（课程与教学论专业论文）过程法在高中英语写作教学中的实证研究.pdf

iv 过程法在高中英语写作教学中的实证研究过程法在高中英语写作教学中的实证研究 2004 级课程与教学论教育硕士：罗 武 导师：覃修桂教授 中文摘要 2004 级课程与教学论教育硕士：罗 武 导师：覃修桂教授 中文摘要 自从二十世纪末以来，英语教学在中国的高级中学越来越受到关注。教师对于英语 的听、说、读有各种各样的教学方法。学生在这些方面表现出色。但是，很多学生在多 年的英语学习之后仍然写不出一篇完整的好作文。 通过对教师的问卷调查及对学生的实 验前测试和问卷调查，可以发现，当前高中英语写作的现状是令人堪忧的。许多教师已 经意识到英语写作教学的重要性，但他们缺乏系统的、有效的英语写作教学的策略和方 法。大多数高中英语教师仍然采用传统的成果教学法。他们注重学生最后作品的准确性 而忽略了整个写作过程中出现的问题和困难。 英语教师不能帮助学生从根本上克服和解 决写作中存在的问题。当然，写作的结果也就不尽人意。要改变目前英语写作教学的局 面，应该优化写作教学的过程以促进学生更有效地写作。因此，基于以上调查和认识， 笔者把过程教学法引进高中英语写作课堂教学。 本文以 flower and hayes 的写作认知过程理论和交际理论为基础，尝试在高中使 用过程教学法指导学生进行英语写作，并通过实验以证明其在高中的适用性。本文注重 的是学生的写作过程而不是他们的最终作品。也就是，他们怎样写作。此研究旨在使学 生掌握英语写作每个过程的恰当方法,提高他们的写作能力，也意在激发学生的写作兴 趣及提高他们的写作信心。根据过程法理论，组织若干重要活动，诸如收集主意、组织 主意内容、写稿、同伴修改、再修改、教师反馈和终稿写作，以培养学生的写作技巧和 能力。另外，还应给学生提供方法工具、必要的指导和帮助，以使过程法更易操作和更 有成效。 为了弄清过程法在高中英语写作教学中的成效，笔者进行了学生实验后测试、问卷 调查，以及学生对过程写作法的评价，以收集实验结果。通过对实验结果的认真分析和 比较，可以得出结论，过程写作法能够有效地提高学生的写作兴趣和信心。他们乐于参 与英语写作活动和过程。最重要的是，过程法可以较大地提高学生的写作能力。 尽管过程法在实验中已被证明取得了成功、富有成效，但自有它的局限性。实施写 作过程需要较多时间； 教师必须确保学生参与写作活动， 学生是课堂的中心。 因此， 此 实证研究对未来英语写作教学有如下启示： （1）过程写作法对教师的要求更高了； （2） 兴趣和信心在英语写作教学中非常重要； （3）英语写作教学的中心要转移； （4）写作的 要求和指导必须具体等等。 v 总之，过程法给英语写作教学提供了好的方法。它能够使学生意识到写作过程的重 要性， 培养学生的写作能力。 通过写作活动中的有意义的交流沟通， 学生可以形成思想， 拓宽思路，表达思想。更重要的是，他们能够达到英语学习的最终目标真实世界的交 际。因此，过程法值得我们尝试和实施。 关键词：关键词：实证研究；过程法；高中英语写作教学 ii an empirical study of the process approach to english writing teaching in senior middle schools postgraduate: luo wu supervisor: professor qin xiugui abstract since the end of the twentieth century, the teaching and learning of the english language have been gaining more and more concerns in senior middle schools of china. teachers have all kinds of teaching methods for english listening, speaking and reading practice. students can do well in these aspects. however, many students cannot write a good and complete composition after years of english learning. through a questionnaire for teachers, a pre-test and a pre-questionnaire for students, it is found that the present situation of english writing teaching and learning in senior middle schools is serious. many english teachers have realized the importance of english writing teaching, but they lack systematic and effective strategies and methods for writing teaching. most of them still adopt the traditional product-based approach. they focus on the accuracy of the final products of students and neglect the problems and difficulties appearing in the whole writing process. students have no interest and confidence in english writing. teachers cannot fundamentally help students overcome and solve the problems in writing. of course, the results of writing are far from satisfaction. in order to change the present situation of english writing teaching, the processes of english writing should be optimized to promote students to write their compositions effectively. thus, based on the above investigation and comprehension, the author brings the process approach into senior english writing teaching. based on flower and hayes cognitive process theory of writing and the theory of communication, this paper attempts to guide the students to english writing with the process approach in senior middle schools and find out the effect of the process approach in senior middle schools by experiment. the paper focuses on the writing processes of the students, not the final products of them. that is, how they write their compositions. this research aims at making the students grasp suitable methods of every process of english writing and improving their writing ability. it is also intended to arouse students interest and raise their confidence in english writing. according to the theory of the process approach, some important activities, such as generating ideas, organizing ideas and content, writing drafts, iii peer reviewing, redrafting, teacher response and final drafting, are organized to help students to cultivate their english writing skills and abilities. some instruments, guidance and help are provided for students to make the process approach more manageable and effective. in order to find out the effect of the process approach in english writing teaching, a post-test, a post-questionnaire for students and an evaluation of the process approach are carried out to collect the results of the experiment. by analyzing and comparing the results of the experiment carefully, it can be concluded that the process approach is effective in helping students raise their interest and confidence in english writing. they are happy to take part in english writing activities and processes. above all, it can improve students writing abilities greatly. though it has been proved to be successful and useful in the experiment, the process approach has its limitations. it needs much time to conduct the writing processes. teachers must make sure that students take part in the writing activities and students are the center of the class. so the implications of this study for english writing teaching in the future are considered: 1) higher requirements for teachers in the process approach; 2) great importance of interest and confidence in english writing teaching; 3) the center of english writing teaching to be shifted; 4) more specific requirements and guidance of writing and so on. all in all, the process approach provides good methods for english writing teaching. it can make students realize the importance of the writing processes and cultivate students writing abilities. by meaningful communication in the writing activities, students can develop, broaden and express their ideas. further, they can achieve the final aim of english learning-communication in the real world. so it deserves our try and implementation. keywords: empirical study; the process approach; senior english writing teaching i acknowledgements first of all, i would like to take this chance to express my heartfelt thanks to my instructor, professor qin xiugui. without his guidance, help and encouragement, i would not have finished my study and thesis. his constructive advice and valuable comments on the thesis have a deep influence on me. his rigorous research approach will influence and help me in my life. thanks also go to professor chen jitang, wei han, tang gaoyuan, li xiao and other teachers in the college of foreign studies. they have given me enlightening lectures on various areas and helped me to develop my research ability during my study. i also want to give my thanks to my colleagues and students at no. 4 middle school of nanning city for their help and cooperation in the teaching experiment. 1 introduction 1.1 the present situation of english writing teaching and learning in senior middle schools english writing is an important part in senior english teaching and learning. listening, speaking, reading, and writing make up an organic whole in english learning. these are the four skills that students must master in learning english. the four skills supplement each other and help each other forward. english writing is the skill of expressing oneself and using english. it is not only the content of learning but also a means of learning. the new english curriculum standard has specific requirements of writing abilities for senior middle school graduates. they are as follows: 1) provide information in words and diagrams and describe them, 2) write practical writing in common styles, such as letters, notices and so on, 3) describe figures and events and make simple comments, 4) fill in forms of personal information, such as forms of application, and 5) adapt short plays according to texts in groups. in order to find out the present situation of english writing teaching and learning in senior middle schools, the author of this thesis has carried out an investigation by two questionnaires before the experimental teaching. one was for teachers, and the other for students. the questionnaire for teachers was intended to find out their attitude towards english writing and their teaching practices while the questionnaire for students was designed to find out their attitudes, methods, interest, motivation, strong points and weak points in english writing. the questionnaire for teachers covers generating ideas, drafting, revising and opinions on writing. the questionnaire was carried out among 23 english teachers from 3 senior middle schools in nanning city. from the questionnaire for teachers, we can see that 86.9% of the interviewed teachers think that writing is “very important” or “quite important” while 13.1% of them think it is “not very important” or “not important at all”. 78.3% of the teachers assign a writing task every week or every two weeks while 21.7% of them ask their students to write a piece of writing every three weeks. 26% of the interviewed english teachers give a special writing guidance class every week or every two weeks while 65.2% of them do it every three weeks and 6.9% of them never do it. 13% of the teachers organize students to generate ideas, 2 organize ideas, write drafts and review drafts in a special writing class while 26% of them ask students to learn some good example compositions and useful sentence patterns. the other 61% of them explain the requirements of writing or assign a piece of writing and ask students to finish it after class. besides, 39% of the teachers think it “very important” or “quite important” to let students generate ideas on the topic before writing, but 61% of them think it “not very important” or “not important at all”. 17.4% of the teachers require students to generate ideas, organize ideas, write drafts and review drafts while 34.7% of them require students to write in chinese at first and then translate it into english. 39.1% of the teachers require students to write out of class and hand it in as final product while 8.7% of the teachers require students to finish the writing in class at once as final product. 78% of the teachers correct all the mistakes in students compositions. 13% of the teachers point out the mistakes and then ask the students to correct them. 8.7% of the teachers ask students to correct each others compositions in pairs in the process of writing. all the interviewed teachers deal with the mistakes in students compositions. it is clear from the questionnaire for teachers that most of the english teachers have realized the importance of writing in english teaching. so they lay stress on the practice of english writing. they pay much attention to explanations about the requirements and make corrections on students writing by themselves. however, most of them neglect helping students to generate ideas, organize ideas and write drafts in the course of writing. besides, they depend too much on their own revision and do not try to develop the potential ability of students english writing. the author also designed a pre-questionnaire for students to know more and further information in english writing learning. all the 51 students who were to take part in the experimental class were asked to answer the questions in the questionnaire. the results are as follows: (1) about 88.2% of the interviewed students agree that writing practice is important in english writing learning while only 11.8% of them think it not important. only 27.4% of the students have interest in english writing and 72.6% of them have no interest. besides, only 27.5% of the students are confident that they can improve their english writing and 72.5% of them are not. (2) about 52.9% of the students do not know how to develop their writing ability and only 47.1% of them are confident about it. whats more, 41.1% of the students do not know 3 what to write and how to start while writing. 58.9% of them are sure about it. (3) 35.3% of the students write english compositions in chinese at first and then translate them into english. only 21.5% of the students often discuss with their partners about the writing topic and get suggestions from them. 25.5% of the students often review their compositions before handing them in. 37.3% of the students often care about the evaluation and comments given by teachers. table 1 the results of the pre-questionnaire for students on english writing strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree items no. of students and percentage (n=51) 1. i think that writing practice is very important in english learning. 31 60.8% 14 27.5% 5 9.8% 1 1.9% 2. i have great interest in english writing. 6 11.7% 8 15.7% 25 49% 12 23.5% 3. i am confident that i can improve my english writing. 8 15.7% 6 11.7% 30 58.8% 7 13.7% 4. i dont know how to develop my english writing ability. 18 35.3% 9 17.6% 17 33.3% 7 13.7% 5. i dont know what to write and how to start while writing. 15 29.4% 6 11.7% 23 45.1% 7 13.7% 6. i write in chinese at first and then translate it into english. 13 25.5% 5 9.8% 31 60.7% 2 3.9% 7. i discuss the writing with my peers and get some suggestions from them. 6 11.7% 5 9.8% 37 72.5% 3 5.8% 8. i revise my composition before handing it in. 4 7.8% 9 17.6% 33 64.7% 5 9.8% 9. i care about the evaluation and the comments given by the teacher. 7 13.7% 12 23.5% 26 50.9% 6 11.7% 10. i like the teacher to correct all the mistakes in my composition. 22 43.1% 21 41.2% 7 13.7% 1 1.9% 4 11. the teacher never gives writing classes and seldom teaches us the knowledge of writing. 10 19.6% 30 58.8% 8 15.6% 3 5.8% 12. the teacher often assigns a piece of writing as our homework. 35 68.6% 7 13.7% 5 9.8% 4 7.8% 13. which do you think is the most difficult to deal with and need help most with? generating ideas 13 25.7% organizing ideas 16 31.3% writing drafts 12 23.5% revising 10 19.6% (4) 84.3% of the interviewed students like teachers to correct all the mistakes in their writing. only 15.7% of them do not like that. 78.4% of the students think that their teachers seldom give writing classes and teach them the knowledge of writing. but 21.4% of them do not think so. 82.3% of the students think the teacher often assigns a piece of writing as their homework. (5) 25.7%of the students feel that generating ideas is the most difficult to deal with and what they need help most with in english writing. 31.3% of them think organizing ideas is the most difficult. 23.5% of the students think writing drafts is the most difficult. 19.6% of them think revising is the most difficult. based on the above statistics from the questionnaire for students, the author has found out that students have realized the importance of writing in english learning, but they have little interest in writing and have little confidence in improving their writing ability. they have many problems and they need guidance badly in the process of writing. their problems focus on the following. many students do not know what to write and how to start writing. they are accustomed to thinking and writing in chinese at first and then translating it into english; they have no idea how to develop and tap the content of the composition in english. many students do not have the habit of revising their compositions; most of the students like teachers to correct the mistakes in their compositions but many of them do not pay attention to the evaluation and comments given by teachers. the students think their difficulties mainly lie in rehearsing, organizing the content and expressions. from both of the questionnaires for teachers and students, we can see that teachers and students deeply believe that writing is important in english teaching and learning. but 5 teachers do not give adequate guidance in the process of writing. they just pay their much attention to the final products of students. and the difficulties for students are right where teachers give little guidance and lack teaching methods. so this gives the author some implications. 1.2 questions to be studied according to the information of nmet (national matriculation entrance test) of guangxi zhuang autonomous region, the average scores of english writing of all candidates in recent years were about 14. compared with its total score, the average scores were low. in order to improve the writing ability of senior middle school students and raise their score of writing, we teachers should adopt some effective and practical methods to solve the students problems in writing. this thesis is to study the problems of teachers and students in english writing and tries to solve them by the process approach to writing in the way of experiment. these problems are: (1) how can teachers raise the writing interest and confidence of students? (2) how can teachers broaden the students train of thought and content in writing? (3) does the process approach to writing have a positive effect on the writing ability of senior middle school students? 1.3 purpose and significance of the study by conducting an experiment, this thesis attempts to find out whether the process approach to writing can raise the writing interest and confidence of students and whether it can improve their ability in thinking, developing and organizing the content, expressing and reviewing. in the end we want to examine whether the process approach to writing has any significant effect on english writing teaching and learning in senior middle schools. by doing this, we hope that this approach can solve the problems in writing. if this approach is effective, it will supply us with some useful and practical writing methods. it will change the present traditional writing teaching in which teachers just care about the final products of students and do not pay