On the Improvement of Junior Middle School Students’ Writing 论改进初中学生的英语写作水平.doc

on the improvement of junior middle school students writing this thesis is an empirical study on the teaching methods in junior middle school. writing is an extremely complex process .wich it is very import but difficult for students .cognitive listening ,speaking ,reading and writing is keep touch each other not isolated .the new teaching standard theory says that call for the higher requirement on writing .writing training as an effective method that could bring up complex skill for junior students .it takes writing method as the research topic to train the students basic skill ,how to write sentences ,thesis statement ,and compete contraction and expansion .the teacher intervene in students writing ,help student effective and smoothly finish writing task. 这篇文章是用任务型教学法来对初中课堂进行研究的。写作过程是一项极其复杂的过程，对学生来说很重要也很难。认知理论认为听说读写是相互联系不可分割的，而读和背在英语写作中更显得重要。新课程标准对初中学生的英语综合应用能力提出了更高要求，而写作训练成了培养初中学生的英语综合应用能力的有效方法。学生的写作技能在教学法中是研究的焦点。怎样让学生学会写句子和主体句，会扩写和缩写，在教师适时介入，保证学生有效而顺利的完成写作“任务”。 key words: the application of taskbased junior middle school english writing关 键 词：任务型教学法 初中 英语写作 1. introductionthe problem of writing for junior middle school student always haunts english teachers in china .when proofing or correcting the students exam paper ,or exercise books find that the majority of students cant express their ideas clearly and correctly and cant get satisying marks on writing exercises .in english class,i often hear complaints among students that teachers always ask us to write a composition writing ability.“no matter hoe hard i try,it doesnt work .”my compostition is not improved .most of them seem to have no interest in english writing and arent wiling to writing exercises ,some students often copy others at random in order to finish the writing exercises.thus ,there are some problems about writing during the english learning ,which is worth the teachers attention to help and enhance the students writing ability. so my purpose of this study is to invesitage these problems and their effects on students ,hoping to help teachers and students find ways to solve the peoblems:three research question are raised for this purpose:1.what are the difficulties for students to write a good essay ?2.how to deal with these difficulties?3.what can be done to help students improve and hance students writing ability ? 1.1 the importance of writingreviewing the exam paper about writing in recent 3 years, we can find the title is changeable, but the message given is less. so it is very difficult for students to write a composition about 80 words in 25 minutes. we can see it from the following chart:1231. writing in english is important as a student, especially in future, he or she has to produce written materials to their teacher for judging .writing practice in school provides, a solid foundation for further improvement if stunts command of the language as well as ability to use it as a means of obtaining whatever information they need in their filed of specialization. 1.1 the difficulty of writing most of students complain that writing a satisfactory article is very difficult for them .this is especially true to chinese students .as we know ,writing is an extremely complex cognitive activity ,it includes control of content,format , sentence,punctuation ,spelling and letter formation there are some reasons why student cannot write so good in their article .the first one is vocabulary .lots of students always complain they could not remember the words clearly .they remember it today but forget in another day ,3 days latter ,they can remember nothing .the second one is chinese student always use the way that chinese thinking people have to write composition .they could not think about the correct other when they write a sentence .they are influenced by the mother tongue when they want to express their minds, they might meet some complex or changeable sentence structure but could not express .the interacts in writing ,they usually think writing is difficult in china .1.2 the writing teaching present in china: we ask 5 questions to 210 students in all. table 1 contentmessage1the important in writingvery not25 150 352the interest in writinginterestnotdislike63102453the effect reciting very useful not14149204how often practice writingusuallysometimesnever16361585the factor of writingvocabularygrammarskill975162we get the message:the important of english writing was approve by 83.3 students, only 16.7 students deny the importance .most of student year for use english write letter ,sent email or write congratulate card.however ,the students interested in writing only account for 23.8.the students not interesting in and dislike writing occupy above 70.the student can recite modei essay earnest for writing reach about 71.it is proved that reciting is usefui for writing ,but only 29 student come to realize the effect is weak.二: literature review2.1 the definition of task basked language teaching methodthe idea of getting learners to acquire english in the process of doing other task was developed in india by n.s .prabhu in the 1980s ,his “procedural syllabuss”consits , not of language items ,but of task requiring increasingly complex use of language .the problemsolving or interest and challenge the learners sufficiently to get them it use the english the already knew and incorporate new items provided by input materials and the teacher .that let to a general proposal for taskbased learning ,suitable ,in principle ,for use in most english teaching situations .a threestage proposal is commonly recommended :pretask ,task and posttask .there is also quite a variety from within the field of second language teaching as the following definition show:a task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward .thus ,examples of task include painting a fence ,dressing a child ,filling out a form .buying a pair of shoes , making an airline reservation, borrowing library look ,taking a driving test, typing a letter ,weighing a patient.in other words, by task is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life ,at work, at play and in between .(long 1985:89)2.2 krashens “input hypothesis” “input hypothesisproposed by krashen is proved to be an important element in understanding second language acquisition .it consists of five hypothesizes ,namely ,the acquisitionlearning hypothesis, the nature order hypothesis ,the input hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis ,and the affective filter hypothesis .”(huang ying ,2003:31)this hypothesis claims that human acquire language by understanding message or by receiving “contains structures a little beyond their current level of competence. that is , they move from their current level i ,to the next level along the natural order by understanding input containing i1 ,iis the acquirers current competence ,the last rule acquired along the natural order .what contradicts the “i1” hypothesis is the evidence provided by green (1984) .he argues that the claim is confused by lack of clarity, that is ,it is not clear, for instance ,whether “i1”refers to the learners competence after stage i or the next structure to be acquired .and white shows that there are cases where the development of grammar in a learner is show to be internally driven rather than the result of context or meaning .she give evidence of some potential dangers of simplified ,input which lead to incorrect generalizations .(in spolsky ,1990).三、discussthe activity taskbased language teachingactivity (1)stage: grade 1 of junior school aim: write a articletable: communicationstyle: group worklanguage from: text1. require: introduce yourself 2. situation: every student introduction themselves on the meeting3. guide: task about name, age, family, school, hobby and they like subject in school4. suggestion: talk about yourself, name, years old, from 5. prompt words: talk about your family, member, like or dislike6. positive result: a .report b .make friend on linethere are a number of advantages to asking students to begin writing with whole words ,particularly personal information or their own oral language .we are encouraging them to see letters as being grouped into meaningful units ,rather than as isolated sounds .(bell and burnaby 1984:68)activity (2)a selection of writing taskdate activity1. a set of model sentences note the use of and a list of unpunctuated capital letters insentences.the model sentences and then indicate where capitals are needed in the unpunctuated list 2. a letter in which the study the letter and write sentences are scrambledrearrange the correct so they are in correct order 3. a letter and aread the letter and write conversationa similar one based on the information in the dialogue4. two versions of a particularstudy the two versions, story decide which you like best and why write a story based on the one you prefer.5.a set of photographs choose at least six of the photographs and arrange themin an order which make a good story. discuss and then write the story.6. a paragraph with the firstselect the most and last sentences missing appropriate firstsets of possible first andlast sentences fromlast sentencesthe alternative provide3.2 how to improve writing ability 3.2.1 writing and reading course books provide most students with the situation in which learning tasks place. “ where there is little reading ,there will be little language .learning .”(bright and mogregor ,1970) teaching english as a second language .it is impossible in any school or university in china to provide direct experience of learning a language at a its environment in which way the native learner get his first language . in addition ,at advance proficiency levels in a foreign language ,the ability to read the written at a reasonable rate and with good comprehension has long been recognized to be as import and as oral skill ,if not more important (eskey ,1970 cited in carrell et al ,1988 ) for krashen (1981).comprehensible input is vital for language acquisition ,and reading is an inimitable source of such input . in addition ,only by reading can students acquire the speed and skill they will need for practice purposes when they leave school. but in china ,language learners purpose in reading english language texts might not be for information ,interest ,or pleasure ,but rather to learn english .for them ,the authentic purpose of reading are submerged by the purpose of language improvement .of course , language improvement is the central purpose of language learner and reading widely is an effective means of extending their command of english .we have here a virtuous circle :the more the students read ,the more background knowledge he or she acquires of other ways of life ,behaviour and thought and more books he or she find they can understand .3.2.2 writing ,reciting and imitating clear,fluent and effective communication of ideas21345678writing is considered as productive skill speakingand writing that they involve the production of language on the of language user .the following diagram show what writers have to deal with as they produce a piece of writing:1. syntax sentence structure; boundaries, stylistic choices, etc2. gramar rules for verbs, agreement, articles, pronouns, ect3. organization paragraphs, topic and support cohesion and unity4. wordchoice vocabulary idiom, tone 5. purpose the reason for writing6. audience the reader/s7. the writers process getting ideas, getting started, writing drafts, revising 8. content relevance, clarity, originality, logic, ectfor krashen (1984).comprehensible input is vital for language acquisition, and reading is an inimitable source of such input. in addition, only by reading can students acquire the speed and skill they will need for practice purposes when they leave school. writing is output after the acquisition mind. only collect lot of language material in your mind. could finish composition. reciting is one of the methods in china traditional it is usually used strategies by successful learners, this effective method is used in the middle school in their english learning practice. any language learning always have an imitation at the beginning .however, imitating must have lot of language message input, as boundary aim material. reciting for a long time, not only can development the memory, but enrich the structure of cognitive ability, at last polish input by the language, improve and bring up the listening, speaking, reading, and writing complex ability. if we master some model of structure, the better modal language could is in the modal essay. so, after we reading and reciting, accumulate a wealth of data by the learner, and understand the law of making sentences and methods step by step.3.3 the basic skills of writing 3.3.1 mastering the basic sentence structure when students begin writing, many students hardly could write a perfect sentence in their homework. as we know, a excellent essay is made up the good sentences, so it is very necessary for students to write a perfect sentence. there are five basic sentence structure the learner need to master, we can see them: s +v class begins. s + v + o he doesnt like singing. s+ v + o + c .lucy didnt see the birds flying .s +v +p snow is white.s + v + o + o i gave him an apple. if the students keep the basic sentence structure, they can write some useful sentences in create composition.3.3.2 how to write a strong thesis statementa thesis statement is the main sentence or implied theme, introduced in the introduction section of an essay and referred to throughout the easy. it states the central idea of the essay. it also states the authors opinion on the subject and controls the organization of the essay. “a well-written thesis statement is made up of the following components: developmnt (optional)a clause beginning with because, to, although, eventhough, while.subjecta nounassertiona verb(diane m .coffman, 2005:49)examples:beijings weather is hot and humid in the summer.the writer should keep the assignment requirement and essay length in mind when writing a thesis statement .you want to cover the topic without filling the essay with unnecessary information, or having too much information for a short essay. 3.3.3 how to let sentence more effective in compose processthe effective sentences are including unity, coherence, conciseness, emphasis and variety. .unity is the first quality of an effective sentence. unified sentence expresses a single complete thought.coherence “means clear and reasonable connection between parts. a sentence is coherent when its words or parts are properly connected and their relationships unmistakable clear.”.conciseness a sentence should contain no unnecessary words .if the idea is fully expressed; the fewer words are used, the better.emphasis when there is an important idea; it should be expressed with emphasis.variety variety is essential to good writing .a series of sentence of the same structure and length, beginning with the same noun or pronoun as the subject, would sound monotonous.(丁往道 等编 1994 ：54) 3.3.4 contraction and expansion writing in english can be made concise and subsist if certain clauses are reduced to phrases and some phrases reduced to single cords, the teacher is suggested to provide a complete passage and ask students to use their ingenuity to reduce its length by at least a third without emitting any of the information it contains.”(qinhui, 2002:184) it can train the student catch the main sentence; it states the central idea of the essay. it also states the authors opinion on the subject and controls the organization of the essay. this is the expansion process when we got a subject, the subjects chosen should be relevant to student everyday lives so that they will all have something to write. for example, events, happening and incidents that student knows well. “expansion is to give students opportunism to expand simple statements by using all the target language in a creative way. students can be handed in a passage and ask to expand the passage creatively.”(qinhui, 2002.185) contraction or expansion is useful for students who need practice in usages.3.3.5 when the teachers intervene in students writing?“students should benefit from some of interventional assistance at every composition lesson. if each intervent