金  华  职  业  技  术  学  院

J I N H U A    P O L Y T E C H N I C

毕业综合项目成果

      （20##届）

          题    目  20##第一届开化龙顶茶茶文化节策划案

          学    院         旅游与酒店管理学院        

          专    业          会展策划与管理           

          班    级            会展102班             

          学    号          201031080640213          

          姓    名             余雪慧                

          指导教师             杨  林                  

2013 年 05 月 26 日

金华职业技术学院毕业综合项目成果

目  录

前言...................................................................... 1

一、立项概要.............................................................. 1

（一）活动概况........................................................ 1

（二）活动意义........................................................ 1

二、活动分析.............................................................. 2

（一）桃花节开幕式.................................................... 2

（二）智勇双全，勇闯桃园.............................................. 2

（三）相约桃花季...................................................... 2

（四）我爱桃美食...................................................... 2

（五）吃喝玩乐在长潭.................................................. 2

（六）桃花节闭幕式.................................................... 3

三、市场分析.............................................................. 3

（一）优势............................................................ 3

（二）劣势............................................................ 3

（三）机遇............................................................ 3

（四）威胁............................................................ 3

四、项目运作.............................................................. 3

（一）人员邀请安排.................................................... 3

（二）宣传工作........................................................ 4

（三）活动流程图...................................................... 5

五、财务预算.............................................................. 6

（一）收入预算........................................................ 6

（二）支出预算........................................................ 6

六、应急预案.............................................................. 6

（一）活动现场安保方案................................................ 6

（二）应急措施........................................................ 6

（三）恶劣天气解决方案................................................ 7

（四）医疗配备........................................................ 7

结语...................................................................... 7

谢辞...................................................................... 7

参考文献.................................................................. 7

20##年开化龙顶茶茶文化节策划方案

           旅游与酒店管理学院 会展策划与管理 应簪簪

前言

随着现在社会经济的发展，生活节奏的加快，人口日益增多，来自生活、工作、环境各方面的压力越来越大。在奔波忙碌的旅程中，人们需要释放，缓解压力，生态休闲旅游成为人们生活中越来越重要的一部分。

    长潭拥有独特的地理优势和丰富的旅游资源。长潭以长潭水库出名，以湖水、小岛、山林取胜，风光秀美，景色怡人。长潭地处黄岩西部，便利的交通，长潭农家乐是浙江省省级农家乐特色村，它的兴起，提升了长潭的知名度。

千亩桃花的盛开，可以悦目怡神，休闲观光无视觉疲劳之虞 。

一、立项概要

（一）活动概况

名称：20##年开化龙顶茶茶文化节

主题：相约生态长潭，共赏桃园美景

时间：20##年3月9日——3月15日

地点：黄岩区北洋镇长潭

主办：黄岩区北洋镇政府

承办：台州市长潭湖文化传播有限公司

协办：黄岩区农业局

      黄岩区风景旅游局

      黄岩区长潭水库管理局

（二）活动意义

北洋镇以花为媒、以节会友，开创了一条旅游兴业、旅游兴镇的特色之路，为了展示长潭桃花迷人的风光，推动该村农家乐休闲旅游业发展通过依托优美的生态环境，丰富的资源，北洋镇正努力打造春季花香四溢、秋季硕果飘香的世外桃源，努力把当地建设成“宜游”、“宜居”的特色乡镇，旨在形成“政府主导、农民主体、百姓娱乐”的新型休闲旅游模式。通过各种文化艺术活动，提升长潭桃花节的知名度，充分展现长潭优美的自然风光和新农村的变化，同时带动经济发展。

二、活动分析

结合目标客户分析，主要活动有： 

（一）桃花节开幕式

时间：3月9日9：30 ——11：30

地点：桃花园正大门

内容：以“我的青春我做主，我的城市我代言 ”为主题，选拔桃花节的形象大使。该大赛均以网上报名参赛的方式，报名时间是2月1日到3月1日，参赛者将个人的真实信息通过新浪微博报名参加，由大众投票产生的前十名选手入围。再通过主要对十位选手的形体展示、自我介绍、才艺展示等方面的考核，由多位评委和现场观众投票选出一名优胜者。

（二）智勇双全，勇闯桃园

时间：3月9日13：30——16：30

简介：现在工作压力大，家长陪孩子的时间就很少，彼此间缺乏沟通，导致亲子间出现隔膜。参加亲子活动，能够让家长和孩子共同参与、相互合做来完成活动，拉近彼此的关系。在本次活动中既让孩子体会到创造和成功的欢乐，也让家长体会到参与交流的幸福。

（三）相约桃花季

时间：3月14日

内容：3月14日是白色情人节，属于单身贵族们的情人节。桃花一直以来都离不开爱情两个字，人们常说桃花运，就是因为桃花能给人带来爱情的机遇，有了桃花的祝福，相信你会很快拥有你自己的爱情。以“桃花”为主题，以台州内单身男女为主体，举办一场盛大的花海姻缘会。以花为媒，邂逅浪漫姻缘，掀起“全程热恋”。

（四）我爱桃美食

时间：3月9日——15日

地点：桃花园内

内容：桃花中含有丰富营养物质，具有利水、活血、通便、治闻水肿、肢气、痰饮积滞的功效。主办方邀请专业糕点师傅现场制作桃花糕、桃花养眼茶 、桃花养颜粥 、水晶桃花饼 ，可以给游客免费品尝。游客可以现场学做美食及购买。

（五）吃喝玩乐在长潭

时间：3月9日——15日

地点：长潭

内容：赏长潭村桃花、品长潭村农家美食、游长潭湖、观长潭水库建设纪念馆、红十三军攻克乌岩镇纪念碑等为主要内容的一日游。游客们可以进行垂钓，捕鱼，以及船上烧烤等活动，亲身体验划船。 同时感受到湖边山崖，山花烂漫，鸟语花香，悦目怡神，休闲观光无视觉疲劳之虞 。

（六）桃花节闭幕式

时间：3月15日 14：00

流程：（1）主持人总结本次桃花节活动的概况

     （2）领导嘉宾发言、致辞

（3）代言人签约

     （4）领导宣布桃花节圆满结束

三、市场分析

（一）优势

1．长潭得天独厚的地理环境。长潭因长潭水库而出名，桃花园其位于长潭水库边上，地理位置优越，环境清新宜人。

2．长潭丰富的旅游资源。拥有千亩桃树，形成长潭独有的桃花园。近年来农家乐的兴起，吸引了许多外来的游客，为桃花节带来了很大的客源。

（二）劣势

1．地处黄岩的西部，距市区23公里，位置比较偏远，交通不便。

2．桃花节的知名度不够，仅仅局限在黄岩，没有形成自身特有的品牌。  

（三）机遇

1．政府的大力支持。发挥生态优势，做好“宜游”文章，大力推进生态休闲旅游产业发展，是黄岩区打造最佳“宜居城区”的重要组成部分。

2．长潭桃花节充分开发当地特色旅游资源，发展生态休闲旅游产业的成功探索。

3．人们精神上的追求，桃花节可以让人放松心情，欣赏桃园美景。

（四）威胁

1．括苍镇桃花节的举办，减少了部分的游客人数。

2．天气的影响，前来参观人数会减少。

四、项目运作

（一）人员邀请安排

1．嘉宾邀约：北洋镇党委委员、副镇长钟鹏鸥主持，北洋镇镇长陆友国致欢迎词，市农办赵明友副主任作重要讲话，区政府周冲权副区长宣布桃花节开幕。在主席台上就位的有市农办赵明友副主任、张光根处长，区人大常委会杨礼祥副主任，区政府周冲权副区长，镇党委书记尤匡敏、镇长陆友国等领导，区农办、区风景旅游局、区农业局、区林特局、长潭水库管理局主要领导和分管领导参加。

2．媒体邀约:台州电视2频道  黄岩电视台 台州日报  台州晚报  台州商报  台州广播电视报

（二）宣传工作

1．前期宣传。

（1）新闻媒体宣传：分别在台州2频道和黄岩电视台节目前、中、后播放桃花节的桃花节举办地点、举办时间、主题内容和活动抢先看。

（2）网络宣传：台州政府信息网、台州信息港等网站播出举办桃花节海报及宣传标语、活动亮点和最新动态；甄选“桃花节的形象大使”网络报名；团购门票，可享受8折优惠；开幕式前五天短信群发。

（3）报纸杂志宣传：台州日报、台州晚报、台州广播电视报、台州商报；台州时尚杂志、台州品质杂志

（4）其它宣传：在黄岩各大乡镇进行标语及展板宣传；黄岩主要入城通道广告位及灯杆、道旗上做宣传；黄岩各重要交通路口指示牌处做宣传；黄岩城内人口流动大的地方派发传单；公交车车体广告（217路、219路、901路、902路各四辆，这四个公交路线是黄岩区内主要线路）

  2．中期宣传。

购买门票后，一张门票附一份桃花节的指南，内含期间的一系列活动和安排，及周围的景区介绍；闻媒体对活动现场的报道；报纸杂志做桃花节的专栏宣传；网站上及时更新桃花节的动态。

 3．后期宣传。

 桃花节的官网上进行活动精彩回顾，将本届的活动情况和取得的成果通过文字和图片的形式放在网站上；对本次桃花节制作一份节后的调查问卷，答卷者将有机会抽取下一年的桃花节门票；桃花节的官网上留言，关于本次桃花节的观后感和提上宝贵的意见，评选出一位最佳游客，将提供一张台州旅游年卡。

（三）活动流程图

 图表1  活动流程图

五、财务预算

（一）收入预算

                               图表2  收入预算

（二）支出预算

                               图表3  支出预算

总支出86.2万元，总盈利为43.8万元。

六、应急预案

（一）活动现场安保方案

成立安全领导小组：

1．组长：1名   2．副组长：2名   3．组员：5名

（二）应急措施

1．出现安全事故后，在第一时间通知组长，并积极争取时间，维护好现场的秩序，把损失降到最小。

2．明确职责，各负其责。组长为总指挥，其他成员为协调员。总指挥要在最短时间内明了事故的发生原因、发生地点，并迅速部署应急工作。协调员要配合总指挥传递信息，快速拨打110和120急救。

3．积极组织在场的有关人员进行安全自救。在突发事件发生时，总指挥要沉着、冷静，组织人员疏散、自救，尽可能扩大疏散口，要服从总指挥的安排，同时也要用科学的方法进行自我保护。

（三）恶劣天气解决方案 

1．天气预报提前做好天气预报，通过权威气象部门了解活动布场以及当天的天气。向活动各部门提交、知会天气情况，并发放紧急预案手册，请各部门做好应急措施。

2．布场时，由专人看护音箱、电脑等所需物品，并准备好相应的防雨措施。

（四）医疗配备

1．现场配备简单医疗箱，能对轻微病患实施救助。

2．现场发现人员受伤，采取措施救护伤员，必要时联系医院前来救助。

结语

通过大学所学的专业知识，再结合自己在网上查找的相关资料文献以及自己对家乡的了解，策划了20##年开化龙顶茶茶文化节宣传与推广的方案。希望能够通过本次策划方案能够让家乡的经济文化和旅游业发展，同时能够提升长潭的知名度，让桃花节形成自身独有的品牌。

谢辞

从选题到定初稿到内容修改再到最终定稿，在这一系列的准备过程中，忠心感谢杨林指导老师对此论文倾注的心血和花费的时间，在此我仅代表个人向杨林老师致以崇高的敬意和感谢。

本次策划书还得到了专业组的各位老师的大力协助，在此一并表示我的感谢。

参考文献

[1]余青，吴必虎.中国城市节庆活动的开发与管理[J].地理研究，2004，（6).

[2]邵万宽主编.美食节策划与运作.沈阳：辽宁科学技术出版社，2000.

[3]周怡书、周强编.中国当代节庆.北京：新世纪出版社，2004.

[4]杨兴柱，陆林.大型节事旅游基本特征及发展对策的初步研究[J].人文地理，2005.

 

第二篇：终稿论文

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 The Significance of English Writing

In English learning, writing, as an indispensable part, is closely related to other aspects: listening, speaking and reading. It is used widely. It can help people develop the mind, stimulate them to think, compel them to concentrate and organize their ideas. It can also help English learners to intake what they have learned efficiently, and cultivate their ability to summarize, analyze, criticize and use the learned language to perform effective communication. From their writings, it is easy to learn about the students? abilities of cognizance, understanding and expression. It could reflect the comprehensive competence of language application. Therefore, it is indeed an important element of education. Writing is comparatively difficult. And to strengthen the writing ability of students is one of the goals of English teaching in senior high schools.

According to the ELT Curriculum Standards for Senior High School issued by Chinese Ministry of Education, the students in senior high schools should be able to paraphrase or make abstracts according to the article read; write essays or reports with the aid of written language and charts; write coherent and well organized essays and have the ability to narrate events or express their viewpoints and attitudes; write with proper style and coherent sentences and little serious grammar mistakes. All in all, the requirement is that the students can state the facts, express themselves clearly so that they can communicate with others properly in written form. These are greater demands as for the students. Marking criteria of National Matriculation English Test 1

(NMET) also dominates the writing teaching activities. The marking criteria about writing in NMET are: all contents which are required should be included; linkers should be used correctly in order to create a well-organized composition and great capability of using language is required and so on.

1.2 Problems about Writing Encountered by Students and Teachers

However, at present, many teachers and researchers have found that most of students are still unwilling to write something. When it comes to the writing part in their homework or in paper, they always feel that they have little to express, or write something meaningless. The spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes appear frequently, let alone the structures, language use and other things. In the end, they often spend long time in writing, but get few scores. At last, they feel disappointed, and even give up making efforts to improve their writing. On the other hand, English teachers are worried about this. Although they know the importance of writing in students? English study and in the examinations, they still do not have a clear mind what is the proper way to teach writing.

In the face of these problems, many professors and researchers at home and abroad have been trying to find out ideal ways to make the teaching and learning of English writing efficient and effective. By now, there are many approaches of writing teaching methods. They include task-based approach, product approach, process approach, genre approach, communicative approach, model essay approach, cognitive approach, review approach, functional approach, length approach and so on.

2

Each of them tries to innovate the English writing teaching, and help students to improve their writing competence. They have conducted some experiments and done some investigations to prove that they are practical and feasible. However, nothing in the world is absolute. They are also no exception. In fact, all of them have received not only approval, but also opposition from many teachers and professors.

Then what do the real English writing classes in senior high schools look like？ How do English teachers teach writing? Whether do they use the above methods? What is a proper way to teaching writing in senior high schools?

1.3 Significance of the Study

Based on many writing theories and the investigation in a real English writing class in a senior high school, the author tries to demonstrate the real situation of writing teaching and learning in the middle schools. The author analyzes one writing class, makes some improvement after class, and give the same writing class herself. The author also uses questionnaires to learn about the students? opinions about the English writing, and evaluates the students? compositions. The purpose is trying to find the underlying problems and give some useful suggestions, in hope that these analyses and suggestions in this paper could provide some useful and practical information for the professors and teachers who are concerned about improving the middle students? writing ability.

1.4 The Organization of This Paper

This paper is a study about English writing teaching in the classroom of senior high schools. The whole paper can be divided into five chapters.

The first chapter is the introduction of this study. By introducing the current 3

situation of English writing teaching and learning in Chinese senior high schools, the author presents the problems that occur, and then gives research questions. At last, the significance of the study is described.

The second chapter is the literature review and theoretical framework. First of all, it introduces the Input Hypothesis, Output Hypothesis and Contextual Teaching, which provide the theoretical basis for the thesis. Secondly, it mainly states the relationship of listening, speaking, reading and writing respectively, which is related to the topic of this study. Thirdly, it reviews the studies of English writing teaching at home and abroad. All of them pave way for the following thesis writing.

The third chapter mainly consists of five parts. It first introduces an interview with a special-grade English teacher in order to learn about her teaching theories and viewpoints. Secondly, it describes the whole process of an English writing class given by the special-grade English teacher. Thirdly, it introduces the improvement the author made in this writing class. Fourthly, it describes how the author evaluated the students? compositions. Lastly, it introduces how the other parts of the same module were taught which paved way for the writing class.

The fourth chapter concerns the discussions and implications of this study. The implication is that a proper writing class should give enough input and many opportunities of output. Some contexts and some activities can make the class more interesting and vivid. The comment on the writing should be detailed and encouraging. Besides, when teaching other parts of each module, the teacher had better link them together and pave way for writing class beforehand.

The fifth chapter draws a conclusion to the whole thesis, describing what an ideal English writing class should be, and giving some suggestions. Besides, seeing the author?s limited level and unavoidable factors during the research, the chapter also 4

offers the limitations of the study for future study to avoid.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Theoretical Basis for English Writing Teaching

2.1.1 Input Hypothesis

The input hypothesis is an important theory in SLA. According to Krashen (1985), input in SLA means the language data that the learner has exposure to or experiences in all its various appearances.

The Input Hypothesis is simply stated: “Humans acquire language in only one way——by understanding messages or by receiving comprehensible input” (Krashen 1985). That is to say, language acquisition depends upon trying to comprehend what other people are saying. Provided that the learner hears meaningful speech and endeavors to understand it, acquisition will occur (Cook 2000).

It is understood that to be useful to the learner, the input must be neither too difficult to understand nor too easy. This is conceptualized by Krashen in the terms of the learner?s current level, called “i”, and the level that the learner will get to next, called “i+1”. For the learner to progress rather than remain static, the input has always has to be slightly beyond the level at which he or she is completely at home; the gap between the learner?s “i” and the “i+1” that he or she needs is bridged by information drawn from the situation and from the learner?s previous experience. Krashen (1982) emphasizes that input does not need to be “finely tuned” in the sense that it is linguistically adjusted to contain “i+1”. It requires only rough tuning, which is automatic if the focus is on successful communication.

However, comprehension is a necessary condition for language acquisition but it is not sufficient; something more than comprehensible input is needed (Krashen 1982). For acquisition to take place, the learner has to be able to absorb the appropriate parts 5

of the input. It is only when input becomes intake that SLA takes place. But there is little known about how the learners selected from the input data he receives. Krashen argues that there can be “a mental block that prevents acquirers from fully utilizing the comprehensible input they receive for language acquisition”. This block, called “the affective filter”, might be because “the acquirer is unmotivated, lacking in self-confidence, or anxious” (Krashen 1985), and controls how much input is let in and how much is excluded. The Affective Filter Hypothesis ascribes variation between learners to their psychological states. If the filter is “up”, comprehensible input cannot get through; if it is “down”, they can make effective use of it. The following diagram captures these relationships:

Affective Learnt knowledge

filter (Monitoring)

↓ ↓ ↓

Comprehensible → Language → Acquired → Output

input Acquisition Device knowledge

Long (1983) summarizes the main assumptions of the Input Hypothesis as follows:

1) access to comprehensible input is characteristic of all cases of successful language acquisition, in both first and second language acquisition; 2) greater quantities of comprehensible input seem to result in better or faster L2 acquisition; 3) lack of access to comprehensible input results in little or no acquisition (cited in Ellis 1997).

2.1.2 Output Hypothesis

When Krashen has established his theories a great position in the field of linguistics, Swain in 1985 just put forward the “Output Hypothesis”. Output means the language a learner produces. Swain holds that in addition to comprehensible input, comprehensible output is also necessary for L2 acquisition, and that learners 6

will be obliged, and therefore, make their output more comprehensible if communicative demands are put on them. Through producing language, either spoken or written, language acquisition may occur. Swain suggests that output is important in several ways(cited in Lu 2002): (1) the learner may be “pushed” to use alternative means where there is communication breakdown, in order to express a message precisely, coherently, and appropriately; (2) using the language may force the learner to move from semantic processing which is characteristic of the early stages of SLA to syntactic processing; (3) the learner has a chance to test out hypotheses about L2.

Swain (1995) also points out three functions in promoting the language accuracy( cited in Lu 2002). The first one is noticing function. Producing language causes learners to notice gaps in their linguistic knowledge. Learners may sometimes realize that they do not know how to produce certain linguistic forms, and bring to their attention something they need to discover about their L2. This may trigger cognitive processes which might generate linguistic knowledge that is new for the learners, or which consolidate their existing knowledge (Swain and Lapkin 1994, cited in Ellis 1997). The second one is hypothesis testing function. Through noticing this gap in their knowledge, language learners may reanalyze their knowledge of the language system. Then they generate and test alternative ways of saying what they want to say. In addition, the output sometimes can invoke feedbacks which can help the students reprocess or modify the things they have produced until they are satisified. The third one is the metalinguistic function. This function enables students to control and internalize linguistic knowledge. When trying to solve a problem in their output, learners may consciously reflect upon the nature of the language system. She supposes that the encouragement of output, especially the accurate output, is 7

necessary for students to progress further towards target-like competence.

2.1.3 The Combination of Input and Output

Although the role of input and output in SLA has always been a controversial issue, more and more linguists begin to take a balanced view towards them. By studying, comparing and analyzing these, they believe that input and output are mutually dependent, without either of which language learning cannot be successful. Input and output are both significant in language acquisition, especially for the students who are learning a second or foreign language. Besides, there could be no output without input. Input and output can promote each other. Enough comprehensible input can enrich the students? knowledge and provide materials for their output; on the other hand, output in turn helps to improve input level, and reach accuracy and fluency by using the target language frequently. Language learning continues as the result of the repetition of input and output.

Harmer (1991) advocates “a balanced activities approach”. This program will be planned on the basis of achieving a balance between the different categories of input and output where roughly-tuned input and communicative activities will tend to predominate over the controlled language presentation and practice output. According to him, exposing students to language input is not enough; it is also necessary to provide opportunities for them to activate this knowledge, for it is only when students are producing language that they can select from the input they have received.

Ellis (1997) concludes that it is necessary to take into account both reception and production-based theories in organizing classroom interaction in order to promote acquisition.

Guo and Qin (2009) hold that for the sake of SLA and language use in daily life, 8

the teaching methods containing the combination of input and output should be adopted. Since input and output both play a great role in language learning, the absence of either of them cannot lead to successful language learning. Besides, many scholars and English teachers in China (Ning 2003; Wang 2003; You 2001) also stress the indispensable and critical roles respectively of input and output in language learning and come up with some suggestions as to how to bring the balance into teaching.

There is one thing during the author?s research which is impressive. When the English teacher taught the introduction and reading parts, she asked students to remember many phrases and five important sentences from the text as homework, which could be a kind of input. When she conducted a dictation the next day to ask students to write these on the paper, the author found most of the students just memorized these mechanically, because they made many mistakes and could not write the whole sentences completely. However, after that, they began to learn to use these in their writing correctly, which was really meaningful in some way, and was a kind of output. In the last class of this module, the English teacher conducted the dictation again. And at this time, few students made mistakes. Therefore, when students understand and remember what they have learned, it is not actually the real acquisition. Only when they put them into use and produce something, can they real become their own, and that is the acquisition.

2.2.4 Contextual Teaching

Context is the basic matter of the contextual teaching. According to psychological view, context performs a wide range of stimulate patterns——events and objects and so on. In a context, the problems are stimulated. At the same time, people can also find some information and basement to help them to solve the problems in such 9

context. Context is a social environment where people can engage in all kinds of activities, in which they can not only perform their various abilities, but also get much information, and learn many skills (Chiarelott 2007). Context also provides familiar reference materials to help learners to learn knowledge in accordance with their similar past experiences, and then they build up their own scientific knowledge. In this way, the acquisition and learning happen.

Teaching context makes use of the teaching materials, the students? mental state and some specific sites and so on to stimulate students? emotional experiences. The contextual teaching involves “feeling” and “situation”. “Situation” refers to the teaching environment created by specific objects or multi-media and so on. “Feeling” exchange is involved in “situation”. “Situation” is set up for “feeling”. “Feeling” and “situation” are combined harmoniously, which enable students to learn English with great enthusiasm (Yu 2009).

Based on constructive theory, language learning and acquisition theory and multiple intelligence theory, it lays great emphasis on emotional cultivation. In contextual teaching, intellectual activities, emotional activities, and conscious and unconscious activities, based on the human knowledge, are organized. Teachers design some contexts according to the teaching plan to cultivate the students? potential in an unconscious way.

In these contexts and activities, students can acquire language well in the relaxed state. Teachers try to help students to develop the habit of thinking in English, and improve their English comprehensive abilities. Generally speaking, the contextual 10

teaching possesses vivid image, which doesn?t refer to the mechanical reproduction of the entity, but providing the corresponding image in the simplified and implied way to give students a real sense. It is also felt truly. Li (2008) believes that language teaching material often reveals the children the mysteries of the world. Then the students will grasp the methods of language learning with the help of these images——people, mountains, flowers and so on. The contextual teaching materials stimulate students? emotions, and help them to make a positive or negative assessment about various things.

In addition, the contextual teaching attaches great importance to “emotion” and “image” (Li 1996). The contexts leave direct and deep impression on the students, arouse their feelings and provide them an opportunity to imagine. Teachers combine the teaching contents with the situation which has been displayed or imagined, so that the students can broaden their wide ranging mood, which in turn arouse their imagination again. In this way, their imagination enriches the context. Then their ability to think and imagine are developed step by step.

2.2 Other Related Theories

Writing is a kind of written form for communication and expression. Improving the writing ability is certain to help the listening, speaking and reading improve (Wang 2001). Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the four basic and essential skills in studying a language, but putting the writing in the last position does not mean that writing ability is not important. On the contrary, the writing competence can reflect the students? overall English level. Therefore, writing 11

competence is not easy to improve. In the meantime, these four skills are independent of each other. Each develops in a special way. Listening is the premise of speaking, but listening well does not mean speaking well; reading is the premise of writing, but reading well does not mean writing well. So each of the four skills needs special training to improve. Therefore, it is wrong to separate them. Each has some connection with others and promotes each other.

2.2.1 Listening and Writing

According to the Second Language Acquisition theory, the language input plays an important part in language acquisition (Krashen 1992). Listening is a kind of input, which is very important for us to learn a foreign language (Yang 2003). While listening, students try to comprehend the passages or dialogues, and remember some necessary information. At the moment, students may recall what they have learned and remembered to promote his and her comprehension of listening, and learn to use some new phrases and sentences from the passages they have listened, which naturally become the materials for their writing.

In many English classes, teachers play a part of record of passage as the lead-in and ask students to listen to it carefully with some questions, and then ask students to retell what they have heard. Teachers always encourage them to use the words or sentence structures they have learned during the listening classes to discuss the related topic in groups. After the class, students need to write down what they have discussed in their diaries. In this way, the listening contents become parts of writing materials. The method——listening paves the way for writing. Students not only 12

practice their listening, but also improve their oral English. What? s more important, both of them provide useful and necessary input for writing——gives students more confidence, and their writing could be more meaningful and systematic.

In a word, listening more could accumulate more materials for writing; dictation practices both listening and writing, which is an ideal way. Teachers can learn about students listening competence from their writing. And with the help of writing, students can listen more clearly and understand better.

2.2.2 Speaking and Writing

In the development of language, written language comes from the spoken language, so the latter is the basis of the former (Ye & Xu 1997). The: students? oral sentence patterns and ways of expressions are often the basis of their writing. In addition, because students? oral language often contains a lot of structures or expressions or written form, so the teacher must realize the connection between oral expression and the writing. They must help students improve their speaking while teaching writing. When practicing speaking, teachers can help students find out and correct the mistakes, which is easier to develop writing. Before writing a composition, teachers can organize students to do some oral practice to make preparation for writing, which is a proper way to combine the writing with speaking. Because most of the students feel difficult and puzzled when finishing a passage, teachers could use this method to pave the way for their writing, and do a lot of preparation for writing. First, students can talk about the topic in groups in classes, so that they can exchange their ideas, open their mind and get more information, while 13

discussing. Cai (2001) holds that class discussion can not only help English speakers, but also the second or foreign language learners to analyze the topic, explore further and know more. Under the instruction of such method, students can set up confidence in writing, get clear about what and how to write, have a certain writing aim and stimulate their writing interest, which are good foundation for the next step of writing. At the same time, writing can also promote speaking. Students can find out their mistakes of all kinds in time, and improve their ability to express their opinions.

2.2.3 Reading and Writing

Reading is another kind of input. Compared with the other two skills, reading has much more influence on writing. Reading can not only help students enlarge their vocabulary, and learn some new phrases or expressions, but also help them get more information about one topic, and learn how to consider and analyze matters. In the meantime, teachers can also learn about students? competence of reading comprehension from their writing. Teachers can ask students to expanding articles, abridging articles and imitating articles based on the reading passages, or students can make some abstract or reviews. Ma and Wen (1999) in their research found that reading has a great impact on writing, because reading is the basis of writing. Just as the Chinese old saying: If you have recited thoroughly 300 Tang poems, even when you cannot write the poem, you will be able to chant some. Many western researchers and teachers consider that writing comes from reading, or reading is the mother of writing.

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By reading a lot with certain purposes, students can not only go over and consolidate the knowledge they have learned, but also enlarge their vocabulary, learn more about the background information of some topics, develop the sense of language, open their mind and acquire more information. But in the process from reading to writing, teachers need to encourage students to take part in the activities actively, do proper consideration and imagination, and combine the newly-learned with what they have learned in the past, so that they can produce a good composition. According to Piajet, the development of cognition includes assimilation and accommodation. The former refers to that students intake what they have learned newly, and combine the new knowledge with the old knowledge. The latter refers to that students adapt their old knowledge to follow the new rules. While doing a lot of reading, it is important for students to take writing practice and produce passages——writing book reports or making an outline according to the passages they are reading. Because reading is a kind of input, and writing is a kind of output. The process of writing is a form of intake, in which students try to analyze, understand and digest the new and old knowledge, so that they can really improve their English. So the process of writing plays the most active and effective part in the development of cognition and learning. Therefore, when teachers help students to improve reading ability, they also need to ask students to pay more attention to cultivating their writing ability, which is particularly important for the senior one students.

In conclusion, in English learning, the four skills are all indispensible, and play an important part. Besides, they are not separate from each other. On the contrary, they 15

actually promote each other. Listening and reading are input, and speaking and writing are output. Reading is the basis of writing. It provides many materials for writing. Speaking just makes preparation for writing, so that writing can go smoothly. Only when combining the four skills, can students study English well and write better.

2.3 The Review of Related Studies at Home and Abroad

2.3.1 Studies on English Writing Teaching Abroad

During the past many years, many western linguists and teachers have done a large number of researches on English writhing teaching from different aspects. In this process, many writing teaching methods came into being.

1) Product Approach

The traditional writing teaching method——product approach began at the twenties. The writing classes under such method are teacher-centered. The teacher mainly teaches about the figure of speech, the grammar rules, the structures of the writing and some writing skills and so on. Then, the teacher present students a good model essay, and analyze it in the class. Of course, the focus is also on the figure of speech and the structures. Finally, the students get the writing topic and are required to follow the form and the structures of the model essay to write the similar good ones. When the writings are handed in, that is the last step. The teacher evaluates the writings just on the form, structures and correctness of the sentences. It seems that a composition is just the combination of a lot of sentences. If a writing is based on the model essay, or if the students follow the required framework of the writing which 16

the teacher teaches in the class, that is a good composition. In the end, the students just write for their teacher. They just learn to focus on the form, while ignore the contents and meaning of the writing. Besides, most of the writing topics are unfamiliar to the students. The teacher does not consider the need of communication for students to write, so that it prevents students from developing the creative thinking and improving their writing.

2) Process Approach

When the time went by, people gradually realized the shortcoming of the traditional writing teaching method. Many researchers find that having a command of grammar knowledge does not mean the good writing competence. Then many researchers and teachers tried to find the new way to teach writing. Then there were many writing teaching methods at one time. Among them, the most influential one is the process approach. According to it, the English writing teaching does not just focus on the language itself, such as the writing pattern and grammar knowledge, but pays more attention to the writing process and writing skills, such as making an outline, searching for the related materials, creating the draft, evaluating and editing the writing and so on. During the process, the students participate in a wide range of activities of cognitive and cooperation, so that they can improve their cognitive competence, learn to work with others and be able to express themselves clearly and correctly (Edwards 2003; Elbow 1981; Raimes 1998; Reid 1994).

The process approach was first raised by American professor Wallace Douglas in the 1970s. It holds that writing is a recursive rather than a linear process. When 17

writers write, they carry on a constant re-examination and revision of both their ideas and expression of ideas. As they write, they might discover new dimensions to the topic, thus making it necessary to revise the writing (Lannon 1977).It advocates that the students should learn to write through the writing process, and learn to think in a logic way and express their opinions properly. It aims to cultivate the students to be able to find out the problems, analyze them and work out the solutions to the problems, so that they can improve their writing ability (Deng 2003).

Because the writing activity is a complex process, researchers by now have not arrived at only one process. Guth (1997) divides the writing process into five parts——triggering, collecting materials, drafting, revising and editing. Lannon (1977) mainly divides it into three steps——planning, drafting and editing. Generally speaking, the writing process consists of the following steps or stages.

The first step is prewriting. Students first know the purpose of the writing, and then determine the characteristics of the readers. They also need to gather the necessary information to complete the writing, and select the structure or the format for the writing.

The second step is drafting. When the students have had the clear writing goal, collected all the information and materials, and done enough preparation, they begin to finish their writing. When they write, they choose words and sentences that they think is proper to help them to express themselves clearly.

The third step is revising. In this step, the students need to read and re-read the whole text many times, edit and proofread it, and correct mistakes.

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During the process, the teacher s? guidance is very important. They need to organize some effective activities to make the communication and collaboration between the students smooth and pleasant. They just offer help if necessary, give some suggestion or some hints. The students are supposed to find out the problems and solutions themselves.

If practiced properly, the students may improve their writing ability. However, there are also some disadvantages. First of all, breaking down the writing activity does not mean that students can get a mastery of necessary writing skills. Secondly, this method takes up too much time. As for the writing teaching in classrooms, it is not always feasible (Luo & Li 2000)

3) Genre Approach

As the linguists tried to explore further the genre of different writing, they brought the genre approach. It is a kind of teaching method studying the genre of the passages, and follows the theories of genre and genre analysis (Li & Zhe 2003). According to it, the English writing teaching should, at the beginning, help students to develop the awareness of the genre, and have them know the knowledge of rhetoric or figure of speech and features of language. In some way, it is similar to the product approach. Both of them focus on helping students to build up the ability to use language skillfully. The difference between them is that the genre approach supposes that the writing could change because of the different social context. So it is necessary to have students get in touch with various genres and pay attention to the context and purpose of writing, so that students could take the genre into 19

consideration unconsciously when they write something. The aim of the genre approach is to let students know that the passages of different genres have different purposes of communication and different writing structure or writing pattern. Students also need to know that the writing is not only a type of linguistic constructs, but also a type of social, meaningful constructs. They are also required to learn the schematic structure of the discourse, which is helpful for students to understand or create the writing of a type of genre (Jiraporn 2008).

4) Communicative Approach

During 1970s-1980s, the communicative competence was heatedly discussed. People began to have a profound understanding of writing. It is a communicative skill similar to listening, speaking, and reading. It uses words to express opinions and to perform the functions of the communication. As a communicative skill in written form, English writing can objectively reflect the students? thinking and cognition, and their ability of expression (Wang 2001). Therefore, the English writing teaching changed at the same time. Teachers do not just stress the accuracy of the language, but pay more attention to the writing aim and the readers of the passage. They try to have students raise the awareness of these two.

This kind of writing not only helps people open their mind, but also promotes the English writing teaching to move forward. When writing a passage, students not only need to focus on the writing aims, but also consider whether the readers can understand the composition. In other words, writing is no longer aimless, and is not to finish the writing task. In some way, it begins to pay attention to the 20

communication between writers and readers, and the feedback from the readers.

However, in real writing teaching, there are still some problems. For example: 1) for the so-called communication, teachers often design some topics, such as, writing a letter to the newspaper to condemn some bad things in society. In this writing, the reader is supposed to be editors of the newspaper, while in fact the reader is still the teacher himself. 2) Many students? English level is not very high. They do not know enough words, and cannot use some sentence patterns or grammar points correctly, which prevent them from expressing their real ideas in English clearly and correctly, let alone communicate with others. Therefore, if adopting this teaching method in real senior high schools, there is still a long way to go.

The western researches and theories on writing have developed for many years. And there are many different schools who advocate different theories. Although they have done many researches and tried to prove themselves, there are still some disadvantages in each of them.

2.3.2 The Researches on English Writing Teaching at Home

To help Chinese English learners in English writing, Wang, Niu and Zheng (2000) put forward the Length Approach in composition writing to promote the students to improve their language performance. According to this approach, students are allowed to write as long as possible without limitation, so as to improve quality through quantity. What the teachers need to do is to have them realize the writing skills, not tell them directly. What?s more important, they need to let students open their mind, be creative, increase their self-confidence of English learning, stimulate 21

their learning initiative and regulate their language application (Wang, Niu & Zheng 2000). An experiment was done on the 201 English major, and the result turned out to be a success. Through writing long composition, the students gradually increased the self-confidence in English writing, which made them think that writing long composition could help students improve their English. However, it is still a new writing teaching method, which is not accepted widely. Therefore, as for the writing method, there is still a long way to go.

As a matter of fact, in China, many English writing theories come from the foreign ones. Many Chinese researchers and teachers adopt them, and have begun to apply them to teaching to test their effect. Some got good results, but some were in vain. And most of these experiments and researches are on college students. As for the senior high school students, there is only a little attention paid to them. And in fact, there are still some problems in English writing teaching in senior high. English writing is a very important part for middle school students. It can not only influence their English study, but also their interest and self-confidence in English study, so more efforts should be put in this area later to work out more practical ways of writing teaching.

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Chapter 3 Two English Writing Classes——Cases Study

The chapter two has introduced the theoretical basis of this research, other theories concerning English writing teaching and related researches at home and abroad. This chapter is going to introduce the research methodology and describe the two writing classes.

3.1 Research Methodology

3.1.1 The Aim of the Study

Since more and more teachers have realized the importance of writing, how do English teachers teach writing? What do the real English writing classes in senior high schools look like？ What is a proper way to teach English writing in senior high schools?

Based on many writing theories and the investigation in the real English writing classes in a senior high school, the present author tries to demonstrate the real situation of writing teaching and learning in the current middle schools, and by analyzing two writing classes and students? compositions, tries to find the underlying problems and give some useful suggestions, in hope that these analyses and suggestions in this paper could provide some useful and practical information for the 23

professors and teachers who are concerned about how to give a writing class.

3.1.2 Subjects

During September to November, 2010, the author took the internship in one of the common senior high schools in Tianjin——The Attached High School to Nankai University. The teacher in the study is a special-grade English teacher, who has taught for almost thirty-five years. When the author interviewed her, she listened to the author?s questions carefully and answered the questions honestly and earnestly.

3.1.3 Instrument

An appropriate approach should be used according to the nature of the research. So case study is chosen as the methodology of this thesis. Case studies are extensively used by applied linguists to gain an in-depth understanding of L2 learning and teaching (Wen 2004). To carry out the case study, the following methods were used: 1) interview with the teacher; 2) questionnaires; 3) classroom observation. These ways will be discussed respectively.

1) Interview: A record pen was used to record the conversation when the interview proceeded. By doing so, the research would be more concrete and detailed. The aims of the interview are to know the teacher?s opinions about the writing teaching in senior high schools and her reflection and evaluation of her writing class, which are very important to understand a teacher?s teaching thoughts, and are helpful to analyze the writing class.

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2) Questionnaires: In this study, two questionnaires were used before and after the author?s writing class to see what the students thought about their writing ability and their problems, and see whether the teacher?s teaching was accepted by students.

3) Classroom observation: To make the data analysis sufficient and convincing, during the class, a record pen was used to record the whole writing class. Besides, the author also made some notes in my diary. Diary is an important tool in the research on L2 learning and teaching. It can record the learner?s or the teacher?s feelings, attitudes, behaviors, reflections and conscious awareness of cognitive process in a language class or other second language learning/teaching contexts (Wen 2004).

3.2 An Interview with a Special-grade English Teacher

The writing classes described in this study was designed by a special-grade English teacher in a senior high school. After listening to her class, the author had an interview with her, and she also offered some advice. The content of interview is in Appendix I.

According to her, even if there are many English writing teaching methods, it still cannot say that some of them are the exact ones which are right and practical for senior high school students. Because it depends on the students? English level, the writing topic, the time and so on. It is actually affected by many factors. The senior one and senior two students , or at least the those students in this school, are still on the stage of learning the basic knowledge of English——the vocabulary, the grammar, the sentence pattern and so on. If they cannot create a correct sentence, or 25

if they cannot express their idea clearly, how can they finish a composition, let alone a good one?

Besides, having writing classes is still not enough to help students get improvement. Writing is actually a process of accumulation. Teachers should, at the beginning , cultivate students to listen more, speak more, read more and write more, encourage them put the words, phrases, expressions, sentence patterns and other language points into use, and encourage them to write in various forms——diaries, summary, retelling and so on. In this way, their writing can improve step by step. As for her writing class, she thought she needed to offer enough materials and information as input to get students well-prepared. And then she offered some opportunities to have them to produce something as output. In this way, the students could really learn something, and made them become their own. She also designed some contexts and activities to make the class relaxing, and draw students? attention and stimulate their interest. Of course, there were some drawbacks. Because the time was limited, she had to give up some activities. This was the first time that she and the students met, so it did not go well at the beginning. Later, she advised there were still some adaptations and improvement that could be made to make the writing class better.

3.3 Descriptions of Two English Writing Classes

3.3.1 The First Writing Class by the Special-grade English Teacher

The author listened to the writing of Module 2 My New Teachers taught by the special-grade English teacher in September 12th in Tianjin High School. This is 26

actually a model lesson. The following is the record of the whole teaching process and analysis. The teaching plan is in Appendix Ⅱ

Teaching process:

Step one——Lead-in:

She asked students to read the words on page eleven in their textbook to go over these words. Then she asked two questions:

1) What part of speech are they?

Students answered: adjectives.

At first, they did not know the meaning of “part of speech”. So she repeated it and told them its meaning in Chinese directly——ci xing.

2）What are they used for?

Students answered: they are used to describe something or somebody.

In this activity, she wanted them to pay attention to the adjectives, and get the general idea of them.

Next, she read the requirement of this exercise——Look at these words. Decide if they are positive or negative. Then she asked: “what?s meaning of the word ?positive?”. Some students answered: “good words”. She went on to explain: “positive” means something good. As for the word “negative”, they answered: “bad words”. She said: “ok, good.” and gave a further explanation: “negative” means something bad. And she introduced the word “neutral” which means the words between positive and negative. Some students said: zhong xing ci.

Analysis: In this activity, students not only go over the words they have learned in 27

this module, but also get more clear about the categories of adjectives as well as their function. This is a kind of input, which paves the way for the next step.

Step two

First she told students that she was going to ask them to use some adjectives to

describe something and find out if these words were positive or negative.

Positive or Negative ?Henry and Jane

are having dinner

in a _____

restaurant. It’s a

_____ evening.

The food is

______. Henry is

feeling _______.

She showed students a picture with bright color red as background. Then she asked: (Q stands for question and SA for students? answer.)

Q1: Where are they?

SA: They are in a restaurant.

Q2: What time is that?

SA: In the evening.

Q3: How do you know it is in the evening?

SA: because there are candles.

Analysis: By designing the context and providing some questions, the task becomes more vivid and concrete. It can stimulate students to observe the picture, and lean to analyze matters. At the same time, people can also find some information 28

and basement to help them to solve the problems in such context. In such context, students can engage in all kinds of activities, in which they can not only perform their various abilities, but also get much information, and learn many skills. In addition, the contextual teaching attaches great importance to “emotion” and “image”. The contexts leave direct and deep impression on the students, arouse their feelings and provide them an opportunity to imagine.

Then she gave another group of questions, and asked students to think them over.

1) What kind of restaurant is it?

2) What kind of evening is it?

3) How about the food they are eating?

4) How about people?s feeling?

She required students to try to think out as many adjectives as possible to describe the restaurant, evening, people?s feeling and food.

Students? answers: 1) a safe\ relaxing\ amusing\ romantic\ quiet restaurant 2) a nice\ amusing\wonderful\brilliant evening. 3) The food is 4) Henry is feeling romantic.

Her answer: Henry and Jane are having dinner in a restaurant. It?s aThen she went on said: “because we can see the smile on Henry?s face. He enjoys the meal as well as enjoys being with a beautiful girl, so his feeling is romantic”. She asked: do these words have positive meaning or negative meaning? SA: positive. Then she showed the picture again with the dark blue as the background, and 29

asked them to try to think in another way, and it could be opposite.

She said: “instead of quiet, the restaurant is…?” students said: “noisy.” She went on: “instead of warm, the evening is …?” students said: “cold.” At the moment, she said: “they might feel cold, but look at the coat they are wearing, the evening might be… … hot. How do people feel when they feel hot? (Students were silent.) They feel uneasy. How about the food? (SA: awful.) There is another word which is very similar to ?awful?. (SA: terrible.) And Henry?s feeling…? (SA: set\bad.) How about these words, positive or negative? (SA: negative.)”

At last, she concluded: “you may use different adjectives to describe the situation. The positive words may give you a happy feeling, but the negative words may give you a bad feeling”.

Analysis: This activity is a brainstorming, which asks students to think out the required words as many as possible, and students can further make it clear what are positive adjectives and what are negative adjectives. Besides, teachers try to help students to develop the habit of thinking in English. But the students were not active as expected. Especially in the second description, the teacher just tried to guide students to speak out the expected answers. In some way, it prevents students from imagining other words. Most of them at that time just tried to think out the right answers. Some were afraid to give wrong words, so they didn?t dare to say something.

Step 3

Firstly, the teacher showed the picture of Harry Potter and asked the students to 30

work in groups to think of adjectives to describe Harry Potter within one minute. The students answered her questions quickly. Their answers are magical, amazing, energetic, brave, justice, intelligent and popular.

The teacher gave some positive feedback to the students? answers.

After the students? answering, the teacher made a summary and showed some words which could be used to describe Harry Potter on the screen. They were smart, wise, intelligent, cute, cool, energetic, kind and magic.

Secondly, the teacher showed the picture of Conan and asked some questions about the basic information of Conan to get the students involved. Then she led the students to work in groups to think of adjectives to describe Conan.

The students answered teacher?s questions quickly. Their answers were intelligent, careful, wise, cool, brave, handsome, amazing and adventure.

When a student said: “adventure”, which is a noun. The teacher corrected it by making another two sentences (He has adventurous spirit; maybe his life is full of adventures.).

The teacher made a summary and showed some words which could be used to describe Conan on the screen. They were clever, wise, cute, calm, considerate, thoughtful and insightful. She explained them in Chinese when necessary.

Thirdly, the teacher showed the picture of Yao Ming and encouraged the students to think of adjectives to describe him.

The students answered teacher?s questions actively and freely. Their answers were tall, strong, energetic, brave, popular, kind and rich.

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The teacher made some explanations of these words which the students said. For example, when the students said: “popular”, she made a sentence about it: “He is famous all over the world. He is very famous in the young people.” When it came to kind, she said: “because he donates money for children, and he is a very very kind and loving person. When it came to rich, she gave a similar word wealthy.

After the students? answering, the teacher made a summary by showing the words to describe Yao Ming on the screen. They were strong, tall, energetic, popular, influential, responsible, loving（because he gives love to people）, and capable(He has ability to do something.) . She made some explanations of them when necessary. Fourthly, The teacher asked students to think of the English name of Grey Wolf or Big Big Wolf，and then led them to think of the words to describe him.

Some students were active and some students were shy. Their answers were stupid, funny, amusing, strong, famous, lovely, coward, and tan lan de.

The teacher gave some comments on the students? answer. For example, famous means popular; lovely means cute; coward is the opposite meaning of brave; greedy can be used to express tan lan de.

And then the teacher made a summary by showing the words on the screen. They were confident, optimistic, clever, persistent (determined to do something until succeed). They were positive. Arrogant (proud, but have negative meaning), stubborn, careless, flattering (to say nice words about people), cunning, foxy. They were negative. The teacher explained some of them when necessary.

Analysis: In this step, by showing three cartoon characters and one famous 32

basketball player—Yao Ming, the teacher intends to draw students? attention and stimulates their interest. Besides, the teacher tries to guide and enlighten the students to observe and think successfully by asking them many questions. This is more like the contextual teaching. In such situation, students can learn to explore something, imagine something and learn something in a easy and interesting way.

Step four

Firstly, teacher told the students that the task that they were going to do was to try to describe one of their new teachers.

Next she asked: “when you introduce one of your new teachers to someone else, what will you describe? What do you think you need to write about?” Some students said: “name”. She went on asking: “then you have to write about…? What else?” In this way, the teacher guided students bit by bit to collect the necessary information, including name, subjects, appearance, teaching method, character\ personality. At last, the students couldn?t give more points. The teacher then asked students to read the text again and helped them to analyze the text roughly. She said: “Three teachers are mentioned. In the second paragraph, besides, the name, subject, appearance, and personality, it also says the teacher is very strict. And then in the following part, what is it? In this part, you also have to write what? (One student said: how.) Yes. How is she strict? Why do the students feel she is strict? So what are they？They are examples. You think she is nice. How nice is she? You may think she is popular. How popular is she? So you have to give some examples”.

Thirdly, she divided the students into several groups. Two or three students make a 33

group. The she gave each group a task to try to collect the related information, words, phrases and expressions and so on which can be used to describe a teacher. Some groups found the information about subjects; some groups found the information about appearance; some…. In this activity, the teacher gave them five minutes to do their tasks.

Analysis: this is a brainstorming concerning the writing topic. Students can find any information related the task, which can have students think freely and put down all the possible ideas that come to their minds.

Fourthly, when the time was up, the teacher picked some students from each group to present their results, and asked other students to add something different.

Then she gave more useful words, phrases and expressions, which they could use in their writing. And she gave some explanation on the new or difficult ones.

Subjects: English, biology, math, art, Chinese, chemistry, music, geography, physics,

history, politics, PE, IT…

Appearance: good-looking, ordinary-looking, old, young, middle-aged, tall, short,

pretty, beautiful, handsome, energetic, slim, serious, wearing glasses…

Personality: nice, friendly, shy, kind, patient impatient, strict, nervous, quiet,

hardworking, enthusiastic, soft, warm-hearted, cold, intelligent,

brilliant, lively, popular, honest, picky, organized, gentle, talkative

Examples: enjoy teaching, prepare his / her lessons carefully, know much about other

subjects, explain…clearly, show examples, give students useful suggestions, help students form a good habit of learning, smile a lot, tell 34

jokes, help students inside and outside school, improve students? ability, introduce different cultures, respect students, make use of computer, have a sense of humor, demand discipline…

Step five

Firstly, the teacher showed a photo of the students? head teacher, and told students that they were going to describe her. In this way, the students? interest was raised, and they got much clear about the topic. It made the writing task become easier.

Secondly, she provided more instructions to make sure that they got clearer about the points and skills of writing a passage. The instructions are that a passage needs a title so that readers can know clearly what you are going to say. And the passage should be written in the third person he\ she. Students can use the simple present tense, present continuous tense and present perfect tense. In their writing, they also need to use some linking words to connect each sentences smoothly and naturally, and these sentences into a whole passage.

Analysis: It is a method of deduction. By providing these instructions explicitly, students can know it clearly what should be paid attention to, the structure of the passage, the tenses and so on. In this way, students can develop the awareness of these points and think them about when they write compositions. It is very helpful to cultivate their good writing habit.

Thirdly, the teacher gave students nine minutes to try to write a short passage to describe the teacher showed on PPT. And she told students: “first, you need to make an outline——what you are going to write first, what comes next, and what to write 35

last. Or at least you need to think about what you are going to write. While students wrote, the teacher walked around the class to give some help. At the moment, she found some students still could not write a word. Then she showed them a few questions, and told them when they answered these six questions, their composition would be finished basically.

Questions:

1. Who is your favorite teacher?

2. Which subject does he\ she teach you?

3. Is he young or old?

4. What does he\ she look like?

5. Is he\ she kind, patient or...

(Try to use some adjs. to describe his\ her personality)

6. Why do you like him\ her? Could you please give some examples?

In this activity, the teacher intended to invite several students to read their passage after they finished it and make some comments. However, because the time was not enough, she gave up the idea, and came to the next step directly.

Analysis: In this step, she just wanted to have a try to cultivate students to be able to finish the writing within the required time. However, in fact, this activity did not go well, because students? English level was not good enough. It proved that the students in senior one needs to enlarge their vocabulary, learn useful phrases and expressions, and practice more writing.

Fourthly, she showed students a great model essay. While reading, she asked 36

students to pay attention to the adjectives and adverbs, linking words, phrases and expressions. Then she encouraged them to learn to use these given phrases and expressions, and the newly learned words and phrases in their writing, which can not only helps them go over and remember these language points, but also make their

writing better.

At the end of the class, she made a conclusion: “when you describe a teacher, you need to tell his or her name, what he or she looks like, his or her personality, and then give some examples to show why you like the teacher”. In this way, the students may have better impression about these. When they wrote, they at least could keep a clear structure.

3.3.2 Questionnaires

Questionnaire I: To learn about the current English writing level of the senior high school students who the author gave the writing class, the questionnaires (Appendix Ⅲ) were used before the class. Then some problems could be found and analyzed, 37

and some suggestions and adaptation could be made.

The number of the students in class four, senior one who participated was fifty-one. Their English marks in senior high school entrance examination were between 79-105. (The full mark of English was 120.) Sixteen students? English marks were between 79-90; thirty-one were between 90-100; four were between 100-105. The questionnaires were fifty-one, and all were valid.

Through statically analysis, whether having an interest in English writing is the biggest problem. Most of the students do not like English writing. However, because the students are required or forced to write, they have to finish the task, and usually do it carelessly. 69% of the students do not know how to write, and do not have much to write; 78% of students think their grammar is bad, which leads to the low score in the writing; 75% of students think that they do not know enough words to help them to express their ideas clearly. As for the English teacher?s evaluation of their writing, few students can pay attention to, and correct the mistakes. They only care about the marks of their writing.

Therefore, from the data analysis, it is easy to conclude that the first and important thing that the English teacher must do is to stimulate the students? interest in writing. They can choose the interesting or familiar things as the writing topics and design some interesting activities in the writing class to raise the students? interest. Besides, the vocabulary and the grammar are still the obstacles for students to write well. In other words, the teachers must give enough guides and have students make adequate preparation in words and grammar before they write. Then they can pay more 38

attention to the content of the writing, and think what to write and how to write, so that they can create good compositions.

Questionnaire II: After the author?s writing class, the second questionnaires (Appendix Ⅳ) were used to find the students? perceptions of the course?s effectiveness and attitudes towards writing practice. The number of students in class four, senior one who participated was fifty-one. All were valid.

The questions on the questionnaires are mainly as follow:

1) Are you interested in this writing class?

2) Are you satisfied with the writing teaching methods in the class?

The analysis result of the second questionnaires is as follows:

From the above chart, it is easy to know that all the students in class four, senior one are interested in this English writing class. And all of them feel satisfied with the teaching method, which includes the activities and exercises done in the class. They felt this writing class was more interesting, and they got much clearer about what to write and how to write. Therefore, it is a successful class. And the teaching method is 39

feasible.

3.3.3 The Second Case: the Author’s Writing Class

As an intern student, one of the tasks was to listen to English classes. Before this writing class, the author had done so for two weeks. Each time, the author just sat at the back of the classroom, and often talked with students during their free time. So a good relationship between the students and the author set up. On September 17th, 2010, the author gave an English writing class to class four. The class lasted forty-five minutes. It was the writing part from Module two My New Teachers. The aim of the class was that students could learn to use adjectives to describe a person, especially their favorite teacher.

Almost all the steps were similar to the special-grade English teacher?s writing class. Only some activities were adapted. Besides, the time of each step was also adjusted.

In step two

When listening to the first writing class, the author noticed that the students in this step were not active as expected. The teacher asked the students to give the answers right after the questions were given. Some students were still unprepared. In fact, they needed time to think and prepare. Besides in the second description, most of students thought that the teacher wanted them to speak out the expected answers. In some way, it prevented students from imagining other words. Most of them at that time just tried to think out the right answer, not the proper answer. Some were afraid to give wrong words, so they didn?t dare to say something.

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Therefore, before students were asked to describe the pictures, one minute was given to them to prepare and think, so that they would not feel nervous and sudden to do the task. Besides, the students were also told explicitly: “this exercise is open, and there are no exact answers, since different people have different opinions. So any answer is welcome”. In this way, they could feel relaxing, and could imagine more and gave more answers. And in fact, the students spoke out more adjectives than the students in the first writing class did:

Students? answers: 1) a popular\ beautiful\ amusing\ big\ wonderful\ relaxing\ good\ great\ warm\ silent\ nice restaurant 2) a cool\ nice\ amazing\wonderful\brilliant\ pleasant\ evening. 3) The food is delicious. 4) Henry is feeling romantic\ happy\ good\ relaxed\ satisfied.

Students? answers: 1) a dirty\ bad\ crowded\ noisy\ badly-organized restaurant 2) a boring\ unpleasant\ cold\ disappointing evening. 3) The food is terrible. 4) Henry is feeling bad\ tired\ terrible\ impatient\ embarrassed.

In step five

The students in the first writing class were required to make a description of the teacher by themselves within the limited time. But in fact, most of them are still not adequate to finish a composition within the limited time. They still need such kind of training. Besides, some students are not good at English, so it is still difficult for them to write something. Therefore, the group work was organized to deal with this step.

The photo of their English teacher Mrs. Zhang was used. Students were given ten 41

minutes to work in pairs and write a description about their English teacher. And then five groups were invited to make their presentation. These students were of different English level. The students of higher level could write more, while the students of lower level wrote little. But the important thing was that the student of lower level could also write something and finish the passage, because their partner helped, and they could also follow the writing of the good students. In this way, they could get more confidence, which was very important to help them study English well. The following are two examples of the students.

The first one by a good student:

My English teacher is called Mrs. Zhang .She has just gone back to china from abroad. She is beautiful. She sometimes strict with our class and works hard. She has an different way to teach us English. She likes to encourage us to ask question and try our best to find the answer. She always help us to learn by ourself. She?s also very funny. She?s amusing and she can laugh with us. She tell jokes in class. She is a popular teacher and she always kind and friendly .I like her sweet smile and attractive. So I always feel free in her class .we all like her. I like English. I like my English teacher too.

The author?s comments: “Excellent! She gave a vivid description. She told us all the elements about the teacher, her name, personality, subject, and appearance. She also gave some examples to tell us why she likes her, right? But there are still some mistakes in your speaking. For example, she is sometimes strict with…; she has a 42

different way…; she always helps us to learn by ourselves; she tells jokes; I like her sweet smile, and it?s attractive. Anyway, that is great.”

The second by a student of lower English level:

My English teacher is Mrs. Zhang. She young and very beautiful. She have lone hair. She like smile. She teach well. We all like she. I think we should study hard. I hope I can study English well.

The author?s comment: “Great! That is so great! He told us all the necessary things to introduce the teacher——the name, subject, appearance, personality and an example. Could you please give more examples about this teacher to tell us why you like her and try to write more about others such as the appearance and personality in order to make your writing vivid. Besides, please pay attention to the third person——she likes…; she teaches…; and we all like her. But all in all, that is great. You?ve made much progress. I do believe that you will study English well. Come on!”

This student?s English was bad. The author once evaluated one of his writing before this one. There were no correct sentences and many grammar mistakes. It was difficult to understand what he wanted to express. But this time he basically finished a short and whole composition, which was the result of cooperation of his whole group. It not only helped him learn something really, but also gave him much self-confidence and had him feel the sense of achievement.

Analysis: in this step, organizing the group writing activity can motivate students to write, and also provide an opportunity for different students to help each other and learn from each other. This activity lowers the difficulty of the task, and gets the 43

class to go more smoothly.

At last, the homework for students was to finish their compositions. They also needed to read their compositions again and make some improvement, and correct some mistakes.

3.4 Evaluation of Composition

The compositions of class four were evaluated from these aspects——contents, structures and grammar mistakes. Remark and some suggestions were given to the writing. The remark and suggestion written in the writing of class four are as follows:

1) You are lucky to have such a good teacher, and I believe you will study geography well. Besides, the structure of your writing is clear, and you use the newly learned words and expressions in your writing. That?s great. But please pay attention to the tenses, phrases and other grammar mistakes. Come on!

2) From your writing, I can really know what kind of teacher he is. Your introduction and description is vivid and impressive. Besides, the structure of your writing is clear. You learned to use linking words and clauses, which make your writing smoother. That?s great. But next time, after you finish your composition, please read it again and try to make some improvement and correct the mistakes. That?s really helpful to improve your writing. Come on!

Evaluating compositions in this way was really a challenging task. Every composition took at least one minute. They need to be read at least two times. For the first time, reading was to get the meaning of it and saw its structure. For the second time, reading was for detailed information——linking words, phrases and sentence 44

patterns, and corrected all the mistakes ——spelling, tense, phrases and so on. In some students? writing, some of their sentences were written in a wrong way or so-called Chinese English. They had to be read many times to try to understand them and rewrite them in right form.

Besides, some students? handwriting was very poor. It was difficult to recognize which word it was and what the real meaning of the sentences were, which made the evaluation more terrible. In the end, it took almost three days to evaluate all of them. It is really a time-consuming and challenging job. As for the real English teachers who have plenty of teaching tasks and less teaching time, it is impossible for them to give writing classes and evaluate students? writing in this way.

In addition, it is also found that many students used the five sentences that their English teacher asked them to memorize in the reading text, and other sentence patterns appeared in the introduction part. It proves that in each module, each part is connected with others. Each part paves way to next part. Besides, reading indeed provides much help for writing, including writing materials, words, phrases, expressions and sentence patterns, and above all writing skills and some ideas and so on.

After evaluating all the compositions, some good writings were picked out, printed them out, and stuck on the wall of the class, so that other students could read them, compared their writings with the good writings, and got to know where to change, and what to improve in their writing. In the meantime, it could also give the writers of the good writings much encouragement and confidence. The good writing could be read in 45

Appendix Ⅴ.

As an intern student, one of the tasks is to help the English check and evaluate the students? homework. When evaluating another composition from Module three which was left by their English teacher, What made the author surprised and moved was that many students in class four rewrote their last composition——my new teachers, with all the mistakes corrected, which was not required beforehand.

Therefore, from the reflection of the students, it is easy to know that students like such form of comment, in which they can not only get encouragement, but also know where to correct and what to improve. It makes the students? problems in writing more concrete, and the students can benefit a lot.

3.5 Teaching of Introduction and Reading Part of Module 2 My New Teachers In the English textbooks of senior high, each module involves several parts. They are introduction, reading, grammar, listening, speaking, function and everyday English, and cultural corner. These parts are related one topic. When it comes to the writing class, it does not mean that the writing is taught alone without any connection with other parts. On the contrary, when the other types of classes are held, the teacher not only teaches the key points of the class, but also offers something more to pave way for the following class directly or indirectly. The following is about the introduction and reading class. In the class, the teacher designed some activities and exercises, which just collected the information and materials for the writing. These indeed paid way for the writing class, and made the class go smoother.

In Module two My New Teachers, the teaching aim is that students learn some 46

words, phrases and sentence patterns, and know how to use them to describe a person. And teachers are required to finish this module within five courses.

This module could be divided into two sections. The introduction part, reading part and writing part could be integrated into a section from which students could learn more about written language, while the listening, everyday English, function and speaking is the other section from which students could learn more about oral expressions.

Introduction: In this part, the teacher asked students to do the exercise three. First, students read the sentences, and then she taught some key words and phrases. For example:

talk a lot be strict with sth. \ sb. make sure that agree with teachers who are amusing and can laugh it doesn?t matter if…

She also told students that these sentences were very useful to describe a person, especially a teacher.

It is a kind of hint to tell students that how and where they can use these, which is input for writing. And students really used some of these in their writing.

Reading: In this part, the teacher first asked students to read the text and go through the whole passage quickly. Then she gave two questions:

1) What does the passage talk about?

Students answered: my new teachers.

2) How do you know?

Students answered: because there are three pictures.

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At the moment, she concluded: “a passage must have a title. Besides, according to the pictures and the numbers of the paragraphs, it is easy to get some information. What?s more important, each paragraph must mainly talk about one person, that is to say, each paragraph of a passage has its own topic and main idea. We should learn to get this information, which is helpful for our reading”.

It is another hint or preparation, which intends to have students realize that a passage must have a title to tell the readers the general ideas of the passage; even if the whole passage has one topic, each paragraph should have its small topic, and they have some connection with the big topic. In this way, the whole passage could be clear and complete.

Next, she asked students to read the whole passage carefully and fill in the chart.

When students finished, she asked them to do group discussion in English to make sure that their answers were complete, and then checked the answers.

This is another preparation for the writing class. By filling in this chart, the students are expected to be able to realize the outline and content of the writing, so that the writing class could go more smoothly.

Thirdly, she explained some language points. For example:

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2) tell jokes

3) I?m going to In addition, she required students to remember five important sentences from the text, which were a kind of materials of the writing, and many students really used in their writing.

1) I think perhaps she was, as it was her first lesson with us.

2) She explains English grammar so clearly that even I can understand it! —— She avoids making you feel stupid!

3) She?s very strict——we don?t dare to say a word unless she asks us to.

4) I think that I?ll do well in the exam with Mrs. Chen teaching me.

5) Mr. Wu?s only been teaching us for two weeks and he?s already very popular.

In the end, she told students: “when you read something, you need to read it with some questions, and try to find the answers to them. And then remember the key words and sentences which are very important and useful in your writing”.

As a matter of fact, all these procedures that teacher designed and all the contents that the teacher taught are all closely related to writing. The teacher made enough preparation for writing. She helped students to find information and collect materials. As a matter of fact, almost all the students indeed learned to use these words, phrases and sentences, which made their writing better. And the most important is that they have learned these and made these become their own.

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Chapter 4 Discussions and Implications

4.1 Discussions on the Cases

Based on the two cases and some linguistic theories and teaching methodology, this chapter is going to discuss the two English classes, and give some implications and suggestions.

4.1.1 Discussion on the First Writing Class

Generally speaking, these two writing classes are successful. To teaching writing effectively, the first thing a teacher needs to do is to motivate learners to write. The topic for writing should be familiar, meaningful and relevant to students? life and interest (Wang 2006). First, the topic from the textbook for this writing is to introduce one of the students? new teachers. This topic is quite close to the students? school life. The senior one students just enter a new senior high school. They meet many new teachers and new classmates. Everything in general is fresh and interesting to them. They must have some thoughts and impression on those things 50

and people. And they are willing to share their thoughts with teachers and students. In this way, they may have much to say. And what they write really comes from their heart, and expresses their real opinions. This topic, therefore, is an easy and interesting one, which students may feel eager to write.

Second, in step two the teacher designed a context of two people having dinner in a restaurant, which is very common thing in students? life. The teacher then asked students to use positive and negative adjectives to describe the same picture. It leaves students enough room for creativity and imagination. Students can use any words to describe for different reasons. So when students were asked to speak their answers and tell others, they could feel themselves out of the ordinary. This can also help students to learn from each other, share their opinions and open their mind. In step three, when teacher showed the very funny cartoon characters and a famous basketball player, who are very well known to students, students could take more interest, and try to find more features of each, and try to think more words to describe each. In this way, students can think and find more words, and learn more words, which is a good way to help students enlarge their vocabulary. The teacher provides familiar reference materials to help learners to learn knowledge in accordance with their similar past experiences, and then they build up their own scientific knowledge. In this way, the acquisition and learning happen (Chiarelott 2007). By setting some certain contexts and giving some interesting things to describe, students? interest is motivated, and the atmosphere of the class becomes easy and relaxing, so that students can take part in the activities with great interest, 51

and is involved in the class happily. The teacher also successfully guides the students to know how to observe things or people and how to describe them, which paves the way for the following steps and helps students conclude what should be write about when introducing a teacher.

Third, in step four, when most elements of the outline were produced by students, teacher still wanted students to know that some examples about the teachers also should be given in their writing. She skillfully connected the text of this module to this activity, so that students could have a deep impression on this point and know what to write and how to write. When the students knew the basic outline of this composition, the teacher began to help students to make preparation for their writing. In step four, in the form of group discussion, the students could work together to collect the related information, and at the same time they could be inspired by each other?s sparkling points and brainstorm ideas for writing. They could also learn some new words and expressions. It also provided an opportunity for different students to exercise different talents.

Therefore, writing tasks should be motivating and communicative (Wang 2006). These activities designed in this writing class can be the examples of this kind. They are interesting and familiar. They not only motivate the students? interest, but also provide students with more opportunities to communicate with their classmates, partners and teacher.

Fourth, comparatively speaking, describing people is often considered a difficult task in writing mainly due to lack of vocabulary. Reviewing words that students have 52

already learned and introducing new vocabulary are important preparations for the students to begin writing. A few samples can also give students some models to follow (Wang 2006). In this way, the activities from step one to step four in this class all pave way for the writing, and make enough preparation for writing. They not only give large vocabulary and phrases, but also many expressions and examples. What?s more important, during the process, students can make the outline themselves with the help of the teacher. When the teacher gave some instructions on person, tenses, linking words and so on, the students could make it clear what should be paid attention to and could avoid some mistakes when they write. By asking students to write in class, the teacher tried to cultivate the students? ability to write something within the required time, and put what they have learned and prepared into use. It really connects the input and output smoothly. Besides, the writing task in the last activity is to describe the students? Chinese teacher, whom they are quite familiar with. In this way, the students? interest is again stimulated. At the end of the class, the teacher gave a model essay which described their Chinese teacher. So she gave more materials for students, and they could follow the model essay to finish their writing better.

However, nothing in the world is absolute. There is no exception in the English teaching. The biggest problem the teacher meets with is the time. The teacher gives more time for students to think, discuss and make preparation, which is indispensible, because only when students have the right thinking, and know the right way to write, can they write smoothly with fewer difficulties. On the other hand, in activity two of 53

step five, the students had less time to finish their writing. Meanwhile, students? English level was also an obstacle that prevents them writing quickly. So the teacher had to give up the idea to read some students? passages and make some comments. When the teacher organizes class presentations or group presentations, it provides opportunities for students to share their writings and learn from each other (Wang 2006). Therefore, if the teacher can improve this activity, this class could be better. The teacher has mentioned these in the interview after class and advised adjusting the time of each step and doing some improvement.

4.1.2 Discussion on the Second Writing Class

In this writing class, based on the first writing class, some adaptation and improvement were done to make the class better. The advantage is that the input and output are connected more smoothly. More time is given in the last speaking task, and the students are allowed to have more time to prepare, so that they can create a better one. Besides, this activity is organized in the form of pair work, which can make the task much easier, make students feel more relaxed and confident, and get the class to become more efficient and effective. Since writing is an individual activity in most cases. But if teachers can organize group writing activities, students are motivated to write. They also learn to help each other and learn from each other. When the students write a passage together, they indeed help each other, collect related information and discuss them to decide which should be included and which should be not. When some students of good English level read their writings, the author found that some students of lower level were trying to adapt theirs. When these students of lower level were 54

invited to share their writing, they were happy to read. And their passages indeed became better. It is because they get help from their partners, and follow the writing of the good students. It also gives students of lower English level much confidence, and stimulates their interest in English, because from their reflection in class, it can be told that they feel that they are making progress and have a sense of achievement.

However, there is also a drawback. The author expected more from students. Most of them are supposed to be able to finish the task within the ten minutes, speak more, and have vivid description with enough examples to explain why they like their teachers. Because various activities had been used to guide them, help them to make much preparation and provide them with many materials such as words, phrases, expressions and so on. Besides, when they studied the text of this module, their teacher had taught much related information and knowledge. In fact, there were still some students who could not produce something (Of course, later in their homework——writing, these students were also found to be able to write well, and express themselves clearly. The reason why they could not do it well in class may be that they need more time to think, and digest what they have learned before they write. This process could be the intake process. Because of the difference of each individual, some students can finish task quickly, while some need to spend long time.) So when planning and designing a class, the teacher not only needs to prepare the teaching contents and activities, but also prepare students to try to get all the students involved in the class to the great extent. Such class could be real successful class. This could be a lesson from this class as an inexperienced teacher.

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4.1.3 Discussion on the Evaluation of the Students’ Writing

The comment given by the author to the students follows the “praise——proper correction——suggestion” model. According to Krashen?s Affective Filter Hypothesis, motivation, self-confidence and anxiety greatly influence second language acquisition. So the author always gave some approval of their writing first, for example, “You are lucky to have such a good teacher, and I believe you will study geography well.” Then, the comment focuses on the content, for example, “From your writing, I can really know what kind of teacher he is. Your introduction and description is vivid and impressive.” Third, some comment about the structure, for example, “Besides, the structure of your writing is clear. You learned to use linking words and clauses, which make your writing smoother.” Fourth, some suggestion or encouragement will be given, for example, “next time, after you finish your composition, please read it again and try to make some improvement and correct the mistakes. That?s really helpful to improve your writing. Come on!” Some good compositions were also printed, and stuck them on the wall of the classroom. It is expected that this could give these writers some encouragement and provide an opportunity for other students to learn something. When evaluating other compositions, the author found that some students really rewrote this composition with all the mistakes corrected. From this phenomenon, by evaluating in this way, the students can really be motivated and get much confidence, and get rid of their anxiety. In other words, giving such comments really produce good and positive effects.

However, evaluating in this way is really a time-consuming and exhausting task. It 56

actually took three days to evaluate 51 compositions. And process was also tiring. Because in some writing, it was difficult to understand what they wanted to say. Their poor language led to wrong expressions or so-called Chinese English. Some students? handwriting was really awful, so it was difficult to recognize what the sentence was. If all the English teachers comment on writing in this way, their work would be much burdened. And it is also impossible in real teaching.

Therefore, the teachers can do this kind evaluation from time to time. In this way, the students can learn pay attention to the way of evaluation, and the points that he\ she needs to improve. They can also cultivate the ability to comment their works and their classmates?.

4.1.4 Discussion on the Teaching Reading in This Module

As mentioned in chapter three, the students? English teacher, as a matter of fact, had paved way for the writing part. She not only told students some skills, such as the title and the structures of the text, and asked them to pay attention to some things that are important and necessary in writing, but also helped students make much preparation implicitly, for example, teaching words, phrases and expressions, and asking students to memorize some important sentences from the text. She asked students to read the text and fill in the form, which is a good way to tell people how to introduce and describe a teacher. With these preparations, the writing class then could go smoothly and efficiently.

When evaluating the compositions, many students were found to use the sentences that were required to memorize, other phrases and expressions in their writing. Even if 57

some students put these sentences directly in their writing without any change, they connected them with passage so well and natural that it produces good result. So if the students can make what they have learned and memorized become part of their knowledge and learn to use them properly, that is wonderful. In fact, for students in senior high schools, especially for senior one and two, writing is not only an activity that is use to learn and consolidate what they have learned, but also an activity for communication. As for this topic, the real reader of their composition is the teacher. From their writing, the teacher can know learn about students? thoughts about the new school, their class, and their new teachers.

4.2 Implications Based on the Cases

Some advantages and disadvantages of the writing class have been discussed and found, so when an English teacher is trying to design a writing class, the follow suggestions and implications are worth taking into consideration.

4.2.1 For the Design of an English Writing Class

It is well-known that writing is a kind of output which should be based on the input. Input and output are mutually dependent, without either of which language learning cannot be successful. Input and output are both significant in language acquisition, especially for the students who are learning a second or foreign language. There could be no output without input. Input and output can promote each other. Without input, the act of output cannot go well. Therefore, in an ideal writing class, there should be much input as preparation. The English teacher needs to provide students many materials which are necessary in the writing. However, if the teacher just gives these 58

words or expressions to the students directly, and students just learn them passively, the result of the class cannot be good. Because this teaching method cannot stimulate students? interest and motivate them to write. So it is important and necessary to design some contexts and activities to get students involved and make the acquisition happen in a natural way. Context is a social environment where people can engage in all kinds of activities, in which they can not only perform their various abilities, but also get much information, and learn many skills (Li 2008).

Besides, current methodology does recognize the place of written exercises as a means to consolidate language already studied (Wang 2006). As for the senior high school students, especially for the senior one and senior two, the main purpose of writing is to use what they have learned in their writing in order to consolidate the learned knowledge. They are still on a stage to enlarge their vocabulary, master the grammar knowledge, and practice the basic language skills. Only when they reach an extent that they can express themselves, can they be trained to write more beautiful words and passages with original ideas. Therefore, when designing a writing class, the activities and input should not be separate from the other parts of each module. On the stage of language learning, the students do many activities while keeping an eye on certain language elements. So in this way, some writing activities can be between writing for learning and writing for communication.

4.2.2 For the Evaluation of the Writing

Giving comments is integral part of teaching writing. Every student wants their 59

compositions to be read seriously by the teacher or their classmates. In some way, it is a kind of communication between teacher and students. So giving a mark or words like ?good? or ?very good? will not be very helpful for students to develop their writing skills. Because they really do not know which part is good, why it is good, and if there are some disadvantages and so on. Therefore, the teachers? feedback should include at least three aspects. They are positive comments on the good features of the piece of writing; area for improvement; the teacher?s opinion on the issue the students has discussed in his\ her writing (Wang 2006). In this way, the real communication between teacher and students begins, and a trust between them is built up. When the students read the teacher?s detailed comments covering those three parts, they may feel more motivated to write. Because they know that the teacher takes their writing seriously and discusses with them in meaningful ways. When giving comment on the students? writing, the author gave such comments according to the above three elements. It is also a “praise-proper correction-suggestion” model. The result is indeed wonderful and effective. Some students really rewrote their compositions and corrected all the mistakes. Therefore, evaluating in this way could really stimulate their interest and motivate them to write. Besides, some good compositions were also printed and stuck on the wall of classroom for the purpose of encouraging the writers and providing an opportunity for students to learn from each other. It could enable students to experience a sense of achievement.

However, evaluating compositions in this way is really a time-consuming and 60

challenging task. The real English teacher in senior high school do not has enough time and energy to do this. So teachers can perform it from time to time. Besides, guiding students to evaluate their own writing and their classmates? is also a good way to help them improve their writing. After that, the teacher gives some oral comments in the class, which can also motivate every student.

4.2.3 For the Teaching of Other Types of Lesson

In the textbook of senior high school, each module basically includes the introduction, reading, speaking, listening, writing, grammar and cultural corner part. Generally, all these are around the same topic. Each part paves the way for the others, and makes preparations for others, so they are related with each other. Therefore, when the teachers design the classes of a module, they should pay attention to make all the classed connect into a whole structure. When teaching each part, they should directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly permeate some other information to make preparations for the next English class.

As for the writing class, the reading, speaking and listening classes should provide the related information and knowledge beforehand. And in these classes, teachers should also organize students to do various activities and have enough exercises of all kinds to cultivate their ability to learn words, phrases and others and use them into their output. In this way, when students write, they have known much information and knowledge. With the guidance of the teacher in writing class, the class can go effectively and efficiently, and they can write smoothly. Only in this way, can students? writing can improve bit by bit. A good writing class should have the support 61

of other types of lesson. In people daily lives, they are constantly performing tasks that involve a natural integration of language skills simply because skills are rarely used in isolation (Wang 2006).

Chapter 5 Conclusion

English writing is an important part in English study. A proper way to teach English writing in senior high school is needed. Based on many writing theories and the analysis of two English writing classes, this chapter concludes the main findings of this thesis and provides some suggestions.

5.1 Main Findings

First, even if there are many writing teaching approaches at home and abroad nowadays, most of English teachers in Chinese senior high schools do not often use either of them. In some cases, they just adapt a few steps of them. Since students in senior high schools, especially senior one and two, still need to enlarge vocabulary, master the grammar knowledge, and practice writing according to the model essays. Their English level is not high enough to create something of their own and express themselves correctly and clearly. The requirement for the students is just to learn to 62

use the new words, phrases and sentences patterns to make correct sentences, and compose a complete passage.

Second, the proper way to teaching writing is to design various activities and context, and give students enough input and opportunities to do output in a writing class. Motivation is very important in language learning. No matter what methods teachers use, motivating students is always very important in teaching writing. A meaningful and familiar topic at first is very important, which can motivate students to write. Besides, getting students in some context can make the class relaxing and happy, help stimulate students? interest, and have them imagine and learn more. Thirdly, writing tasks can involve a lot of oral discussions. Writing and speaking are always related to each other because both are forms of language production, and much writing is done based on what has been discussed in group work. Since the students are still on the stage of language learning, the activities should be between writing for learning and writing for communication.

Third, comments on the students? writing should be positive and encouraging, detailed and constructive. It had better be the “praise-proper correction-suggestion” model. Writing can be a way of communication between teacher and students. From the students writing, the teacher can know what the students think, and from the teacher comments, a student can know the teacher?s opinions about the content, the structures and the mistakes of his or her writing. Besides, displaying good compositions of students can not only enable students to experience a sense of achievement, but also provide students an opportunity to learn from each other. As for 63

the limitations of such way of evaluation, evaluating in this way is really a time-consuming and exhausting task. The teachers can do this from time to time. They can also cultivate the ability to comment their works and their classmates?.

Fourth, in each module in the textbook, there are different types of lessons—— listening, speaking, reading and writing. Each lesson is closely related to others. Therefore, when teaching other lessons, it is important and necessary to permeate some related information and knowledge explicitly or implicitly, and make some preparation for the writing class. In this way, the writing class can go efficiently and effectively.

5.2 Conclusion

The English writing teaching in senior high schools has been discussed from both theoretical and practical dimensions. Generally speaking, this study is meaningful to the English writing teaching in Chinese senior high schools.

Theoretically, the writing class investigated in this research is not based on a narrative understanding of writing. It focuses on the essential writing teaching nature in senior high schools, and concerns about the roles and identities in the EFL classrooms. It offers references for the researches on the writing teaching in Chinese senior high schools.

Practically, this research also gives some implications to Chinese English teacher in senior high schools, so that they can reflect on their own writing teaching, and improve their teaching. The final goal is to help students improve their writing ability.

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However, although the research has an important effect on future English writing teaching and learning, there are still some limitations. First, the number of the subjects of the questionnaires before and after writing class is not enough. As interning in one senior class, the author got the instruction of one English teacher. Because of the limited teaching time and some other factors, the author could not invite more students to take part in the research. The subjects are only from one class in a senior high school, not including other schools, so the conclusions are limited and some data can not represent students? opinions in other schools. Second, the research is just conducted on one teacher and one class. So the ways of teaching writing analyzed and concluded is feasible and effective for the students in one class. It cannot be proved to be feasible for students in other classes similarly. All in all, the study on English writing teaching in senior high schools is necessary. For the future studies, more writing classes could be conducted to make this writing case more perfect and appropriate for most of senior high schools.

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