A Study on the College Students' Writing Using Group Discussion to Help Students Generate Information

1、a study on the college students writing: using group discussion to help students generate informationsubmitted by dai feistudent id number w2005a2503c0002supervised by cao yinga paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of bachelor of artsthe institute of online educat

2、ionbeijing foreign studies university摘要对于非英语专业的大学生，写作是英语学习过程中必不可少的技能。在进行图表类作文教学的过程中，作者发现尽管学生一直很认真地进行写作练习，但是他们写出来的文章却不理想。由于传统写作教学中普遍缺少写作前的准备工作，因此学生进行写作时不知道从何写起。导致这种现象产生的直接原因是教师往往在教学过程中忽略了指导学生在动笔写作之前对写作中需要的信息进行生成和组织。为了提高学生的写作水平，作者采用了更有效的一种交际语言教学法小组讨论的教学方式来对学生进行技能训练，指导学生写作前生成图表类作文中需要的信息。本研究试图验证使用此种教学方法

3、是否合理，并提出如下假设：学生通过使用小组讨论的方法来生成写作中的信息，可以提高他们的写作水平，写出更符合要求的文章。本研究把某职业技术学院大学二年级两个班的学生，各35人，分为实验组和对比组。实验组采用加入小组讨论的教学方法进行写作教学，对比组采用传统的教学方法进行教学。两个班级的学生写作水平相当，并且由同一个教师进行写作教学，在本研究之前采用了相同的教学方法。作者使用了三周的时间对所设计的项目进行实施。在进行教学的前后，作者分别对学生进行了测试，收集了学生的测试成绩作为对比的数据，并且在实验后收集了学生的问卷调查和访谈记录，将收集的数据进行分析。通过对数据的分析，可以反映出使用小组讨论的方

4、法来引导学生生成写作中的信息，学生的写作能力有了明显提高。本次研究的研究成果，可以提供给教师一种提高学生写作能力的教学方法，并且可以使学生了解写作中准备信息这一环节的重要性，使他们在今后的学习中养成良好的写作习惯。关键词： 英语写作；教学法；小组讨论；交际语言教学法；图表类作文abstractwriting is a basic skill for students of non-english majors to learn english. during the writing classes, the author found most of the students could not

5、 write satisfactory compositions when they were required to describe facts or figures presented in one or more graphs, charts or tables. the main reason was that teachers did not provide students with effective pre-writing activities. as a result, students felt difficult to start their writing.in or

6、der to improve students writing skills, the author introduced a communicative language teaching approach, using the method of group discussion to help students generate information for their writings. this project attempted to verify whether it can develop the students writing ability to generate in

7、formation for compositions based on charts. the project hypothesized that students writing ability can be improved and their compositions cover the most important points in writing directions.in this study, two classes of grade two in a vocational and technology institute, with 35 students in each c

8、lass, were divided into target group and control group. before the project, the two groups were taught by the same teacher with the same teaching method and had the same level of english writing. the project was done from october 11th to october 27th. the target group received the communicative lang

9、uage teaching approach, and the control group was taught by the traditional pedagogy. data collection methods like pre-test paper, post-test paper, questionnaire, and interview notes were used. the data collected by the researcher proved that the students writing ability was improved by using the me

10、thod of group discussion.the result of this study provides teachers with a better way of developing students writing skills. it also helps students to get into the habit of preparing information before their writing in their future study.key words: english writing; english teaching; group discussion

11、; communicative language teaching approach; composition based on chartstable of contentspages1. introduction 1 1.1 background1 1.2 significance of the project1 1.3 brief description of the project12. project problem identification and analysis2 2.1 project problem2 2.2 problem analysis32.2.1 socrati

12、c dialogue32.2.2 cause analysis32.2.3 summary of problem analysis43. project objective and hypothesis5 3.1 project objective5 3.2 project hypothesis54. project rationale5 4.1 traditional pedagogy and communicative language teaching5 4.2 process in teaching writing6 4.3 pre-writing7 4.3 advantages of

13、 group work85. project design 9 5.1 target group and control group10 5.2 teaching materials10 5.3 activity design10 5.4 research tools135.4.1 pre-test and post-test135.4.2 questionnaire145.4.3 interview notes146. project implementation14 6.1 grouping14 6.2 the introduction of the method and strategy

14、15 6.3 organization of activities15 6.4 performance checking15 6.5 summary of the project implementation156.5.1 the teaching process in week 1156.5.2 the teaching process in week 2166.5.3 the teaching process in week 3177. results and discussion17 7.1 students self-evaluation in the questionnaire17

15、7.2 students answers in the interview187.3 comparison of the pre-test and post-test187.3.1 comparison of the mean scores187.3.2 comparison of the target group and control group207.3.3 performance of the control group227.3.4 performance of the target group227.4 findings from the project237.5 unsolved

16、 problem238. conclusion24bibliography26appendix i. questionnaire27appendix ii. interview notes28appendix iii. pre-test paper30appendix iv. post-test paper31appendix v. the standard of grading32appendix vi. lesson plan33a study on the college students writing: using group discussion to help students

17、generate information1. introduction1.1 backgroundwriting is a basic skill for students who study languages. nowadays, many english teachers recognize the importance of training students writing skills. they believe that students can write better compositions after receiving the special training on w

18、riting.the researcher has the opportunity to take part in the lessons of english writing as a teacher in a vocational and technology institute. after one semester, it seems that there is a serious problem in writing lessons. the students could not write satisfactory compositions, especially when the

19、y were asked to describe facts or figures presented in one or more graphs, charts or tables. the problem in writing lessons shows that the improvement of writing lessons is needed.1.2 significance of the projectin order to help students prepare information for their compositions, the researcher desi

20、gned this project. the project hypothesized that students writing ability can be improved and their compositions cover the most important points in the diagram. therefore, the significance of the project can be shown in the following two aspects: 1) it provides teachers with a better way of developi

21、ng students writing skills.2) it helps students to get into the habit of preparing information before writing a composition.1.3 brief description of the projectthe project uses a communicative language teaching approachthe method of group discussion for helping students start their writing. all the

22、subjects in the project were sophomore of a vocational and technology institute in jinan.the project has lasted for three weeks. six writing topics are prepared for the whole teaching process, two of them are used for pre-test and post-test. they are suitable for the students present english level a

23、nd the teaching content is related to the students curriculum.in order to make a comparison between the method of group discussion and the traditional pedagogy, students were divided into target group and control group. the target group received the communicative language teaching approach, and the

24、control group was taught by the traditional pedagogy. data collection methods like pre-test paper, post-test paper, questionnaire, and interview notes were also used, so that the result of the research can be recorded.2. problem identification and analysis2.1 project problemin a vocational and techn

25、ology institute, students have difficulty in starting their writing when they are asked to describe facts or figures presented in one or more graphs, charts or tables. their compositions can not cover the most important and the most relevant points in the diagram, so the students can not get high sc

26、ores.in the teaching process, the researcher learned that many students showed a negative attitude towards english writing. some students even refused to write compositions because they did not know how to start their writing.the problem is that students do not have enough information to start their

27、 writing. most of the students can not cover the important points in their compositions because they have little training in generating information. one of the most fundamental reason for the problem is that activities for preparing information which can be called pre-writing activities are not cons

28、idered in the traditional pedagogy.2.2 problem analysisthe problem mentioned above is very common in writing classes, and many teachers feel it is very difficult to solve the problem. in order to find the causes of the problem, the researcher uses the following two methods of analysis.2.2.1 socratic

29、 dialogue1) why students get low scores when they are asked to describe some visual information?they can not concentrate on the most important and the most relevant points in the diagram.2) what are the features of the writing topics?these writing topics ask the students to describe facts or figures

30、 presented in one or more graphs, charts or tables. the writing directions of these writing topics always have three stagesdescribe the chart, throw light on the reasons and make suggestions.3) what are the students expected to do with this type of writings?they should make fully use of the informat

31、ion from the diagram, so that their compositions can meet the requirements of the writing directions.4) how did the teacher organize the writing lessons in the researchers department?in every writing lesson, the teacher presented writing topics through the projector. then the teacher provided studen

32、ts with some grammar exercises or gave students lectures on writing skills. after that, the students started their writing.5) what did the teacher do to develop students ability to generate information?the teacher did not do anything to help students generate information.2.2.2 cause analysisin order

33、 to identify problems in detail, the researcher used the cause analysis method. in this part, the researcher listed a series of problems (based on 2.1) and tried to give some reasons (based on the previous teaching experience of the researcher in the institute).table 1: cause analysisproblemsreasons

34、1can not get high scores in compositions based on chartsa. students did not use the information illustrated in the chart in their compositions.b. students did not cover all the points mentioned in the directions or just translated the directions.c. students did not know how to write a well-structure

35、d composition.2do not know how to start their writinga. students did not prepare well for their writings. teachers didnt provide specific activities to help the students generate the information used for their writing.b. students did not know the correct process of writing a composition.3can not cov

36、er the most important and the most relevant points illustrated in the diagrama. students did not analyze the charts carefully before their writing. b. students relied too much on the composition templates and did not express their ideas well in their compositions.c. some of them wrote too much irrel

37、ative sentences and ignored the charts.4have a negative attitude towards writinga. students were not motivated by the traditional pedagogy.b. some of the writing topics were too difficult for their english proficiency.c. students had no interest in english writing.2.2.3 summary of problem analysisit

38、 can be seen from the problem analysis that students did not have a good habit in their writings, and did not realize the importance of preparation process before the writing. so students have great difficulty in starting their writing.on the other hands, teachers did not provide valid pre-writing a

39、ctivities to help students start their writing. some activities such as gathering ideas about the topic, organizing the information or making outlines for the writing should be added to encourage students to generate information so that they could obtain enough information for their writings, meet t

40、he requirement of the writing directions better and fulfill their writing task.3. project objective and hypothesis3.1 project objectivethe project aims to help students generate information for the compositions based on charts and provide teachers with a better way of developing students writing ski

41、lls and improving their writing ability.3.2 project hypothesisit is hypothesized that using the method of group discussion can help students generate information for their writing, so that students can write better compositions.4. project rationalethe project is designed based on the following theor

42、ies: communicative language teaching, the process in teaching writing, pre-writing activities and features of group work.4.1 traditional pedagogy and communicative language teaching“in a traditional language classroom, the teaching focus is often on forms rather than functions, so students have lear

43、ned a lot of structures or patterns without knowing how they should function in social contexts.” “for various reasons, traditional pedagogy tends to focus on one or two language skills and ignore the others.” “in reality language is always used in a certain context, but traditional pedagogy tends t

44、o isolate language form its context.” (wang, 2000: 15)communicative language teaching involves both the study of authentic language and the chance to practice language in realistic ways. gu (1999, 78) claims that the feature of communication is necessity, unpredictability and choice, and in the clas

45、sroom, teachers should try to design authentic communicative activities.gu (1999, 80) also lists some conclusions on the nature of communicative activities:1) students must have a desire to communicate.2) students should have some kind of communicative purpose.3) students attention should be centere

46、d on the content of what is being said or written and not the language form that is being used.4) students will have to deal with a variety of language rather than just one grammatical construction.5) while the students are engaged in the communicative activity the teacher should not intervene.6) th

47、ere are no material controls to restrict the students choice of what to say and how to say it.therefore, activities in the form of the group discussion are in conformity with the prescriptions of communicative activities. in another word, the method of group discussion is a form of the communicative

48、 language teaching approach.4.2 process in teaching writingin order to write compositions well, the first step is to understand the correct process of the writing. “a typical route for classroom work on helping students to write might involve some of the following steps:1) introduction of topic.2) i

49、nitial individual or group brainstorming.3) selection and rejection of ideas.4) sorting and ordering of ideas-note-making.5) focus on useful language models-in other written texts, in board examples, etc.6) small groups or class construct a preliminary skeleton or example text.7) individuals or grou

50、ps prepare draft text.8) discuss with others and with teacher. 9) individuals or groups prepare final text.” (scrivener, 2002: 159)writing is not simply a pile of words and sentences. “the process view of writing sees it as thinking, as discovery. writing is the result of employing strategies to man

51、age the composing process, which is one of gradually developing a text. it involves a number of activities: setting goals, generating ideas, organizing information, selecting appropriate language making a draft, reading and reviewing it, then revising and editing. it is a complex process which is ne

52、ither easy not spontaneous for many second language writers. as shaughnessy puts it: one of the most important facts about the composing process that seems to get hidden from students is that the process that creates precision is itself messy(1977: 222)” (hedge, 2002: 302)so students need some skill

53、s in writing, especially the organization of information in writing. “at higher levels, writing involves cognitive skills such as: gathering information and ideas relevant to the topic, and discarding what is not relevant; organizing the information and ideas into a logical sequence.” (davies, 2002:

54、 96)4.3 pre-writingthe theory mentioned in 4.1 shows that students need the training of pre-writing skills. teachers should “prepare students well before writing”. “pre-writing activities, like brainstorming or a class discussion on the topic will help students broaden their views and encourage a ge

55、neration of ideas. simply giving students a topic and asking them to write on their own often make them frustrated because many of them dont know where to start and how to develop ideas.”(wang, 2000: 222)“the process approach to writing does not only pay attention to what students do while they are

56、writing, it also attaches great importance to what they and the teacher do before they start writing and after they finish writing.” “to teach writing effectively, the first thing a teacher needs to do is to motivate learners to write. if students write simply for the sake of writing, they will find

57、 it difficult to come up with ideas. only when students have a clear purpose or a reason to write, will they feel motivated or eager to write. the teacher at this stage should try to create a reason for students to write, make them feel interested and have things to say.” “once a topic is chosen, it

58、 is suggested that students work together to brainstorm ideas for writing, because students thoughts can be inspired by each others sparkling points.” (wang, 2000: 214)what was more, the teacher should provide students with some guidance to make them form the habit of using pre-writing in the whole writing process. “guided wri