Acknowledgments
I am mostly grateful to my supervisor Profession Wu without whose support and patience this project would not even have got off the ground.
I am also grateful to my colleagues Chen, Fan and Chen for their time spent on brainstorming and panel discussion with me.
No amount of thanks will be adequate for my students without whose willing co-operation in my project implementation it would have remained on paper.
Last but not the least, big thanks go to my parents, my husband and my family who have shared with me my worries, frustrations, and hopeful my ultimate happiness in eventually, finishing this project.
Abstract:
According to the writing situation of the students and the analysis of the reason which leads to their present writing situations , I have taken some measures to improve their writing ability in many respects .First I begin with increasing their interest in English study in the classroom and out of it , then enrich their vocabulary, practice their basic skills ,scheme perfect composition then end up with organizing materials , drafting and editing the whole article .
Key Words
Foster interest, provoke, recreate, senses of aim and audience, draft, edit
Contents
Page
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………… 1
2. Problems……………………………………………………………… 1
2.1 Problem…………………………………………………………… 1
2. 2 Problem analysis………………………………………………… 1
2.2.1 Analytic methods…………………………………………… 2
2.2.2 Questionnaire survey………………………………………… 2
2.2.3 Brainstorming activation…………………………………… 3
2.2.4 Cause analysis……………………………………………… 3
A. The teacher’s side…………………………………………… 4
B. The students’ side…………………………………………… 5
C. The class size……………………………………………… 5
2.3 Results…………………………………………………………… 6
3. Project objective……………………………………………………… 6
4. Project hypothesis…………………………………………………… 6
5. Project rationale……………………………………………………… 6
5.1 The role of controlled composition making……………………… 6
5.2 Mastering and practice basic sentences…………………………… 7
5.3 The role of teacher………………………………………………… 7
5.4 The role of students……………………………………………… 8
6. Project design………………………………………………………… 9
6.1 Principle of Project design………………………………………… 9
6.1.1 Combination of basic language and writing………………… 9
6.1.2 Combination of speaking and writing ……………………… 9
6.1.3 Combination of thinking and writing〈Input and output〉… 9
6.1.4 Combination of wide reading and writing…………………… 9
6.2 Program of project design……………………………………… 10
6.2.1 Timetable of the project design…………………………… 10
6.2.2 Activities Week 1. Activity 1……………………………… 11
6.2.3 Week 2. Activity 2………………………………………… 13
6.2.4 Week 3. Activity 3………………………………………… 14
6.2.5 Week 4. Activity 4………………………………………… 17
7. Project implementation…………………………………………… 18
7.1 Principle of implementation…………………………………… 18
7.2 Process of implementation……………………………………… 18
7.3 Pretest measures………………………………………………… 22
8. Project evaluation…………………………………………………… 22
8.1 Control and target groups……………………………………… 22
8.2 Data analysis …………………………………………………… 23
8.3 Brainstorm……………………………………………………… 24
9. Project findings and discussions…………………………………… 24
9.1 Advantages……………………………………………………… 24
9.2 Shortcomings…………………………………………………… 25
9.3 Findings………………………………………………………… 26
Appendix 1: Questionnaire on English teaching……………………… 27
Appendix 2: The timetable of the project……………………………… 28
Appendix 3: Diaries …………………………………………………… 29
Appendix 4: A student’s handout—A letter…………………………… 30
How to improve the writing ability of students
1. Introduction
The purpose of learning a language is usually for communication, and communication involves all four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. when a person who you want to communicate with is not in front of you ,you have to write out what you want to express, but our students have much difficulty in writing .so how to improve the writing ability of the students (especially Senior Ⅲ students)is a troublesome problem for teachers. I have taken some measures to deal with the problem, from increasing students’ interest in English study to reaching them how to remember more words, from practicing basic sentences to organizing passages, even the whole article, from single writing to writing well .It lasts four weeks, And now they have achieved remarkable success with my instruction and my help together with their own diligence.
2. Problems
2.1 Problems
As we all know, the purpose of learning a knowledge is usually for communication. Communication involves all four skills :speaking ,listening, reading and writing ,When a person is in front of you ,of course ,you communicate by speaking ,listening to his response and replying appropriately ,However if the person you want to communicate with is not in front of you ,the you have to write to each other ,but how to express your own ideas or thoughts correctly ,without being understood ,it’s a big problem for students, especially for senior Ⅲ students ,because if they want to fight a beautiful fight in their coming English exam ,they must pass a sever test -------to write a high quality composition, winning a high score ,but some of them have to admit that there is a long distance between their aims and their present writing situation.
2.2 Problem analysis
For the students’ writing situation, it is hard to say .At first some students are afraid to write composition, they always feel that if they start to write, there may be so many mistakes under their pens; Second, some students are eager to express their own ideas by writing, but they don’t know how to write it well or even what to write. When they have to write while taking English exams, they always try their best to press their brains to think out some dull sentences, just like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube , Once squeezed out ,the toothpaste appears dull , unattractive and it has so many shortcomings in words, besides some spelling mistakes ,there are some errors about the knowledge of morphology students usually use the noun form of a word when the form if verb is needed and so on . In some compositions, some sentences are inconsistent and full of holes, the whole stand of a sentence is not supportive but alone, and the former sentence is not corrected closely with the later. Worst of all, some sentences make readers mixed up. At the same time, although there are so many details, they are not assigned properly or they can’t serve, the main point or theme well. The third English sentences are here and there. Even though students can’t express their ideas correctly logically.
There are no obvious mistakes, and the whole composition is not worth reading, because it tastes like plain boiled water, without any delicious wonderful sense or without any attraction.
2.2.1 Analytic methods
I was led to a series of questions through thorough thinking. Why majority of my students usually had problems in their writings, but they did not do the same thing. And still a few others wrote quite well. Why is it the case? Is it whether they think English is important? Do they all like English? Did they practice written English very hard after class? Just like writing diaries did their English teacher in school give them formal instructions and enough time to practice? And is the time they took for learning English long enough to avoid such problems? If all answers to the questions above are positive, that probably mean my teaching activities were poorly designed and the problem was actually caused by myself, not by my students.
2.2.2 Questionnaire survey
I made a pilot investigation in order to know clearly the situation. For this reason, I designed a questionnaire (See Appendix 1) to find out the true causes of the problem. Which are not easily observed. I intended to get more detailed and more exact opinions from all students in Class 100 and Class 101 through the questionnaire. And I tried to make it as scientific and effective as possible. At first I asked twelve students who were at different English levels to try out the questionnaire. Then I modified some of the items involving attitude, motivation and self-concepts. After that I distributed the questionnaire to my students and gave them ten minuets to fill it out. One--hundred and two students returned their questionnaires. The return rare is about 100%. When all these data was collected, I made some statistical evaluation.
Table I Survey Result on English Teaching
Survey items Agreement population Agreement frequencies (%)
English writing is
a. Very difficult 52 50.9
b. A little difficult 35 34.3
c Easy 10 9.8
d Very easy 5 4.9
I’m eager to
a Write English article well 102 . 100
. Have you tried writing in English actively
a.Yes 52 50.9
b.No 40 3.92
c.Had meant to try but didn’t 12 1.1
It’s easy to discover that the students are eager to write English very well. The vital point is how to express their idea correctly. This should be analyzed further.
2.2.3 Brainstorming activation
When I was engaged in the problem analysis, I often consulted my thesis supervisor Ms. Wu and frequently talked to my classmates about all the problems I encountered. They gave me a lot of instruction and suggestions so that I considered the problem more completely and thoroughly.
2.2.4 Cause analysis
Under this situation, I asked myself a series of questions and tried to provide some answers to them partially by the data gained above and partially by my observation. Why did some of my students often make various mistakes in writing? In order to know this issue more clearly, I designed cause exploration as follows.
A: The teacher’s side
Is it because the teaching conducting is poorly designed?
Is it because of the poor model of the teacher?
So the students’ writing situation is necessary to be changed, but the situation is just like a disease .it has its deep root. At first, it is heavily influenced by the old teaching pattern -----the Grammar Translation method .The method is like that the grammar of the classical language had to be described and broken down into learnable chunks: verbs were conjugated, nouns were declined, teases were explained and exemplified, The vocabulary also had to be listed and learned with a great deal of attention paid to the morphology of the words, how they were made up and combined The rules of pronunciation were described, they were regular ,and they had to be learnt only so that the texts could be read aloud . The general method used in the classroom was as follows: the text would be the basis of the lesson. It’s vocabulary drawn out and learnt with the mother tongue, some practice was done with translating sentences containing there structures and words, first target language into mother tongue into target language then the text world be read aloud, sentence by sentence and each one world be translated, The students world normally be tested by having to perform translations. Meanwhile the syllabus usually was designed around grammatical structures. Each lesson world teach a grammar structure, starting with simple ones, like the verb “to be ”, and progressing through to more complex ones, such as verb tenses, Tables of grammar rules and forms world be learnt and in the early stapes the text world be specially written to illustrate the particular grammar point being taught by that lesson.
It’s a language teaching method based on the study of texts in the target language, which have to be explained and studied in the mother tongue and then translated, How can we expect that the students taught by that method world then be able to go out and do their daily shopping in that language or buy travel tickets, invite its speaker to dinner by speaking or writing their family situation to them? Well, maybe, but with difficulty .The students taught by that method maybe only know how to express their own idea logically and theoretical yet they dare not put into practice or they will always be limited by the logical and theoretical rules strictly, as a result, their words appear dull and unattractive maybe they are experts in theory but cowards in practice.
B. The students’ side
Students do not know the importance of the usage of their own practice
We learn language just like learning swimming, no matter where you go, you do not learn to swim by reading books on swimming and practicing at home .You go to a place where your whole body can be immersed in the water and you can feel the floating force of the water. So is learning a language or skill, the most effective way is to practice it in the authentic situation with authentic media, For us English learners, if we want to master a language including mastering all its skills, we must think something in it, express some in it, a world famous socialist Karl Marx ever said “when you are learning a foreign language, you must learn to forget your native language ”, that is to say, When you are learning a foreign language, you must put yourself into an atmosphere of foreign language.
C. The class size
There are more than 50 students in my two of classes. It is really difficult to control them in such a large class. In class, I have not enough time to provide the students to practice writing.
On the other hand there are few opportunity for a face-to-face correcting mistakes between my students and I, of all the causes, I believe that the teacher is mainly responsible for the failure. I made a questionnaire among the students so as to know what they think about the problem.
Now a new teaching method has taken up its market in English class, which is the Audio---lingual Method of language teaching, which involved giving the learner stimuli in the form of prompts, and praising the correct response or punishing an incorrect response, until the right one was given. The new teaching method has its advantages in this case, mother—tongue use is also not accepted, as the only language to be heard or spoken is the target language in order to encourage the learner to think in it, Emphasis is laid upon using oral language in the classroom, some reading and writing might be done as homework. But in actual fact, teachers and students overemphasis the importance of listening and speaking in English, but neglect the importance of writing, as a result, students can’t spell words correctly, or write sentence without any logic or art of composition. It’s the second reason, why students can’t express properly .So we can’t stress one aspect to the neglect of another
But how to put the solution of the problem into daily teaching; how to raise the students’ interest in English study .how to develop students’ rich imagination, at least, tell students how to write a better composition without many mistakes or any mistakes, it is very important and necessary. As a senior Ⅲ English teacher ,I have taken some measures ,which include three main steps.
2.3 The results.
Through the problem analysis, I came to know why some of students keep making mistakes in writing.
The results indicated that there are four reasons that lead to expressing failure. They are here as follows:
1. Lack of basic and necessary language.
2. Lack of confidence due to psychological barrier.
3. Lack of writing practice.
4. Lack of necessary language environment for hearing, speaking and writing.
Finishing all cause analysis, I made up my mind to solve the above problems.
3. Project objective
In order to make the students’ confident, the best way and the first way is to promote their ability of writing in English. Both input and output can lead to written English competence. My project objective is that students can understand and write in English. They would never be afraid to write in English.
4. Project hypothesis
It is hypothesized that students can understand and write the language through effective output exercises. This method benefits the cultivation of students’ writing ability in English, which is the purpose of language learning. The students will never be puzzled in writing. If their interests are aroused, they will have confidence to engage in various written practices.
5. Project rationale
5.1 The role of controlled composition making
At the early stage of the language learning it offers a way out in case the students cannot get the message with their ears and write with their hands at the early stage of the language learning. As we know, written communication is a two-way process between a writer and a reader. Misunderstanding or poor understanding in writing may lead to breakdowns is communication, so I have taken many measures to improve their ability.
The first step is to run the basic skills, such as basic vocabulary elementary knowledge. basic functions of sentence patterns.
Generally speaking ,I often encourage students to remember words and their interrelation morphologies ,as many as possible and a number of words which the students can remember or master by teaching them the knowledge about affix ( prefix and suffix ) ,For example ,word “important” is an adjective pattern ,It means we change ,if we change the word “important” into “importance ”,it has become a noun pattern ,then it means “重要性”;but if we add “un” to the front the word “important ” we will get another word “unimportant” it means “不重要的” because the prefix “un” means “negative, opposite of ,it has an opposite meaning of “important ”., but it is still an adjective pattern ,As we all know ,each word is like each brick ,it is the most basic material for putting up a high building the more ,the better.
5.2 Mastering and practice basic sentences
However, even if we have mastered too many words, but we don’t know how to make sentence with these words according to the proper correct logical roles, these words will not mean a formed building but and conscious effort simply means files of materials learning a language requires some formal training.
So if we want to write a good composition, we must learn how to make sentence with words correctly and properly besides mastering the. Mastering and Practice all kinds of basic sentences is necessary
5.3 The role of teacher
In order to make students master all kinds of basic sentences, I have taken some measures.
1. First I ask my students to review all of them with me, including present indefinite tense, paste indefinite tense, present continuous tense, past continuous tense, future continuous tense, present perfect tense and so on, aiming to make students familiar to them ,then speak out them ,and at last use them ,Only in this way will the student s use them correctly and will there not be so many mistakes in expressing themselves
2. The second step, I work hard at, fostering the interest in English study, As the saying goes:” Interest is the best teacher ”. If we improve the students’ interest in English, they will learn English in active way. to listen, to speak, to read, then to write .In class ,if teachers can speak English as much as possible ,at first ,it will wake up students’ curiosity ,it will bring unexpected result to the whole teaching , it will exert an imperceptible influence to the students thinking and maybe he or she will think “can I speak English as well as my teacher ?”,then the strong curiosity can provoke students ,helping them to attempt to speak out his /her own idea in English bravely .
3. Thirdly, teacher’s speaking English in class can construct an atmosphere of speaking English, and students bathed or buried in the atmosphere may say what they want to say, even though in broken English. And a group of students might get together and discuss how to write a joint message or common idea to their teacher, or some students who have different or contrary idea, may write their ideas, explaining their ideas, In real life, the language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing)are combined , So, in the classroom ,teachers have to set up situations, in which students can recreate these real life activities.
5.4 The role of students
But by using only teacher –given stimuli for language production, the learners cannot learn how to express their own meanings, students still need to practice themselves, according the differences between learning the first and a second language. When we are learning the first language, what we can hear around us and what we can see , both Chinese ----our native language ,in order to communicate with all the people around us ,what we can speak and what we can write are only in it .The second language learner has the advantage of knowing one language system ----his native language system already ,but the disadvantage of already thinking in that language ,Therefore ,it is difficult for the second language learner ,not to translate as he is learning .This translation can be helpful ,but it can also be the cause of certain errors .such as applying a grammatical rule from the first language inappropriately to the second language ,But if we meet sentences in English more frequently .I think they will be strongly impressed on our memories ,and then they will help us to avoid making mistakes in writing. That is what I want to say, more reading will be helpful to our writing.
6. Project design
I designed four activities to be tried out in four weeks so as to test the hypothesis.
6. 1 Principle of project design
6.1.1 Combination of basic language and writing
At first, I think basic language is the most important for a learner, it is just like building bricks. In my project both input and output are enhanced. I decide to improve my teaching, giving my students some review lessons to review the basic sentence structures. At the same time, I ask my students to make sentences with them.
6.1.2 Combination of listening and speaking and writing
Nothing should be spoken before it has been heard. In my project, I decide to improve my teaching method in several ways. I would first help the students understand the whole listening materials with their ears and imitate sentence by sentence outside class. After the barriers of the hearing are removed, the successful communication can be carried out. Then in some suitable areas, they can turn their remarks to words written on the paper.
6.1.3 Combination of thinking and writing
I decide to encourage my students to improve their ability of writing input and output, especially think something in English, then write in English.
6.1.4 Combination of wide reading and writing
Encourage students to read English materials as more as possible, wide reading can enrich their language and make them be familiar with some wonderful sentences and well-designed articles and increase their vocabulary. By doing this, students can put them down on their exercises while writing a composition.
Textbook is the model for writing .The new edition of senior English contains all kinds of materials such as astronomy geography, historical figures. The art of literature, novel, biography, letter, diary, exposition poetry, play and so on, we can make full use of so rich materials. During the teaching of Textbook 3B, I have given many writing tasks. In this way, the students’ writing ability in all kinds of writing styles has been improved .So the textbook is the best base for training students in writing, we must make good use of it.
Wide reading also offer students more chance to meet English, especially to read more funny, interesting materials will give students great help, such as some interesting English novels, English stories full of humor, English jokes and popular science materials with proper difficulty, reports about entertainment, they will not only increase the students’ interest in English, but also can bring some wonderful sentences or some excellent sentence styles into their own composition, making their own composition colorful.
Meanwhile, comparing composition from different students is a better way to improve the students’ writing ability. It has two advantages. The first is that it helps students to recognize the mistakes more easily and to remember the right knowledge more clearly, the second is that if somebody’s proud work is read aloud in class, other students will admire him and maybe they will decide to learn from him in later practice, needless to say, the writer himself will take pride in it and will do better that before ,It just proves that the old saying “Kill two birds with one stone ”.
6.2 program of project design
I design four activities for four weeks. These activities are described as follows.
6.2.1 Timetable of the project design
|
Week |
Unit topic |
Objectives |
Practice Activity |
Time (Minutes) |
|
1 |
Unit 21 Who gets the money? |
To rewrite the story |
Do controlled sentences |
45 |
|
2 |
Unit 22 Bees |
To describe bees’ communication way then change some sentences |
Do controlled complete article making exercises |
45 |
|
3 |
Unit 23 The find of The century |
To retell the story, then write it |
Do controlled composition making exercise |
45 |
|
4 |
Unit 24 Finding a job |
To talk about some advice about writing a letter |
Do controlled oral dialogue making exercise |
45 |
At the same time, I made measures to make up for students’ lacks in basic knowledge. I have made the same steps with my weekly activities.
6.2.2 Activities Week 1. Activity 1
6.2.2.1 Week 1. Activity 1. Part 1. Basic sentence structures
All the above is mainly what I think about how to improve the students’ writing interest and ability, but “Pure gold proves its worth in a blazing fire ”, no matter how good the ideas are they must prove their worth in practice. Facing the real students, the true writing situation, I conducted exercises with live ammunition to my students: from simple words to complex sentence from basic sentence tenses and styles to the whole composition, from expressing one’s idea simply and briefly to planning or scheming the stand of the whole article , from express one’s thought directly to enriching the sentences.
The first step, I gave my students a special task -----to look back upon the basic sentence styles, another supplement measure was taken to students ----to remember words as many as possible
Guide students to practice basic skills ---make sentence
Even though a composition has no mistake in grammar, if it is made up of some simples sentences .it isn’t a good one yet .It has its own shortcomings, which not only make sentences appears dull, but show that there is no needed logical relationship between the sentences .So, as a teacher, I must encourage students to charge the styles of the sentences from time to time with the mastered grammar knowledge, then write down lively sentences
Above all, give students a table which includes the basic structure of all the sentences structures, Then practice some most useful sentences structures.
1 Using attributive clause
Eg: (1) They reached Qingdao last Sunday .A conference was to be held in Qingdao.
(2) Passengers have to sit for a long time when they travel by t train
They feel tired
(3) Mr. Smith is a professor .He will give a talk .He is from Britain .He is visiting china
The three sentences can be changed into the following :
(1)Last Sunday they reached Qingdao, where a conference was to be held
(2)Passengers have to sit for a long time when they travel by train, which makes them tired.
(3)The talk will be given by Mr. Smith, a professor from Britain, who is paying a visit to China.
2 Using adverbial clause
(1)We walked along the river .We returned when it was dark.
(2)That high building was there. There used to be some old house there.
The two sentence can be changed into:
(1)We walked along the river until it was dark.
(2)Where that high building stands, there used to be some old houses.
3.Using non—predicative verbs.
Eg: (1) I found him .He was lying on the ground at that time.
(2) If you exercise every morning, you will improve your health s.
(3)Though he was wounded, the brave soldier continued to fight.
The above three sentences can be changed into these:
(1)I found him lying on the ground.
(2)Exercising every morning, you will improve your health.
(3)Wounded, the brave soldier continued to fight.
4.Using Inversion. In order to emphasize some content in sentence, we may change the normal order.
Eg : (1)The missing key was nowhere to be found.
(2) This book is not simply interesting but also instructive.
(3) I hope you succeed.
We may compare the above with the following
(1) Nowhere was the missing key to be found.
(2) Not simply is this book interesting but also instructive.
(3) Hope you succeed.
5.Using emphasizing sentence structure
For example:
It was in Beihai Park where they made a date for the first time that the old couple told us their love story.
If we can grasp the knowledge of grammar clearly, we can let the grammar serve us well in writing.
6.2.3 Week 2. Activity 2
6.2.2.2 Week 1. Activity 1. Part 2. Who gets the money
This activity is based on lesson 84. Unit 21. Students’ Book 3B Senior English For China.
Purpose: After reviewing the basic sentence structures, give Ss a chance to practice.
Instructions: Students should grasp the main idea of the texts “who gets the money”, then they can write out a story as told by J.J. Coal using given words and phrases.
Procedure: After the teacher leads-in the new text-the revision lesson about Unit 21. the student are given no more than 5 minutes to look back on the content of the Unit. Then ask one or two students to retell the story. Then teacher provides some words and phrases and ask them to complete the story sentence by sentence, at first in oral English then in written English, especially pay attention to the sentence structures.
6.2.3.1 Week 2. Activity 2. Part 1. All roads lead to Rome
When students are working hard at writing, they are jammed in a expression sometimes, but how to get out the jam? An old English saying can tell us a solution:” All roads lead to Rome”, that is to say, express the same meaning with different methods.
For example:孩子们一直玩到天亮
(1) The children didn’t stop playing until daybreak.
(2) The children kept playing until daybreak.
(3) Not until daybreak did the children stop playing.
According to this, we must realize that if we meet some point that we can’t express, we must try our best to avoid unfamiliar words, phrases or sentence styles, and solve the problem in another methods instead.
So much for the sentence drills .We can not only master the most basic sentence style, but also know and use some Particles agilely, so I gave students a passage with some key particles crossed out, and they asked them to fill them in <Referring to Appendix 3>, it aims to help students master them well and improve the whole understanding of the whole passage.
6.2.3.2 Week 2. Activity 2. Part 2. Bees
this activity is based on lesson 86. Unit 22. Students’ Book Senior English For China.
Purpose: After learning some skills about translation, students are given a task—to find some sentences in the text, then change another sentence with the same meaning.
Instructions: Students understand more about translation in different ways by finding and exchange some sentences in text.
Procedure: After the teacher leads in the new text, the students read the text quickly and carefully with some questions given by teachers; Then check the answers; The teacher ticks out some sentences from the text. Then ask Ss to change other sentences without changing its own meaning. Some students do these exercises on the blackboard, then ask other students to tell whether they are right or not.
6.2.4 Week 3. Activity 3
6.2.4.1 Week 3. Activity 3. Part 1. Instructive students to write well
The step has focused on how to write well, It’s a difficult task for students after they have mastered separate sentences.
The process of writing itself serves as a method of learning English in a practical way. Good writers usually follow certain processes that lead to successful pieces of written works. Good writers usually have a sense of purpose, a sense of audience, an a sense of direction in their writing. They always start off with an overall plan in their heads. They think about what they want to say and who they are writing it for. Then they draft out sections of the writing and as they work on them they are constantly reviewing, revising, and editing their work.
1〉The first task: Pre-writing
Pre-writing is a very important stage of the whole writing process .At first, I help my students to work out a general plan for their writing. When I set a topic to students. At the beginning, I make sure that they know the purpose of this piece of writing and for whom they are writing it. In other words, students must have a sense of purpose and a sense of audience.
I gave students a task: In 21st century School Edition, there is a column called ‘Your Words’ which always offers a hot topic for the readers of middle school students to discuss about .A topic is ‘should our teachers get gifts from students?’ On Teachers’ Day, many students send their teachers gifts with respect, and the gifts include flowers and cards. Do you think right or wrong? Whether you are agree on it or not, you may write to the editor to express your idea. After I gave my students the topic, then a form with the contents that they thought would be suitable to situations, and then thought about the tone and lever of formality they would choose, for example, impersonal, general terms or technical terms, informal or formal .Then ask them to fill in it with their own ideas.
|
Situation |
Contents |
Style |
|
Write a letter to the editor of 21st Century School Edition |
|
|
Before I gave my students the topic to write about, I asked them to think carefully about the other information at first:
● What is the purpose of the writing?
● Is it a letter for the purpose of asking for information, complaining, socializing, greeting or personal opinion on a topic?
● Is it an explanation of how something works, or how to do something?
These questions are concerned with the function of one’s writing and serve to help us to be aware of the purpose of the writing .In answering such questions one will have a clearer sense of purpose for the writing, which may influence the choice of language and the structural organizations.
To help my students to be aware of the audience of their writing, I asked them to consider the following questions, study these questions and try to think about the significance of considering these questions before one starts to write .
● Who are you writing for?
● Are you writing for yourself, your friends, relatives, colleagues, teachers or someone you don’t know?
● Are you writing for an individual person, a group of people or an organization?
These questions are concerned with the audience of one’s writing. Thinking about the eventual readers may help students to make appropriate choices of language formality and styles. They may consider whether to use formal, serious ways to present their ideas to the readers.
2〉The second task: Gathering information
After my students finished the first task, they were given the second task, which requested students to gather information or ideas about the topic before writing on the topic by asking, answering , group discussion or brainstorming . These activities also gave them the chances to practice oral English in a communicative way. Then all the ideas may be listed one by one, some more closely than the others in relation to the purpose of writing in English, the ideas should be written in a random order.
3〉The third task: Choosing information
The third task is that my students should decided which ones they want to keep and if there are any that they feel are not relevant, which can be eliminated. I asked them to think again about all the points collected and told them that some points are headings that may cover other points. Then asked them to write down the headings and the points they cover. After this, I asked them to share each other’s answers. Then they might work together to arrange all the points in a logical order .If they were agree on the idea that teachers should get gifts, they wrote down the reasons, while other students wrote down the reasons why they were not agree on it.
4〉The fourth task: Drafting and editing
The fourth task is drafting and editing, they belong to the writing process.
When my students found a focus in their writing and had a clear purpose in their mind, it was time for them to make draft .I arranged the class into two discussion groups ---agree group and disagree group, each with a secretary to write down all the ideas proposed by the group members .The secretary then read the draft aloud to the group for them to review and made changes until all the members were satisfied with the content and structure. Then the group read the draft one by one to check its spelling ,punctuation and grammar .
The last task is editing. This stage is characterized by reading through the draft from a reader’s perspective. Editing is the most important activity of the post-writing stage and its purposes are to check for accuracy, provide feedback to a piece of writing for further improvement and make the final version .
Then I asked students of the two groups to exchange their writings and edit them. Generally speaking, feedback should be helpful and should help the writer to make his writing better, not to criticize it.
6.2.4.2 Week3 Activity 3 part2 The find of the century
This activity is based on Lesson 92 Unit 23 Students, Book 3B Senior English For China
Purpose: After learning how to write an article well, including to collect information, to choose information to draft and to edit
Instructions: Based on learning to write separate sentences, the students should learn how to make them into a complete article
Procedure: After the leads in the new text the students are allowed 4 minutes to look book upon the stories in Unit 23, then the teacher give students a task in p138 and a group of pictures “Write the adventure story ” From collecting information to writing a complete composition first in oral English then in written English
6.2.5 Week 4. Activity 4
Week 4 Activity 4 Finding a job
The activity is based on Unit 24 Finding a job Students, Book 3B Senior English For china
Purpose: After students have learned some letters, the teacher gives students a chance to write a letter
Instructions: The activity is aimed to get Ss to know and use the skill of writing a letter in our daily life soloing some practical problems
Procedure: At first, the teacher asks the students to review all information about a letter including styles forms and so on Then give Ss a task write a letter to 21 3t Century school Edition
7. Project implementation
7.1 Principle of implementation
The principles of the project implementation are given as follows:
● Drill precedence over communication
Pattern drills should be carried out before controlled output exercises in order to ensure fluency and accuracy.
● Understanding precedence over expressing
Only when students understand all they have learned can they express themselves and express properly.
● Collective activity precedence over individual activity
In order to encourage every student to take their pens, it is necessary to let students practice collectively first and then ask them to practice individually, especially for the topics they are not familiar with.
● Speaking, reading precedence over writing
Speaking and reading are the basis of writing. Students can not only experience pronunciation, intonation and rhythm, but also learn correct grammatical structure by speaking, reading more.
7.2 Process of implementation
My students are third-year students. They have learnt English for over five years.
It took four weeks for me to carry out my project design.
The following are my project implement:
● Week1: Activity 1:Who gets the money.
Date: Revision Tuesday April 8 8:50-9:35am class 101
Step1: Check the homework exercises
Step2: preparation for listening.
SB. Page 126. Part 1. WB Listening, Unit21.
1. Tell the Ss. We are going to listen to story about a will and who gets money.
2. Then read aloud the task in EX1 and make sure the Ss understand what to do.
Step3: Listening
1. Ss Listen to the listening material, doing exercises
2. Check the answers.
Step4: Speaking
①SB. Page126, Part2 Check the forms: go through the expressions for expressing possibility and impossibility and check that Ss know how to form complete sentences.
Formal: It is possible that…….
It is likely that…….
②T: Where’s X? He may be at home. He may just be late. Do you think where he is?
S: He may not be well.
T: I think. It’s possible that he’s had an accident on his way to school.
③Ask Ss to practice in pairs.
Step5: Writing (SB Page126, part3)
Aim: to practice telling a narrative, using the different tenses correctly.
①Give Ss some minutes to look back upon the story.
②Prepare for the writing task in the following way. At first, let the Ss practice orally in groups of four.
③Ask one or two students to retell the story as J.J. Cool.
④Ask one or two students to tick out some mistakes. especially about the different tenses.
⑤Then get them to write the story in class. If they have no time, they may write after class.
● Week 2. Activity 2 Unit22 Bees
Date: Monday April14 11:05-11:50a.m Class101
Step1: Revision
1. Check the homework exercises.
2. Ask a few quick questions round the class to see how much the students remember about the text in previous lesson.
①Do all bees live in groups? (NO)
②Do all bees live in beehives? (NO)
③Where do other types of bee hive?
(In holes in the ground, in holes in the rocks or trees)
Step2: Reading for general understanding.
SB. Page129, Part 1, Read the comprehension question aloud.
①Allow the Ss enough time to read the text and write down the answers.
②Put them in pairs to discuss their answers, then check the answers with the class.
Step3: Reading
WB Lesson86 EX1. Go through the exercise and make sure the Ss know what to do. Let them read the whole passage carefully and answer the questions. Working in pairs.
This is a good time to deal with any language problems.
Step4: Practice
T: When we wart to express our ideas, we may have different ways. In this lesson, I have ticked out some sentences for you, can you rewrite them without change their meanings.
①With a stopwatch, they counted how many times the bees repeated the dance during one minute.
②So another astonishing fact came to light.
③Next Von Frisch thought that bees needed to know more than just the distance to a faraway place.
④A marked bee fed itself from the dish and returned to the hire?
Then ask Ss to change them.
Step5: Ask Ss to check the answers.
Answers:
①With a stopwatch, they counted how many times the bees repeated the dance, within one minute.
②So another surprising fact became clear.
③Then Von Frisch thought that bees needed to know not just/only the distance to a faraway/distant place.
④A bee which was marked fed itself from the dish and went back to the hire.
Results: I have designed it in order to make students understand.
We can express our ideas in different ways.
● Week 3. Activity 3. Unit 23. The find of the century lesson 92.
Step1: Revision
Check the homework exercise.
Step2: Preparation for listening.
SB. Page 138, Part1. WB Listening Unit 23
T: In the two texts in this unit, we read the story about two young people who discovered a cave, now we’re going to listen to the end of the story. Then turn to page. P287, EX1
Step3: Listening
Ask Ss to listen to the tape, then check the answers with the whole class.
Step4: speak
Ask Ss to look back on the complete story in Unit 23. Then give them a group of pictures about the story, encourage Ss to speak out the main idea of these pictures.
Step 5: Write
Ask Ss to write the article according to what they think and say, then choose the most useful and important thinking and organize these ideas properly. At last they write it.
● Week 4. Activity 4. Unit 24 Finding a job
Date: Monday April 28 8:00-8:45 a.m. Class101
Step1: Revision
Check the homework exercises.
Step2: Presentation
T: In this unit, we have learned four letters. now I will ask some students to tell us something about writing letters about its form and so on.
SA: It begins with “Dear.××”, and ends up with “Your sincerely ”or “Yours”.
SB: On the letter, the writing date should be written down above the body, and on its right.
Step3: Write
Give Ss a tack. “Write a letter”
(See Appendix 4)
Give Ss a task related to Activity 3 and Activity 4-write a letter to 21st Century school Edition, asking them to pay more attention to organizing writing materials and the form of writing letter.
The students in two classes were pre-tested for this project. In order to measure student performance the test consisted of three tasks. Including an picture description and some basic judgments.
7.3 Post-Testing Measures
The post-test was conducted with an interval of four weeks. To preclude a practical effect. the complexity of the test tasks were mot changed.
8.Project evaluation
In order to assess the effectiveness of the above-mentioned solutions, date had been collected mainly from three sources; data analysis, brainstorm, diaries and interview.
8.1 Control and target groups
Class 101 of Senior Three was defined as target groups and equivalent Class100 control group. The implementation of the project takes four. In each week both groups are required to learn one unit with the requirements of the book. However for the target group, the above output exercises will be used in turns to learn the new unit, while everything remains the same with the control group. Both groups are asked to do a test involving a picture description and some basic judgments before and after the implement of the project. The results obtained from the comparison should reveal whether the students in the target group could understand and write much better than those in control group. This will show whether my students keep active writing not by varied output exercises.
8.2 Date analysis
Looking at the student’s test scores tables, we can realize that these in target group have made much more progress than those in controlled group. Table 1 indicates that there is a general tendency towards CCM having great effects on performance. Table 2 displays how much progress they made with comparison may be compared in the future examination. Let’s look and see.
The results of the multiple comparisons for each group also revealed that there was a general tendency toward CCM effects on performance on written tasks than on oral tasks.
Table 1
Frequency of scores of two groups of students on a language
|
Score |
Target Group |
Controlled Group |
|
(5years) |
(5years) | |
|
N=51 |
N=51 | |
|
Frequencies |
Frequencies | |
|
(f) |
(f) | |
|
95—100 |
7 |
2 |
|
90-94 |
6 |
2 |
|
85-89 |
7 |
2 |
|
80-84 |
13 |
7 |
|
75-79 |
6 |
10 |
|
70-74 |
4 |
5 |
|
65-69 |
2 |
9 |
|
60-64 |
0 |
1 |
|
55-59 |
3 |
3 |
|
50-54 |
0 |
5 |
|
45-49 |
2 |
2 |
|
40-44 |
1 |
3 |
Table 2
Means of gain scores for two tasks on the test
Tack M(Gain Score) M(Gain Score)
(Target group n=51) (Control target n=51)
Oral picture description 5.87 3.60
Grammaticality judgment 3.45 1.83
Written picture description 6.81 1.20
Note. Gain Score=post-test score minus protect score
M=means of test scores
8.3 Brainstorm
When I was engaged in the press evaluate. I often consulted my tutor Ms Wu and frequently talked to my class about it .My students even felt that the language learning is so interesting. They know how to express their meaning with English. Even those students who always keep silence in writing can be able to write down one or two excellent sentences
1. If this instruction has an effect of writers’ writing ability, will the effect hold over the post-test period?
Yes. It can have a lasting positive effect on language acquisition.
2. Does his instruction have differential effects on learner performance with English texts depending on the task used?
Yes. It has a great effect on performance on written tasks.
3. Does the difference in mode of participation (performers & observers) in his instruction make a difference in learner performance with English texts?
No. It was beneficial both to students who performed roles during the performance phase and to those who observed the performance.
4.Do the student seem to be confident?
Yes. They don’t be afraid of their errors.
9. Project findings
9.1 Advantages
The project lasts four weeks. After my students have experienced the severe tests one by one, the writing level of the students has been improved more or less. They are shown as follows:
The first, they have known and remembered more words with the knowledge of vocabulary. if they meet with a word ‘transplant’ , they will think the word’s meaning to be ‘移植’, because they have known these words ‘transport’ , ‘translation’ , the prefix ‘trans’ means ‘carry’ , ‘plant’ is used as a verb , which means ‘ 种植’;
The second, most students can write out typical or idiomatic English sentences without any mistakes, and these sentences read refreshing.
The third, students have quit the old and bad habit --- think in Chinese firstly, then write out what they think of in English.
The fourth, the ability of organizing a whole composition has been improved ,some of their works are well worth reading. Besides these ,when they can’t express their idea directly they can do it indirectly .For example ,when they want to describe a city这城市海陆空交通便利 ，students have different expressions ,such as the following :
1.Transport is convenient in sea, land and air.
2.The traffic of our city is very convenient. The airlines and cars can be found easily.
3.For everyone, if you want to leave for another area, you could go by air, by ship or by land.
9.2 Shortcomings
Of course, no pure gold, no perfect person, the project I have taken has its advantages, meanwhile has its disadvantages. Looking back upon the project, I realize there is something I have not done well.
At first, I haven’t made the best use of the relationship among the four skills --- listening, speaking, reading, writing, I haven’t had the first three skills serve writing well.
Another fault is that I haven’t taught my students how to write a good composition in the limited well, because during the English test time –120minites, we must finish all the tasks listed on a paper, we must fight against every minute, especially for the Senior Three students .
The third, while I teach my students theories of writing, I should give them more chances to practice.
9.3 Findings
I think my project has influenced on my students in writing .At first, they have increased their interest in English writing, they don’t feel headache any longer now, they are eager to express their own ideas in English sometimes and they can express their own ideas more easily than before, and some of them even can use their pens freely in expression, writing out some excellent sentences, some excellent articles.
The influence of my project lies in another fact that all the steps that we have made have solved their puzzle about writing, they have realized that writing isn’t be written for writing itself, but for expressing the writer’s real feelings and senses, the whole article should be like a body with blood and flesh, and oddly in this case, the article is well worth reading.
From taking the project, I have learned much, and I will put them into my later teaching, what I have advanced and what I haven’t done well.
References:
1 English language Teaching Methodology (1) (2)(Gu Yueguo)
2 English Teaching & Research Notes (2003)
3 English Weekly (senior English teachers Edition ) (2003.4.9)
Appendixes:
Appendix 1: Questionnaire on English teaching
Appendix 2: The timetable of the project
Appendix 3: Diaries
Appendix 4: A student’s handout—A letter
Appendix 1
英语教学调查问卷
请你根据自己的实际情况在每个问题后面的选项中选择一个答案：
1、你认为英语写作
A 难 B 不难 C比较容易 D 非常容易
2、在用英语写句子中，你认为什么最难（可多选）
A 单词 B语法 C时态 D语态 E表达不符合英文习惯
3、在写一整篇英语文章时，你是否考虑该文章该采取哪种时态，以及整篇文章的逻辑
A考虑过 B 未考虑过
4、在平时，你是否主动尝试过用英语写作
A尝试过 B 未曾尝试过 C 曾想尝试，但未付诸行动
5、在阅读一篇好文章时，你是否曾经有意识的去记文中优美的句子
A 做过 B 没做过 C 没意识到这一点
6、在日常生活中，你给别人用英语写过信吗？
A 写过 B 没写过
7、你在写一篇文章时，是否把你所想到的有关信息都罗列文章中
A 是 B 不是 C 有时是，有时不是
8、你对课堂英语笔头练习有兴趣吗？
A 很有兴趣 B 较有兴趣 C 有兴趣 D 不太有兴趣 E 没兴趣
9、你想写出一篇地道的英语作文吗？
A 非常想 B 想 C 比较想 D 无所谓 E 不想
Appendix 2 : the timetable of the project
Stage |
Calendar date |
Tasks |
|
Ⅰ |
Mar3-15 |
Analyze the problem using scientific methods of investigation ●analyzing the teaching situation ●collecting information by giving students a questionnaire ●analyzing the information ●take out the problem |
|
Ⅱ |
Mar 16-Mar31 |
①Analyze the problem from three sides: ●the teacher’s side ●the students’ side ●the class size ②Take measures to the problem ③Timetable of the project design |
|
Ⅲ |
April1-30 |
Implement the project ①Week1 Basic sentence structures Unit21 Who gets the money ②week2 All roads lead to Rome Unit22 Bees ③week3 Instructive students to write well Unit23 The find of the century ④week Writing Unit24 Finding a job. |
|
Ⅳ |
May1- May3 |
Evaluate the project against a checklist ●collecting the research data |
|
Ⅴ |
May4-10 |
Write the project report |
Appendix 3 Diaries
Date: Tuesday April 8
The students were surprised when I told them I would adjust my teaching method. What I’m going to do is to improve their writing skill as quickly as possible. I’m so eager to get their help, because every one has to engage in the performance.
At first, I give my students a list of basic sentence structures. Then I asked them to make sentences with then in order to make them be familiar with the sentence structures. At the same time, I gave them an input and output tack-to read more outside class so as to encourage them to find and admire these sentences in writing and protect their passion.
Date: Monday April14
Remember there is a sentence-If students lack interests, teaching is nothing but a kiss to death. After two weeks’ implement, the students know how to express their own, ideas sentence by sentence. Apart from this, they can use different ways to express the same meaning. However they lack the sense of writing the ability of their organizing an article.
Date: Wednesday April 22
After we have learned the unit23, the find of the century and how to understand a complete article, I gave them a task to describe a group of pictures, which are about the story in Unit23.As a result, some students can organize materials well, choosing important and ticking off less important .I’m very proud of them.
Date: Monday April 28
According to the knowledge of writhing a letter and the knowledge about how to have their compositions make excellent ones, I gave them another task, which is more difficult but the last one, because they had no familiar information unexpectedly, some of them wrote some wonderful articles.