Abstract

Due to the long-term neglect and slow progress of English writing teaching, writing is regarded as one of the most difficult parts in English learning for senior high school students, which is also the dominating aspect of English teaching research. Therefore, finding out efficient teaching approach and designing English writing class have become an important orientation for English educators in China. Based on Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, Swain’s Output Hypothesis and Task-based Teaching application, the researcher put forward Reading for Writing Classes with the help of practical teaching experiment. This paper studies the differences between experimental class with Reading for Writing class and controlled class. According to the data analysis of two writing exams and the interviews, the results of the experiment and teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards Reading for Writing class have proved that Reading for Writing classes are beneficial for students’ writing ability improvement and task-based teaching is widely used and effective in senior high school English teaching. Based on all of these, suggestions for the design of future effective writing classes are given.

Key word: Reading for Writing Class; Task-based Teaching; Language Input and Output Hypothesis; Writing Classes

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Significance of the Research-2

1.2.1 Theoretical Significance-2

1.2.2 Practical Significance-2

1.3 Questions of this research-2

2. Literature Review-3

2.1 Task-Based Teaching Approach-3

2.1.1 Definition-3

2.1.2 Basic elements-3

2.2 The integration of reading and writing-3

2.2.1 The nature of reading-3

2.2.2 The nature of writing-4

2.3 The connections between reading and writing-5

3. Theoretical Framework-6

3.1 The Input Hypothesis-6

3.2 The output Hypothesis-7

3.3 Task-based Language Teaching-7

4. Research Design-9

4.1 Subjects-9

2. Instruments-9

3. Treatment-10

4. Procedure-10

First exam-11

Teaching experiment in the experimental class-11

Final writing test-12

5. Data Collection and Analysis-13

5.1 The results of the first exam-13

5.1.1 The results of the first exam in terms of content-13

5.1.2 The results of the first exam in terms of organization-14

5.1.3The results of the first exam in terms of language proficiency-14

5.2 The results of the final writing test-15

5.2.1 The results of the final writing test in terms of content-15

5.2.2 The results of the final writing test in terms of organization-16

5.2.3The results of the first exam in terms of language proficiency-16

5.3 The Result of the Interview-17

6. Conclusion-20

6.1 Major Findings of the Study-20

6.2 Teaching Implication-20

6.3 Limitations of the study-21

6.4 Suggestion for Future Study-21

References-22

Appendix-24

Appendix 1 First Exam-24

Appendix 2 Final Writing Test-25

Appendix 3 Analytic Rating Criterion (Cohen 2005)-26