A Study On The Effects Of Appraisal-theory-based Teaching On Secondary Vocational Students’ Argumentative Writing

Based on the appraisal theory and empirical research of functional linguistics,this study aims to explore the effects of appraisal-theory-based teaching on the secondary vocational school students’ argumentative writing.There are three research questions in this study1.Are there any differences in the students’ argumentative writing between Experimental Class and Control Class after the appraisal-theory-based teaching is implemented?If so,what are the differences in terms of attitude system,engagement system and graduation system?2.What are the effects of the appraisal theory-based teaching on the secondary vocational school students" argumentative writing in their accuracy,fluency,complexity and idiomaticity?3.What are the effects of the appraisal theory-based teaching on the secondary vocational school students’ writing interest,self-confidence and motivation?This study adopts the method of combining quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis Quantitative analysis was conducted through the pre and post questionnaires and the data drawn from the teaching experiment.Qualitative analysis was conducted through interviews.The subjects of this experiment are the students of Class 7 Grade 2(Control Class)and Class 8 Grade 2(Experimental Class)of Jurong Secondary Vocational School in Jiangsu Province.The student number of the two classes is the same,and the proportion of boys and girls is half and half.The experiment lasted for 12 weeks.The students in two classes were given a pre-test and post-test,and the compositions were scored by the researcher and two experienced teachers.Then the collected data was analyzed through SPSS21.0.Before and after the experiment,the students in the experimental class were surveyed with questionnaires,and the data were collected and analyzed with SPSS21.0.After the experiment,six students in the experimental class were interviewed to supplement the quantitative dataThere are three main findings in this studyFirstly,appraisal-theory-based writing teaching improves the secondary vocational school students’ argumentative writing ability.In terms of attitude system,the frequency of words expressing judgment,appreciation and affect in the Experimental Class has increased significantly.In terms of engagement system,students in the Experimental Class use a lot of modal expressions in their compositions,such as "probably,maybe,may and It+be/seem+adjective+that/to.....".The widespread use of these expressions recognizes the fact that their own opinions are only personal opinions.provides a relaxed negotiating environment for each other,and expresses their willingness to discuss with people holding different views.In terms of graduation system,the students in the Experimental Class are better at expressing their objections in a "vague" way,softening their attitude towards criticism or objection and expressing their willingness to negotiate positions,so as to avoid verbal conflictsSecondly,the accuracy,fluency,complexity and idiomaticity of students’ compositions in the Experimental Class have been improved.They can accurately grasp the key appraisal lexis and write paragraphs around it by means of explanations and examples.They can memorize idiomatic appraisal chunks,especially sentence-type chunks generated with appraisal lexis.They can use these chunks directly when writing,so that the composition will not only become idiomatic,but also more convenient,fast and fluentFinally,appraisal-theory-based writing teaching has a positive effect on the secondary vocational school students’ interest,self-confidence and motivation of argumentative writing.Before and after the experiment,the means of total scores of the questionnaires were 28.61 and 35.59,the means of writing interest were 7.30 and 11.34,the means of writing confidence were 11.02 and 12.29,and the means of writing motivation were 10.28 and 11.96,respectively.The Paired Sample T-test showed that there was a significant difference in students’ interest,confidence and motivation.In the interview after the experiment,most of the students confirmed that their interest and confidence in writing had been improved and they will continue to use the appraisal-theory-based writing instruction to improve their writing skill in the future.The teaching significance of this study:Firstly,teachers should strengthen the input of students’ appraisal lexis in argumentative writing teaching,so as to avoid the monotony of language in expressing opinions or attitudes.Secondly,we should pay attention to the input of modal expressions,so as to avoid students’ subjective and rigid language expression in the process of argumentation writing.Thirdly,students should be guided to grasp the key appraisal lexis and write paragraphs with examples and explanations.