聚焦于形式教学在高中英语写作教学中的应用Applying-Focus-on-Form-to-Writing-in-High-School毕业论文

-PAGE83-ApplyingFocusonFormtoWriting

inHighSchoolByTianMinAThesisSubmittedtoSchoolofForeignLanguagesandLiteraturesInPartialFulfillmentoftheRequirementsforTheDegreeofMasterofEducationUndertheSupervisionofProfessorLuoShaoqianandAssociateProfessorYuHuiDecember2010

APPLYINGFOCUSONFORMTOWRITINGINHIGHSCHOOLABSTRACTWritingisanessentiallanguageskillforhighschoolstudents,anditishighlightedinhighschoolEnglishCurriculumStandardsandNationalMatriculationEnglishTest.However,manyhighschoolstudentsfeelwritingthemostdifficultinEnglishlanguagelearning.Writingisaheadachetomoststudents,oneofthereasonsbeingthattheyareunabletoapplyvocabularyandgrammarlearnedintheirtextbookstotheirwriting.Focus-on-forminstructionhasbeenafocusinsecondlanguageacquisitionandteachingsincethe1990s.TheauthorofthethesisdesignsanexperimentalstudywhichappliesfocusonformtoEnglishwritingteachinginthehighschool.Thepurposeofthestudyistocheckwhetherstudents’Englishwritingproficiencycanbeimprovedundertheapproachofapplyingfocusonformtowritingandthestudyisintendedtoanswerthefollowingthreequestions:1.Towhatextentdoesfocusonforminstructionpromotelearners’noticingoftargetedforms?2.Towhatextentdoesfocusonforminstructionfacilitatestudentsinacquiringtargetedforms,andthus,improvestudents’overallwritingquality?3.TowhatextentdoesfocusonforminstructionhelpstudentsdeveloppositiveattitudestowardswritinginEnglish?Thestudyemploysaquasi-experimentaldesignwithapretest-posttestmodel,involvinganexperimentalclassandacontrolclass,towhichdifferenttreatmentsweregivenduringtheprocessoftheexperiment.ThedatacollectedareanalyzedwithSPSSPASWStatistics18.0.0,withitsdifferentfunctionsbeingemployed,suchasIndependent-SamplesTTest,Paired-SamplesTTest,andChi-squareandsoon Themajorfindingsofthisstudythroughquantitativeandqualitativeanalysisofdataarereportedasfollows:1.ThepresentstudydoesnotprovideenoughevidencethatapplyingfocusonformtohighschoolEnglishwritingteachingpromoteslearners’noticingoftargetedforms. 2.Applyingfocusonformtowritingpromotesacquisitionoftargetedforms,andeventually,contributestothedevelopmentoflearners’writingcompetence. 3.Applyingfocusonformtoteachinglowershighschoolstudents’anxietytoaccomplishwritingtasksandhelpsformpositiveattitudes. Inthisthesis,pedagogicalimplicationsofthestudyandsomesuggestionsonhowtoapplyfocusonformtoteachingofEnglishwritingaregiven.Influenceofdifferenttaskdemandsonnoticingandacquiringtargetedformsisalsodiscussed.Besides,limitationsofthestudyarepointedoutandsomeoftheremainingissuesrelatedtothestudyaresuggestedforfutureresearch.KEYWORDS:Focusonform;notice;form;topic-relatedvocabulary;grammar;Englishwritinginhighschool

聚焦于形式教学在高中英语写作教学中的应用摘要对于高中学生来讲，写作是一项重要的语言技能，在高中英语课程标准和高考中写作也具有非常重要的地位。然而，许多高中学生却觉得英语写作是英语语言学习中最难掌握的。大多数学生觉得写作令人头痛，其中一个原因就是他们不能将教材中所学的词汇和语法应用到写作中去。20世纪90年代以来，聚焦于形式教学已经成为第二语言习得与教学所关注的一个焦点。本文作者设计了一个应用聚焦于形式教学于高中英语写作教学的实验研究。本研究的目的是检验将聚焦于形式教学应用于写作教学能否提高高中学生的写作水平，主要回答以下三个问题：1.聚焦于形式教学能够在多大程度上促进学习者对目标语言形式的注意？2.聚焦于形式教学能够在多大程度上促进学习者对目标语言形式的习得，并最终促进英语写作水平的提升？3.聚焦于形式教学能够在多大程度上有助于学习者对于英语写作形成积极的态度？本研究应用了一个带有前测和后测的准实验设计，其中对实验班和控制班运用了不同的实验方法。对于实验数据使用了社会科学统计程序SPSSPASWStatistics18.0.0进行分析，主要应用了独立样本T检验，配对样本T检验，以及方差等。通过对相关数据的定量和定性分析，本研究得出的主要发现如下：1.本研究没有得到足够的证据表明聚焦于形式教学应用于高中英语写作教学有助于学生对于目标形式的注意。2.聚焦于形式教学促进了高中学生对于目标语言形式的习得，进而，提高了他们英语写作的整体水平。3.聚焦于形式教学有助于高中学生对英语写作形成积极态度。本文还讨论了本研究给语言教学带来的启示及其实践价值，并就如何在高中英语写作教学中实施聚焦于形式教学提出了一些建议。同时提出，不同的课堂任务要求对目标形式的注意和习得有较大影响。本文还指出了研究中的不足之处，并对今后这方面的研究提出了建议。关键词：聚焦于形式教学；注意；形式；话题相关词汇；语法；高中英语写作

TableofContentsAbstract......IAbstractinChinese.......IIITableofContents. ..IVListofTables....VIIIListofFigures...IXAbbreviations...XChapter1Introduction..11.1BackgroundoftheStudy...11.2RationaleoftheStudy21.3SignificanceoftheStudy21.4OrganizationoftheThesis 3Chapter2LiteratureReview 42.1ImportanceandEssentialComponentsofWriting4 2.1.1ImportanceofWriting 4 2.1.2EssentialComponentsofWriting 2.1.2.1VocabularyinWriting 2.1.2.2GrammarinWriting2.2OutputHypothesis.....8 2.2.1Swain’sOutputHypothesis.... 2.2.2FunctionsofOutputHypothesis....2.3TheReading-to-writeApproach10 2.3.1IntegratingReadingandWriting 2.3.2EmpiricalStudies 2.3.3Summary 2.4Task-basedLanguageTeaching12 2.4.1DefinitionofTasks 2.4.2DifferentTypesofTasks 2.4.3Summary2.5FocusonForm14 2.5.1FocusonFormsandFocusonForm 2.5.1.1FocusonForms 2.5.1.2FocusonForm 2.5.1.3TypesofFocusonForm 2.5.2FocusonFormInstruction 2.5.3Summary2.6TheNoticingHypothesis18 2.6.1Schmidt’sProposals 2.6.2TheItemstoNotice2.7Summary18ChapterThreeResearchMethodology20 3.1ResearchQuestions203.2Participants203.3Instruments..213.4ForminFocus223.5Treatment...233.6Procedure24ChapterFourResultsandDiscussions284.1DataCollectionandAnalysis28 4.1.1NoticingResults 4.1.1.1NoticingResultsintheFirstWritingTask.. 4.1.1.2NoticingResultsintheTenthWritingTask. 4.1.1.3GainofNoticingResultsbetweentheFWritingTask 30 4.1.2AcquisitionofVocabularyandGrammar. 3 4.1.2.1VocabularyandGrammarEmployedintheFirstWritingTask 3 4.1.2.2VocabularyandGrammarEmployedintheTenthWritingTask 3 4.1.2betweentheFirstandTenthWritingTask 33 4.1.3TestResults3 4.1.3.1CorrelationbetweenTotalScoreandScoreofWriting 3 4.1.3.2AnalysisofPretest3 4.1.3.3AnalysisofPosttest3 4.1.3.4AnalysisofGaininMeanScorebetweenPretestandPosttest 34.1.4Questionnaire 38 4.1.4.1AnalysisofPartAoftheQuestionnaire 4.1.4towardsWritingbeforetheExperiment38 4.1.4CCandECtowardsWritingaftertheExperiment 394.1.4.2AnalysisofPartBoftheQuestionnaire 44 4.1.5Interview 44.2Discussions47ChapterFiveImplicationsandSuggestions..515.1SummaryoftheStudy515.2ConclusionsandImplications525.3LimitationsandSuggestionsforFutureResearch54 5.3.1LimitationsoftheStudy 5 5.3.2SuggestionsforFutureResearch 5Bibliography 56Appendices.. 61Appendix1 Pre-test..61Appendix2 Post-test62Appendix3 NoteSheetsforNoticing..63Appendix4 TenWritingTasks.. 64Appendix5 Questionnaire.....67Appendix6Interview...68Appendix7 NoticingResultsintheFirstWritingTask......69Appendix8 NoticingResultsintheTenthWritingTask......71Appendix9 AcquisitionResults(I).........73Appendix10AcquisitionResults(II).........75Appendix11RawScoresofPretest......77Appendix12 RawScoresofPosttest.....80Acknowledgements.....83

ListofTablesTable1DifferentTreatmentsAdministratedtoECandCC………… 24Table2MeanScoreofNoticingResultsintheFirstWritingTask……………… … 28Table3ComparisonofECandCCinNoticingintheFirstWritingTask…………… 29 Table4MeanScoreofNoticingResultsintheTenthWritingTask…..………………29 Table5ComparisonofECandCCinNoticingintheTenthWritingTask………… 30Table6ComparisonofECandCCbetweentheFirstandtheTenthWritingTask… 30 Table7AcquisitionResultsintheFirstWritingTask…..……… 31 Table8ComparisonofECandCCinAcquisitionResultsintheFirstWritingTask…31Table9AcquisitionResultsintheTenthWritingTask….32 Table10ComparisonofECandCCinAcquisitionResultsintheTenthWritingTask……… 32 Table11ComparisonofGainofECandCCbetweentheFirstandTenthWritingTask……… 33Table12CoefficientofCorrelationbetweenTotalScoreandScoreofWritinginPretestandPosttest….….… 34Table13WritingScoresofPretest……… 34Table14ComparisonofECandCCinPretest………….…… 35Table15WritingScoresofPosttest…………….………… 35 Table16ComparisonofECandCCinPosttest……………...…36Table17MeanScoreofCCinPretestandPosttest………...… 36Table18ComparisonofCCbetweenPretestandPosttest...… 37Table19MeanScoreofECinPretestandPosttest.………………. …………37Table20ComparisonofECbetweenPretestandPosttest.…… 38 Table21AttitudesofStudentsinECandCCtowardsWritingbeforethe Experiment.….…………39 Table22ComparisonofCCinChangeofAttitudestowardsWriting.…………40 Table23ComparisonofECinChangeofAttitudestowardsWriting…………41 Table24ComparisonofCCandECinChangeofAttitudesaftertheExperiment…... 43Table25ChangeinStudents’AnswerstoQuestionnaireNo.6………………45 Table26ChangeinStudents’AnswerstoQuestionnaireNo.7………………46

ListofFiguresFigure1LevelsofWritingProposedbyMcDonoughandShaw…6Figure2NoteSheetsforVocabularyandGrammar………………26

Abbreviations CC Controlclass EC Experimentalclass ESL Englishassecondlanguage FonF Focusonform FonFS Focusonforms IE Inputenhancement L2 Thesecondlanguage L1 Thefirstlanguage TL Targetlanguage NMET NationalMatriculationEnglishTest PEP People’sEducationPress SLA SecondLanguageAcquisitionTBLT Task-basedlanguageteachingApplyingFocusonFormtoWritinginHighSchoolChapterOneIntroduction1.1BackgroundoftheStudy AsaresearcherofhighschoolEnglishteachingandlearningworkingforTangshanEducationBureau,theauthorofthethesishasquitealotofopportunitiestoobserveteachers’teachinginlocalschools.ItisfoundthatthoughwritingishighlightedinboththeEnglishCurriculumStandards(2003)andNMET,unfortunately,manyhighschoolstudentsinTangshanfeelwritingisdauntingandtheyarequitereluctanttofulfilltheteachers’writingassignments,letalonetopracticewritingontheirown.Somestudentsviewwritingasanuisanceastheybelievethatlittleprogresscanbemadeeveniftheypracticeonceortwiceaweek,what’smore,itistime-consuming.Fromtheauthor’sclassroomobservation,itisalsofoundthatmanyhighschoolstudentsinTangshanfeelitdifficulttousethewordsandgrammarlearnedintheirtextbookswhenitcomestowriting.ThisisnotuncommoninChina.Gui(2008)conductedasurveyonhighschoolstudents’writingandfoundthethreefollowingmainobstaclesforthem:vocabulary,grammar,schematicstructureandcohesion.Theyclaimthattheydonotpossessenoughvocabularytogettheirideasacross,andfeelitquitechallengingwhenintendingtovarysentencepatterns.Theunderlyingcausesmaybemany,butthefollowingtwoarenottobeignored.Firstly,theteachingofwritingisoftenneglectedinhighschools.AccordingtoWang(2000),manyteacherstendtosimplyputwritingasafter-classassignmentsinsteadofofferinginstructionsonhowtowriteintheclassroomteaching.Theproductofthestudentsiswhattheteachercaresabout,whiletheprocessisvirtuallyignored;thatis,theteacherturnsablindeyetohowtheproductisproducedbystudents.Secondly,thewritingtasksdesignedinthetextbooks(PEP,2006)donotpayenoughattentiontotheapplicationofvocabularyandgrammar.Mostwritingtasksinthetextbookhavenottakentheuseofvocabularyandgrammarintoconsideration,whichpartlyexplainswhystudentsfailtoutilizethewordstheyhavelearnedinthetextbooks.Forexample,thewritingtasksofUnits3&5inBook2B,SeniorEnglishforChina(PEP,2006)areofsuchdesign.Furthermore,thewritingtasksinsomeoftheunitsinthistextbookaresolooselylinkedwiththetopicoftheunitthatpossibilityofexploitingvocabularylearnedintheunitislargelylessened,ifnottotallyexcluded. Fromtheabovediscussion,itisevidentthatstudentsneedinstructionsonhowtoemployvocabularyandgrammarlearnedintheirwriting.Throughanempiricalexperiment,thepresentresearchattemptstogiveevidencethatapplyingfocusonformandnoticinghypothesistowritingfacilitateslearnersintheutilizationsofvocabularyandgrammarintheirwriting,andnurturespositiveattitudestowardswritingaswell.1.2RationaleoftheStudyVigorousdebatehasbeencontinualinrecentdecadesaboutwhetherornotforminstructionshouldbeincorporatedinforeignlanguageteaching,andifso,howitcouldbeintegrated.NowtheconsensusinSLAtheoryisthatsomeattentiontolanguageformisneededtodeveloplearners’languageaccuracy.Long(1991)putsforwardthetheoreticalproposaloffocusonform(FonF)whichhedefinesasatypeofinstructioninwhichthemeaningandcommunicationistheprimaryfocus,learner’sattentionincidentallydrawntoformonlyasproblemscropup.Nowthedefinitionhasbeenexpanded,includingplannedfocusonform,whichmeanstheteachercanpre-determineparticularformstofocuson,basedontheanalysisoflearners’linguisticneeds.Besidesgrammar,theterm“form”isstretchedtocoverphonology,vocabulary,ordiscourse(Ellis,BasturkmenandLoewen,2001). Withthedevelopmentofsociety,theimportantpartthatwritingplayshasbeenacceptedbystudents,teachersandresearchers.Nevertheless,writingstillposesabigproblemtostudentsandteachersinhighschools.Oneofthemaindifficultiesforhighschoolstudentsisthattheyareunabletoapplyvocabularyandgrammartheyhavelearnedtowriting.ThepurposeofthethesisistointroducehowfocusonformcanbeintegratedintotheteachingofEnglishwritinginthehighschoolandtesttowhatextentitiseffectiveinimprovingstudents’writingcompetence,especiallytowhatextentitcanfacilitatelearnersinapplyingvocabularyandgrammarlearnedinthetextbooktotheirwritingcorrectlyandappropriately.Inaddition,thestudyalsohopestofindouttowhatextentfocusonforminstructioncanfacilitatestudentsinformingapositiveattitudetowardswritingthroughtheapplicationoffocusonformtowriting.1.3SignificanceoftheStudy Inrecentyearsresearchershavefoundthatcertainlinguisticformsdonoteventuallydevelopattarget-likelevelswheninstructionismerelymeaning-focused(Doughty&Williams,1998).Findingsofclassroomresearchalsoindicatethatashiftofattentiontolanguageformsembeddedinmeaning-focusedactivitiescanbeeffectiveinpromotingsecondlanguageacquisition(Doughty,1991).Williams(2001)statesthatresult“suggeststhatincorporationofsomedegreeoffocusonformintomeaning-centeredinstructioncanleadtoimprovedperformanceinprocessinginputandincreaseaccuracyinproduction.” ThepresentresearchisintendedtoofferempiricalevidencefortheeffectofFonFinstructionappliedintheareaofwritinginEFLcontextinhighschoolsinChina.ThemodelofapplyingFonFtowritingbuiltbythestudycanprovidepossibilitiesforfurtherresearch.Hopefully,ifthemodelproveseffective,itcanbeintroducedandcarriedoutinmoreschoolsinTangshanCity,whichcan1.4OrganizationoftheThesis Thethesisiscomposedoffivechapters.ChapterOneservesasanintroductiontotheresearch,explainingthebackground,therationale,andthesignificanceofthepresentresearchandthenecessityoffocusonform.Alsothepurposeofthepresentstudyisintroducedinthischapter.Thestructureofthethesisisalsointroducedinthischapter.ChapterTwooffersaliteraturereviewwhichprovidestheoreticalbackgroundforthethesis,includingtheelementsofwriting,theoutputhypothesis,reading-to-writetheories,task-basedlanguageteachingtheories,focusonforminstruction,andthenoticinghypothesis.Somerelatedempiricalstudiesarealsocovered.ChapterThreedescribestheimplementationoftheresearchinTangshanNo.1HighSchool,whichincludesresearchquestions,theparticipants,theresearchdesign,andtheprocedureoftheresearch.ChapterFourpresentsanalysisofdatacollectedthroughoutthestudyandthemajorfindings.Andsomerelatedissuesarealsodiscussedinthischapter.ChapterFivesummarizesthewholethesis.Somepedagogicalimplicationsofthestudy,aswellassomesuggestionsforfuturestudiesareproposedinthischapter.

ChapterTwoLiteratureReview2.1ImportanceandEssentialComponentsofWriting2.1.1ImportanceofWritingWritingisaninevitablepartofEnglishlearning,anditisalsoanimportantbasiclinguisticskillrequiredforhighschoolstudents.Harmer(2000)emphasizedthatstudentsaresupposedtoknowhowtowritelettersandreports,howtorespondtoadvertisementsand“howtowritebyusingelectronicmedia”.Englishwritinghelpsreinforcelanguageformsthathavebeenlearnedandpromotestheintakeoflanguage,foritprovidesopportunitiesforstudentstoemploygrammaraswellasvocabularyinexpressingthemselves.Olshtain(2006)holdsthatwriting“providesthelearnerwiththeopportunitytofocusonbothlinguisticaccuracyandcontentorganization”.Writingisalsoanessentialjobskill.Richards(2002)pointsout“…goodwritingskillsareessentialtoacademicsuccessandarequirementformanyoccupationsandprofessions.”Job-seekersandworkersneedtohavestrongwritingskillstosucceedoncertainjobs.Writingisoftendescribedasathresholdskillforemployeeselectionandpromotion.Employerdemandisgreaterthaneverforgoodwritingskills.Besides,writingisemphasizedinhighschoolEnglishCurriculumStandards(2003)andNationalMatriculationEnglishTest(NMETforshort).Writingskillstoachieveinvariousgradesarefullydescribedindifferentpartslike“DescriptionofGeneralAims”and“LanguageSkills”oftheEnglishCurriculumStandards(2003).Forexample,accordingtothedescriptionofthewritingabilitiesforGradeSeven,whichisthehighschoolgraduationlevel,thestudentsshouldbeableto-provideinformationandgivebriefdescriptions;-producepracticalwritingssuchaslettersandnotices;-describepeopleoreventsandmakesuccinctcommentsonthem;-fillinpersonalforms,forexample,anapplicationform;-adaptatextintoashortplaybyworkinginagroup.TheTestSpecificationsforNMET(2010)statethefollowinginthewritingpart:candidatesshouldbeableto

-usegrammarandvocabularycorrectly;-expressideasclearlyandcohesivelybyusingsentencepatternsandvocabulary.ThecriteriaforevaluationofwritinginNMETarestatedasfollows:-Varietiesofsentencestructuresandvocabularyareemployed;-Mistakesinsentencestructuresorinvocabularyaretoleratediftheyaremadewhenthecandidateisintendedtovarysentencepatternsandenrichchoiceofwords;-Transitionalwordsareusedinproperwaystomakethewholecompositioncoherentandlogic. FromtheaboveitcanbeseenthatbothEnglishCurriculumStandards(2003)andtestingposeagreatchallengeonstudents’writingability,especiallyintheareaofemployingvarietiesofvocabularyandsentencepatterns.2.1.2Comparedwithspokenlanguage,writing,withitsownconventionsandrules,persuasivelyneedstimeandpracticetodevelop.OneofthereasonsproposedbyWilliams(2007)forthisisthatwritinginvolvesfarmorethanjustlinguisticknowledge;italsoentailsgatheringideasandinformation,analyzingandorganizingthisinformation,andpresentingitinawaythateffectivelycommunicatesthoseideastothereader.(p13)Besidesthegeneration,analysisandsynthesisofideas,thewaytogettheseideasacrossisdemanding,asitinvolvesmanipulationofdifferentlinguisticknowledge,frommechanicsandspellingtovocabulary,thecontrolofsentencestructure,cohesion,andstructureofdiscourse.“Writingismuchmoredependentonhoweffectivelyweusethelinguisticresourcesofthelanguage”(Byrne,1988).Raimes(1983)listednineareasoftechniquesforteachingwriting:1)Syntax(sentencestructure) 2)Grammar 3)Mechanics(handwriting,spellingandsoon) 4)Organization(paragraphing,cohesion) 5)Wordchoice 6)Purpose 7)Audience 8)Content 9)Process Hedge(1988)holdsasimilaropinion,referringtotheproductionofapieceofwritingas‘crafting’,aprocessinwhichthewriterassemblespiecesofthetext,anddevelopsideasthroughsente