The Importance of English Writing in Middle School1

1、中学英语写作的重要性the importance of english writingin middle schoolabstract: in resent years, writing as a communication way is extremely important. english writing is the perfect embodiment for students english level. it gives us a vivid pictures of students how to master english knowledge. however, it is

2、always a problem that how to improve middle school students writing skill in english writing. in the process of writing, students will be not avoiding to have some difficulties. so, they will make a variety of mistakes. in order to cultivate the practical writing ability, we should consider the writ

3、ing teaching as one of the essential contents and tasks in middle school in english teaching. this paper expounds the significance of english writing in middle school from different angle. and it reveals some difficulties and common errors in the process of english writing. finally, several methods

4、are put forward to solve these problems. key words: writing; cultivate; writing ability; methods and strategies摘 要： 近几年来，写作作为一种交际方式尤其重要。英语写作是学生英语语言运用能力的综合体现,是学生英语学习程度的实际反映。但当前的中学生写作能力的训练与提高一直是当前中学英语教学的难点。在写作的过程当中，中学生们不可避免的会遇到很多困难,会犯各种各样的错误。因此为了培养和提高学生们的写作能力，根据资料显示发现教师们应把写作教学当作中学英语教学中重要的内容和任务之一。本文首先从

5、不同角度阐述了中学英语写作教学的意义，文章揭示了一些在英语写作过程中会出现的困难和常见的错误，最后，还提出了几个解决的方法，可供参考。关键字： 写作；培养；写作能力；方法和策略 contents. introduction.1. learners difficulties in cultivating writing ability.3a. not accustomed to using english writing pattern.3 b. the influence of mother tongue.3c. lack of good bases in english4d. lack of

6、 more english writing practices.4.common errors in the process of writing.4a. mistaken ideas on the dew of the methods of writing training.4b. lack of practice.5c. psychological problems.5. the methods and strategies of cultivating writing ability.6 a. providing more knowledge about other countries.

7、7b. doing more reading.7c. enhancing vocabulary8d. doing more useful exercises.8e. motivating students to write.8f. feedback timely9g. recitation is an effective way in english writing.9. conclusion.9work cited.11the importance of english writing in middle school. introductionthere are four basic sk

8、ills in the process of english learning. they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. writing is a kind of comprehensive expression ability. and writing is the same important as the other basic skills. “within the communicative framework of language teaching, the skill of writing enjoys specia

9、l statusit is via writing that a person can communicate a variety of messages to a close or distant, know or unknown readers. such communication is extremely important in the modern world”(celce-murcia 207). it is one of the essential content and task to cultivate writing ability in middle school te

10、aching. writing ability belongs to written communication ability. “writing can give a voice to shy students as writing can serve as a medium through which less confident students can communicate with their teacher and others”(wang 207). “moreover, writing can be less threatening for anxious students

11、 as it gives them time to think about their meaning and purpose” (morgan 151). written language is a form of language communication as same as spoken language. writing is an important communication ability to use written language. secondly, cultivating writing ability is one of the english teaching

12、purposes in middle schools. it is a kind of language skill as same as listening, speaking and reading. the four basic skills are complementary to each other. if one of them is weak, the other three skills will be affected. developing the writing ability can combine with some activities of listening,

13、 speaking and reading. and if the writing ability is improved, the other basic skills have improved enormously. thirdly, practicing writing makes students master language knowledge exactly. writing can raise awareness of how language works. through writing, students will become familiar with the lin

14、guistic and social conventions of writing in english. in the process of learning english, whether you practice writing, the results are different obviously. for example, through writing to recite new words, students can remember 91 percent. on the contrary, dont use this method, students only rememb

15、er 58 percent. fourthly, writing is an important way to check teaching effect. it may be used as a testing device, not necessary to grade the students, but rather to provide feedback on what the students have learned. writing is tangible and has high “face validity.” thus, the ability to write is co

16、mmonly viewed as evidence of students having learned the language and a visible record of what has been achieved. writing can reflect the real standard of students english learning exactly. so, teachers can know the problems and weak links of students in the process of english learning exactly. so f

17、ar, written examination is a main way to check english learning.“writing is a very important way of communication in our daily life. the ability to write in english is recognized in society and in the schools as an important objective of foreign language teaching and learning” (shu 78). the need for

18、 writing in modern society is much more extensive than what we imagine. its true that, in everyday life, writing can help us do many things such as recording the history of human civilization and social development, and communicating with others. with the fast development of chinas economy and overa

19、ll national strength, more and more contact with the outside world makes writing skills more necessary than ever before. modern technology does not diminish the function of writing. furthermore, in many places, writing might be more proper and feasible than oral communication to achieve a desired re

20、sult. more and more people begin to realize that writing is an indispensable tool for them to exchange information, share experience, and build and strengthen their friendship with foreign friends.because of our one-sided emphasis on “listening and speaking first”, it appeared that teachers ignore d

21、espise even to cultivate writing ability. finally, students writing is scratchy and perfunctory and it is hard to distinguish. there are lots of mistakes in their works including make sentences, paragraph. and it is more difficult to write whole passage. even students dont know how to write letters,

22、 notes and notices. in order to cultivate the practical writing ability, we should attach great importance to this phenomenon. so this paper will talk about the importance of writing ability, common errors in the process of writing, the learners difficulties in cultivating writing ability and the te

23、aching methods and strategies of cultivating writing ability. ii. learners difficulties in cultivating writing abilitythe ability to express ones ideas in writing in a second or foreign language and to do so with reasonable coherence and accuracy is a major achievement; many non-native speakers of e

24、nglish never truly master this skill. following are the main difficulties in writing in the students of middle school.a. not accustomed to using english writing pattern. to some extent, this is also a cultural issue as chinese rhetoric encourages an inductive way of reasoning and expression. therefo

25、re, chinese students prefer to use quotations and paraphrases rather than draw their own conclusions or observations. nevertheless, quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing from other authors without the proper acknowledgment are still plagiarism. these are some of the most common problems contained in

26、 the english writing of chinese students and to one degree or another, can be found in almost all their compositions.b. the influence of mother tongue. patterns of chinese thought, no doubt influenced by culture, are different than those of the west. this issue can create serious problems in writing

27、 english. many essays that i read contain complete sentences that are intelligible, because the writer is thinking in chinese and writing english words. this situation is most unacceptable as it not only completely confuses the reader, but the work also loses its credibility and is not considered wo

28、rthwhile reading.writing，as one of the basic skills of english learning, refers to the ability to use english to express ones inner thought，which is supposed to have been put stress on. up to now, however, many problems still exist: why those english compositions by chinese students are more like tr

29、anslation products literally than a real english essay? why it is so easy to differ from an article by a chinese to one by a native english speaker? undoubtedly, the lack of english knowledge accounts for one of the phenomena. on the other hand, the overlook of culture instruction makes it unavoidab

30、le. it is wellknown that culture, language and thought are an organic part, in which the interaction occurs among the three factors. as a result, cultural differences, not only in the form, sentences and vocabularies but also in the way of thinking and expression habit, all be seen obviously from a

31、writing product by a chinese. c. lake of good bases in english.in the period of when i was an intern. i found about 80 percent of middle school students often made mistakes in word spelling. some students do not like study english because they have not good bases. for example: lake of grammar, they

32、will not familiar with sentence structure; lake of background knowledge, they will not clearly well know the main idea of the article and lake of good motivation, they will not interested in writing. above all, if students lake of good bases, their writing ability will not be good.d. lake of more en

33、glish writing practices.some students do not like writing, when they have chance to practice writing, they always feel boring. writing involves some aspects; they will pay more attention to reading and speaking etc. practice makes perfect. so if students want improving english writing, they should c

34、ultivate their interest. they will more read, more write. they should have a good habit. they can write some small article in one or two days. if they insist on writing practices, it will helpful for you writing.iii. common errors in the process of writinga. mistaken ideas on the dew of the methods

35、of writing trainingenglish is not our mother tongue, so students will have more concerns about the accuracy of their work than native speakers, but it is important to realize that writing is much more linguistic accuracy. when writing, students lay more emphasis on the grammar, spelling than the con

36、tent and the idea. in actual fact, it is a waste of time and energy. there is no help for the training of english writing. also, there is little effect to improve the students writing ability. students are seldom told the importance of the instruction of writing and show less interest in writing cou

37、rses. for example, they have come to understand that writing is done for teachers to examine and that form takes precedence over meaning. they have been drilled in rules and formulaic principles and have little awareness of audience and reader perception. in writing courses, the teacher teaches writ

38、ing techniques in the order of word, sentence, paragraph and discourse. the lessons seem quite abstract and dull and make the students sleepy. they assume that writing is done in response to tests or homework assignments that are evaluated by the teacher: they usually come to a writing course with a

39、n anxiety about writing and about their ability as writers. when teaching students how to write, teachers plan the lessons, carry out activities, face problems, and look for approaches. however, students writing works are still full of repetition of mistakes, inadequate development of ideas, but lac

40、k of involvement in the topics, and confidence in their ability to write well in english. the teachers doubt that their present writing instruction doesnt meet their needs or the goals of english writing courses. in fact, the methods of writing training dont just mean the grasp of the theory and str

41、ategies. how to put the theory and strategies into practice is the key factor of the success of failure.b. lack of practicechinese middle school students are mainly trained to succeed in the national college entrance exam through learning how to tackle those multiple choice questions. they are not i

42、nstructed comprehensively in the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. “writing receives the least attention, and in the most case, no attention at all. deadly lack of practice, our students would be surely at a loss as to what to do in the writing class” (xu 122). the best way to lear

43、n to write is by writing. practice makes perfect. so is english writing. senior middle school english teachers should instruct their students that writing ability can be improved simply through writing. in our teaching practice, we spend much more time and energy in reading than in writing. few teac

44、hers and students have enough awareness of the integration between reading and writing. in fact, although reading takes up most of students time in english class and in various kinds of exams in china, they still find it so hard to apply what they have learnt in the reading activities into their act

45、ual compositions. on the contrary, if senior middle school english teachers demand their students to spend more time and energy on writing, emphasize the relationship between reading and writing and try to instruct the students to learn writing through reading, they will certainly help their student

46、s benefit from an interactive play between reading and writing and thereby improve their comprehensive language skills.c. psychological problemslearning to speak is a natural and inborn faculty, but learning to write is artificial, a process of social conditioning. so there are many differences betw

47、een them. speech is carried out among persons as the main way of communication. of course, the circumstance of speech is indispensable for the formation of speaking ability. it is the process of language acquisition. but learning to write requires some kind of conscious effort, effective instruction

48、 and constant practice. therefore, the writer is under quite a different environment between the activities of writing and that of speaking. communication by speech usually takes place in a context that often makes references clear, direct interaction possible and immediate feedback feasible. writin

49、g, on the other hand, is essentially a solitary activity in which the writer has to create a context and therefore the meaning expressed has to be fully explicit. this may result in the writers psychological barriers when they are producing a written text. the writer needs to anticipate possible dif

50、ficulties that the reader might have and take these into account in creating his text. the lack of direct contact with the reader makes it impossible for him to make use of direct feedback to adjust his message, by which communication is facilitated. there are two mainly kinds of writing approaches:

51、 one is product-oriented approach; the other is process-based approach. the most important principle of product approach is that writing is the product of accurate language, while the key factor of process approach is that teaching focuses on the writing process rather than the final product. howeve

52、r, according to horowitz, in essence, the process approach overemphasizes the individuals psychological functioning and neglects the social cultural context. the methods and strategies of cultivating writing ability “it is important to remember that in the english as a second language/english as a f

53、oreign language context, writing, likes the other language skills, need to be dealt with at the particular level of linguistic and discourse proficiency that the intended students have reached” (raimes 64). the proposed sequence of activities will start with primary focus on the mechanical aspects o

54、f writing, as the basic instrumental skill, and gradually move on to a combination of “purpose for writing” and language focus. eventually, the communicative perspective will become more central to such writing activities.writing activities should serve to encourage a process of brainstorming, draft

55、ing, writing, feedback, revising and editing, which proceeds in a cyclical fashion resembling the writing process of a real writer. these types of activities should encourage the idea that learning to write is more important than creating a final product; it is the learning of a series skills leadin

56、g to that product.teacher does not only pay attention to what students do while they are writing, it also attaches great importance to what they and the teacher do before they start writing and after they finish writing. the main procedures of process writing include creating a motivation to write;

57、brainstorming; mapping; free writing; outlining; drafting; editing (peer editing and self-editing); revising; proofreading and conferencing.maybe it is unimportant what kind of writing method is chosen. the most important thing is to evoke students writing interest and motivation. however, different kinds of writing have different conventions for their organization and expression. as an instructor, we should recognize the importance of the theory of writing. according the kinds of writing, we can