Action Research On The Effects Of Cooperative Continuation Task On The English Writing Class Of A Senior High School

The tradition of second language teaching in China regards writing as an independent skill training,which is separated from reading.In this context,Wang Chuming(2012)proposed continuation task and demonstrated its effects on second language learning.The effects of continuation task are significant but its alignment effect is weaker than that of “continuation” in dialogue.Therefore,Wang Chuming(2015)proposed that interpersonal interaction could be introduced into continuation task to strengthen alignment effect to enhance writing teaching efficiency.Students’ engagement in class is a crucial index to measure teaching efficiency.Based on Interactive Alignment Model and Development Theory,this thesis applies cooperative continuation task to English writing class of senior high school to discuss how to design cooperative continuation task to improve students’ engagement.This research took 42 students in the first year of senior high school in Guangzhou as participants and adopted action research to explore teaching design issues in cooperative continuation task activities.It was found that students’ engagement in English writing class was low.Therefore,the following two questions were proposed: 1)Can cooperative continuation task improve students’ engagement in English writing class of senior high school? What are the major manifestation dimensions of students’ engagement improvement? 2)How can cooperative continuation task design improve students’ engagement in English writing class of senior high school?To solve above research questions,two rounds of action research were administered: in the first round,the researcher sampled narratives as reading materials,appointed higher-level students as leaders and delivered written feedback;in the second round,the researcher sampled fables as reading materials,appointed higher and lower level students as leaders by turns,optimized reward system and delivered written and oral feedback.The data of observation,interviews and questionnaires were collected and discussed after two rounds of action.The results indicate that: 1)Cooperative continuation task can improve students’ engagement in English writing class of senior high school.Students’ engagement improvement is manifested in behavioral engagement,cognitive engagement and emotional engagement.2)Reasonable group roles assignment,reward system optimization,feasible cooperative continuation task design,written and oral feedback and interesting materials are conducive to students’ engagement improvement.Teachers should have a sense of students’ engagement and design cooperative continuation task reasonably to enhance students’ engagement and reflect constantly to improve teaching design.