A Study Of The Effects Of Differences Between Chinese And Western Thought Patterns On Students’ English Writing In Middle Schools

This study was designed to verify the effects of the differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns on middle school students’ English writing.The research questions to be addressed are presented as follows:(1)What are the effects of the differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns on the diction use of the middle school students in their compositions?(2)What are the effects of the differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns on the syntax use of the middle school students in their compositions?(3)What are the effects of the differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns on the discourse use of the middle school students in their compositions?To seek answers to the above research questions,a questionnaire and a teaching experiment have been conducted.Two classes of Grade9 in a junior middle school were invited to participate in the study.The two classes have the similar grades in the English Test and they are taught by the same English teacher.A questionnaire has been given to make sure that the different levels of students have obvious differences in understanding the different thought patterns and their writing habits.Then a writing test on the topic of good Students has been arranged to serve as a pre-test.After the pre-test,three kinds of errors have been analyzed,at the levels of diction,syntax and discourse.Meanwhile,one class has been chosen as the experimental class and the other as the control class,which have separately participated in the two teaching modes on writing for three months.To be specific,the experimental class has received a special training so as to help the students get to know the differences between the two thought patterns whereas the control class has been taught in the traditional teaching approach.Afterwards,they have been requested to write a composition with the same requirements at the same time as the post-test.Then,a follow-up analysis with SPSS 25.0 has been carried out to get the results.In order to quantify and visualize the results,the author has invited a colleague to score all the compositions with her together and mark all of the errors appearing in the compositions at the levels of diction,syntax and discourse in accordance with the criteria set in the Senior High School Entrance Examination.By comparing the scores between the pre-test and post-test and based on the analysis of the data,the major findings are as follows:Firstly,the integration of teaching different thought patterns in writing lessons can enhance middle school students,writing quality in terms of diction.According to the statistical data of diction,it is found that there is significant difference between the experimental class and the control class,indicating that knowing the differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns can improve students,diction scores.Therefore,it is necessary to acquaint the students with the main differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns in the English writing lesson.Secondly,the integration of teaching different thought patterns in writing lessons plays an important role in improving students’ writing quality in terms of syntax.Based on the statistical data of students’syntax scores,it is found that the integration of teaching different thought patterns can greatly improve students’ syntax scores.In addition,among diction,syntax and discourse of the experimental class,students’ syntax scores improved the most,reveals that syntax is one of the most easily improved part in the English writing.Therefore,if students want to improve their writing quality within a short time,it is a good way to pay attention to syntax.Thirdly,the integration of teaching different thought patterns in writing lessons has a positive effect on the students’ writing quality in terms of discourse.According to the statistical data of discourse in the post-test of the two classes,students have made much more progress in the experimental class than students in the control class.This demonstrates that knowing the main differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns can be regarded as an effective tool to make students organize articles better.For pedagogical implications,it is necessary for the teachers to integrate the major differences between Chinese and Western thought patterns into the teaching of English writing.To carry out the integration,both teachers and students ought to combine English writing with plenty of authentic or classic English readings plus reciting and imitating the impressive parts in the readings.