,but also on increasing their interests in English writing.The writing proficiency of the experimental class has improved significantly,especially in the choice of words and expression of sentences and the use of logical connectors.Secondly,the results from the questionnaires and interview demonstrate that the method of the Continuation Task had improved students interests in English writing and changed their attitude towards writing.It is mainly manifested in the following aspects: frequency,time,genre,content and thought of writing.Finally,pedagogical implications are presented to improve the English teaching in high schools.