A Study On The English Writing Feedback In Senior High School Based On The Socio-cultural Activity Theory

Writing is a prominent part of English learning,and the English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2017 Edition 2020 Revision)puts forward higher requirements for writing.Although there is a large amount of literature exploring the effectiveness of writing feedback,most of the researches have focused on college students.Improving the writing ability of senior high school students through writing feedback still needs further study.Therefore,based on the socio-cultural activity theory,this study discusses the current situation and existing problems of writing feedback,and reasons for the problems in senior high school English teaching,so as to achieve the purpose of improving students’ writing abilities and the writing teaching effect.This study takes three teachers and 164 students from a public senior high school in Shaoyang as the research subjects.Two research instruments,namely the questionnaire,and interview,are used to collect relevant data and try to answer three questions:(1)What is the current situation of writing feedback in senior high school English teaching?(2)From the perspective of socio-cultural activity theory,what problems exist in the feedback of senior high school English writing?(3)What are the reasons causing the writing feedback problems in senior high school?The major findings of this study involve:(1)The current situation of writing feedback in English teaching in a public senior high school in Shaoyang is that teacher feedback is the primary type,and the frequency of use of peer feedback and self-feedback is low.(2)The problems in writing feedback include the relatively single feedback method,the students’ low trust in peer feedback and self-feedback,the delayed time of the writing feedback,and the low effectiveness of the writing feedback results.(3)The reasons causing these problems involve students’ similar preferences,the learners’ low English level,the heavy teaching pressure,and students’ different subjective initiative.This study puts forward some suggestions on the feedback of Shaoyang public senior high schools English writing: Firstly,combining flexibly various feedback types to improve the interaction of feedback subjects;Secondly,bringing skillfully teachers’ guiding role and students’ subjective initiative into play to promote the positive influence of feedback;Finally,utilizing appropriate strategies to enhance the effectiveness of feedback results.This study enriches the application of socio-cultural activity theory in English writing teaching and provides more theoretical perspectives for writing feedback researches.This study explores the problems and causes of writing feedback,which helps to enhance teachers’ awareness of assessment in English writing teaching and has important practical implications for improving students’ writing skills.