衔接理论在中学英语写作教学中的研究

1 衔接理论在中学英语写作运用的研究衔接理论在中学英语写作运用的研究 宝鸡文理学院附中宝鸡文理学院附中 何何 江江 萍萍 2 Research on the Application of Cohesion in Middle School English Writing By He Jiangping 注 此文荣获注 此文荣获 20132013 年度宝鸡市基础教学成果评选文本类年度宝鸡市基础教学成果评选文本类 一等奖一等奖 何江萍 何江萍 19771977 年年 1 1 月生 教育硕士 中学一级教师 现任宝鸡文理学院附属月生 教育硕士 中学一级教师 现任宝鸡文理学院附属 中学英语教师 中学英语教师 联系电话 联系电话 1879175702518791757025 iii Research on the Application of Cohesion in Middle School English Writing He Jiangping Abstract In China the English syllabus of middle schools has certain systematic requirements and regulations about the training of English writing ability It is clearly demanded in the New Standard of English Curriculum 2001 that students should express their thoughts and opinions in English in the process of writing and lay solid foundation for their development in the future and life long study However writing teaching and learning have been neglected for a long time in senior high schools Many teachers pay more attention to other English skills than to writing and students also spend less time on English writing learning and practice Many students are capable of constructing compositions in English with very few grammatical or spelling mistakes but the quality of their compositions is not high enough because of the lack of coherence and unity So the lack of awareness of cohesion results in the poor quality of English writing As a matter of fact both many teachers and students in senior high schools know little about cohesion theory and neither teachers nor students writing teaching and learning textbooks make a clear and specific statement of cohesion theory in detail If both teachers and students improve the knowledge of cohesion and put it into English writing practice teachers can upgrade their writing teaching skills and students can also write compositions of higher quality Cohesion is one of the standards that make a piece of writing united consistent and coherent also it can reflect the writing skills of the writer Many researchers at home and abroad who have studied cohesion theory have made great contributions to the study field of cohesion Based on their theories many researchers give emphasis to the relationship between cohesion and writing quality Among these researchers many just focus on the writings by college students who are English majored or non English majored There are just a few researches and statistics focused on the senior high school students writings So the research will put stress on the writings of senior high students writings iv The research aims to study the difference in the number of cohesive ties between high score students writings and low score students writings and whether high score students writings contain more cohesive ties than that of low score students writings It is an experimental research carried out among forty participants in senior Grade Two from the experimental and controlled classes in the Attached Middle School of Baoji University of Arts and Sciences First both students from the experimental and controlled classes are required to participate in the pretest of writing a composition named My Summer Vacation Second questionnaires for students and for teachers are distributed to investigate the present situation of English writing learning and teaching Third an eight days training on cohesion is performed only in the experimental class aiming at increasing students awareness of cohesion theory and making students learn to adapt cohesive ties to their writings After that with the same requirements as in the pretest all the participants from the experimental and controlled classes take part in the posttest to write a composition How to Communicate with Your Mother Finally the author collects the data and then analyzes them From the experiment results there are four findings summed up as the followings 1 The application of cohesive ties in students writing really has a good positive and obvious effect on the improvement of the students writing 2 After training on cohesion there is a quantitative difference in using cohesive ties between the controlled class and the experimental class the experimental class use more cohesive ties than the controlled class 3 Students use grammatical cohesive ties most lexical cohesive ties less and they use conjunctions least The result of this study can bring certain enlightenment to senior high school students writing and teachers writing teaching as well as students and teachers awareness of cohesion theory By undertaking this study the author intends to lay the theoretical and empirical foundation for cohesion in improving students writing skills and teachers teaching abilities Key words Cohesion Cohesive ties Senior high school students Writing quality vii 衔接理论在中学英语写作运用的研究 宝鸡文理学院附中宝鸡文理学院附中 何江萍何江萍 摘要 摘要 在我国 英语教学大纲中对英语写作教学已经作出了明确且系统的要 求 在 2001 年颁布的新英语课程标准中明确要求学生应通过写作表达思想与观 点 且通过写作为今后的发展与终身学习奠定牢固的基础 然而 在当今 英语 写作教学学习长期未被重视 许多教师更多地关注其他英语技能的训练 同样 高中学生们花在英语写作学习与练习上的时间也相对较少 在学生作文中出现的 语法及拼写错误较少 但由于缺乏连贯性与逻辑性而使作文质量受到影响 事实 上 大多数高中英语教师与学生对衔接理论了解甚少 教师与学生用书也未对此 进行详尽的阐述 如果教师与学生都能学习衔接理论并将其应用到写作实践中来 那么教师的英语写作教学水平会得到提高 学生的英语写作水平也会相应提高 衔接是评判文章整体性 一致性与连贯性的标准之一 而且它还能反映出作 者的写作能力 许多国内外学者均在这一学术领域做出了杰出的贡献 基于他们 的成果 许多学者都对衔接理论与写作质量的关系做了研究 但其中大多都侧重 于对大学生英语作文进行研究 对高中生写作与衔接的研究尚属空白 本研究基 于高中生英语作文 旨在研究高中生高分组作文与低分组作文在使用衔接上的数 量差异以及是否高分组作文包含的衔接要多于低分组 本实验研究是在宝鸡文理学院附中高二年级实验班与控制班的四十名学生中 进行的 首先 两班学生均参加前测 即要求在规定时间内完成一篇题为 我的 暑假生活 的作文 其次 关于调查高中生英语写作学习与教学现状的调查问卷 分别发放给学生及教师并回收 然后 作者仅对实验班学生进行了为期八天的关 于衔接理论与衔接手段的训练 通过训练旨在增强学生对衔接理论的了解及如何 在写作中应用 最后 两班学生同时参加了后测 即在与前测同样的要求下 以 怎样与母亲交流 为题写一篇作文 随后 作者收集并比较分析两次测试中两 班学生使用衔接数量的数据 本研究有以下发现 1 衔接手段的使用对高中生英语写作质量大有裨益 2 通过衔接训练 实验班学生作文中使用衔接手段的数量大于控制班学生作 文的衔接数量 3 学生在英语作文中使用的语法衔接手段最多 词汇衔接手段 次之 而使用的连接词数量最少 这说明学生在作文中运用的简单句多于复合句 本研究结论有助于增强学生的写作技能 提高教师的写作教学水平 同时能 以此引起学生与老师对衔接理论的重视 并为高中英语写作奠定理论与实证基础 关键词 关键词 衔接 衔接手段 中学生 写作质量 viii Contents Chapter One Introduction 1 1 1Significance of the Research 1 1 2English Writing in Senior High School 2 1 2 1The Status of English Writing in Senior High School 2 1 2 2Writing Requirements in New English Curriculum Standards 3 1 3Objectives of the Research 3 1 4 Questions of the Research 4 1 5 Organization of the Research 4 Chapter Two Literature Review 6 2 1Reviews on Cohesion 6 2 1 1Theoretical background 6 2 1 2Definition of Cohesion 7 2 1 3 Categories of Cohesion 7 2 2Research on cohesion 8 2 2 1 Research on Cohesion Abroad 8 2 2 2 Research on Cohesion at Home 9 2 3 Research on cohesion and writing 10 Chapter Three The Experimental Study 12 3 1 Hypothesis 12 3 2 Participants 12 3 3 Instruments 12 3 3 1 Questionnaire for Teachers 13 3 3 2 Questionnaire for Students 13 3 3 3 Writing Compositions 13 3 4 Research Procedure 13 3 4 1 Pretest of Composition 14 3 4 2 Training cohesion to the students in the experimental class 14 3 4 3 Post test of Composition 18 ix Chapter Four Data Collection and Analysis 19 4 1 Analysis of Questionnaires 19 4 1 1 Results of the questionnaire for students 19 4 1 2 Results of the questionnaire for teachers 19 4 2 Analysis of Pre test and Post test 20 4 2 1 Analysis of Pre test 20 4 2 2 Analysis of Post test 23 4 3 Comparison of Pre test and Post test 25 Chapter Five Conclusion 28 5 1 Main findings 28 5 2 Implication 29 5 2 1 Implication for English Writing Teaching 29 5 2 2 Implication for English Writing Learning 29 5 3 Limitation 30 5 4 Recommendation for Future Researches 30 References 31 Appendix Questionnaire to Teachers 34 Appendix Questionnaire to Students 36 Appendix Pretest composition 38 Appendix Posttest composition 40 Appendix 课程标准高中英语写作的要求课程标准高中英语写作的要求 42 Appendix 高考英语书面表达评分标准高考英语书面表达评分标准 43 List of Tables 错误 未定义书签 1 Chapter One Introduction 1 1Significance of the Research With the development of the globalization of economy English teaching and learning has been becoming more and more significant in the educational field of China English writing one of the four essential integrated skills in English learning and teaching is much more complicated and difficult than others for it can fully reflect a learner s comprehensive lever of mastering the language and also to completely express his thoughts and ideas Writing can be a necessary and helpful language form to offer you to know more about the way you think Writing can show your opinions and thoughts and it is available for you to express them out in different language style Writing helps you to learn the way of organizing language in various aspects such as expressions the diction of proper words the reasonable arrangement of sentences and the construction of a composition If one masters the English language skillfully writing could be coherent and united So English writing is probably the most important and difficult thing for most second language learners Cheng Jingying 1994 and it is a great challenge for English learners in senior high school to improve their writing ability However writing teaching has been neglected for a long time in senior high schools In recent years many English researchers and English teachers have made a large number of researches on how to improve the English writing abilities of the students but most teachers and students are still lack of awareness of different writing theories so they probably cannot put them into teaching and learning practice Both teachers and students pay more attention to the other skills such as grammar and reading comprehension than to writing Neither teaching references for teachers nor writing textbooks for students make a statement at length about the theory of cohesion So just a minority of teachers have actually tried to foster students awareness of cohesion in their composition writing and to teach cohesion in the application of English writing It is common status for Chinese students to express their ideas in English writing in a typical Chinese way instead of using proper sentences structures and appropriate cohesive ties and then our students are in the general low level of writing ability and has been far away from the coherence and unity Therefore it is evident that Chinese senior high students know very little about textual cohesion and coherence in English so their performance in 2 English writing is not as good as we expected Students are capable of constructing compositions in English with few grammatical or even spelling mistakes but the quality of their compositions is not high enough as we expected mainly because of the lack of cohesion There is almost no logic relationship between sentences as well as lack of certain reasons between paragraphs So it is obvious that the problem does not lie in students lack of knowledge of grammar or vocabulary but the lack of the awareness of cohesion and coherence of English discourse If the positive correlation between the quality of writing and the usage of cohesive ties is testified the research will enlighten certain significance in the teaching and learning of English writing That is if both teachers and students improve the knowledge of cohesion and put it into English writing practice teachers can upgrade their writing teaching skills and students can also write compositions of higher quality As the above mentioned the status of English writing teaching and learing in Chinese senior high school is not optimistic and still worrying Therefore the research is basically designed to explore a practical teaching methodology and an effective way of instructing cohesion theory into writing class in senior high schools in China It attempts to show that cohesion theory is teachable in writing teaching and cohesion theory is of great importance to writing teaching and show how teachers help students improve their writing quality by using cohesive ties Besides the study is not only intended to find a new practical method of teaching cohesion in writing teaching of senior high school but also help students improve their quality of written English thus making both teachers and students aware of the importance of cohesion in English writing helping students gain confidence through making progress in their English writing and also motivating students to perform better in English writing so as to enhance the level of English writing in senior high school 1 2English Writing in Middle School 1 2 1The Status of English Writing in Middle School In China writing in English is regarded as no more than a handmaid to all other language skills a means of reinforcing the acquisition of grammatical and vocabulary knowledge Leki 2002 especially in senior high schools However 3 writing teaching has been given less care by many teachers as well as students for a long time in senior high schools Teachers pay much more attention to the other skills than to writing Usually teachers give a lesson on writing once a week or even every other week which is far less than reading and listening etc Also most students spend less time on writing learning and practice On the contrary students nearly devote themselves to reading comprehension because they think the score of reading comprehension is the largest part in the test paper Therefore students also neglect writing Instead they put stress on grammatical items and spelling but do poorly in writing especially poorly in cohesion and coherence of a composition So it is common that our students are in a universal low level of writing ability and their writings have been far away from the coherence and unity 1 2 2Writing Requirements in New English Curriculum Standards In China the English syllabus of middle schools has certain systematic requirements and regulations about the training of English writing ability It is clearly demanded in the New Standard of English Curriculum 2001 that students should express their thoughts and opinions in English in the process of writing and lay solid foundation for their development in the future and life long study The curriculum has three bands for senior students that are from 6 to 8 In the National Matriculation English Test the composition part takes up one fifth of the whole score of 150 score that is 30 score The testees are required to complete a composition in the given time of about 25 minutes with the words about one hundred So to some extent the score of the composition is significant and key to the success of the exam The quality of a composition has a lot to do with the success of the examination 1 3Objectives of the Research The following research is intended to 1 enrich the language learning theory 4 2 complement the ELT theory 3 elevate teachers teaching skills in English writing 4 strengthen students awareness of cohesion develop active attitude and build confidence in writing 5 help students to improve the quality of writing and enhance writing skills 1 4 Questions of the Research By undertaking the research the author aims at analyzing the connection between the use of cohesion and Chinese senior students writing quality And the researching questions are 1 Is there any difference between the writings of high score students and low score students in using cohesive ties 2 Whether the writings of high score students include more cohesive ties than that of low score students writings 3 Whether the use of cohesion influences the quality of Chinese senior high school students writing 1 5 Organization of the Research Chapter one gives an introduction of the present research It introduces the research background which includes the status of English writing in senior high school and writing requirements Objectives and questions of the research are also listed out in the chapter Chapter two makes a literature review of cohesion theory and related researches abroad and at home The experimental research is in chapter three in which concrete research procedure is stated in detail It contains hypothesis participants instruments and procedure of the research Chapter four is quantitative and qualitative analysis of the research data The author collects the data of the research compares and analyses them 5 The last chapter concludes the findings of the research and the implications for both English writing teaching and learning Finally the author put forward some recommendations for future research 6 Chapter Two Literature Review 2 1Reviews on Cohesion 2 1 1Theoretical background Writing is not just the simple combination or arrangement of words phrases and sentences but it can reflect what and how the writer thinks by the diction of words grammatical structures contents or organization Many researches try to figure out the writer s thought by analyzing their writings As a result the studies on the application of cohesion in writing come into being which mainly study the positive correlation between cohesion and the quality of writing or what kind of features good writings have Cohesion theory as a part of systemic functional linguistics has attracted wide attention in the linguistics field Many linguists such as Halliday and Hasan 1976 1985 Widdowson 1979 E O Winter 1979 Cook 1989 Hoey 1991 and Carroll 2000 have written many works on discussion cohesion theory They also have different points of views on cohesion Halliday the founding father of systemic functional linguistics first put forward cohesion as a linguistic concept in 1962 The publication of Cohesion in English 1976 symbolized the establishment of cohesion theory Since then the term of cohesion has been attracted much attention by many linguists both abroad and at home Cohesion which is now commonly used in linguistics is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence In their great monogragh they expound that cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that another When this happens a relation of cohesion is set up and the two elements the presupposing and presupposed are thereby at least potentially integrated into a text Halliday and Hasan 1976 7 7 2 1 2Definition of Cohesion Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence C