高中英语Action Research on Senior High School English Writing 论文

ActionResearchonSeniorHighSchool

EnglishWritingAbstract:Thispaperexploresthepracticalsignificanceofsenior

highschoolEnglishwritingthroughtheeffectiveteachingandlearning,aimingtosolvethepracticalproblemsinclassroom-basedwritingand

improvetheeffectivenessofwritingteachingandlearning.Thewholepaperconsistsoffourparts.PartⅠ:Putforwardquestionsand

assumptions,andthenanalyzewritingproblemsbycollectinginformation.

PartⅡ:Actionplan,implementationprocessandstagesummary.Thisis

thekeypartofthepaper.PartⅢ:Datacollectionandanalysis.PartⅣ:Reflectionontheresearch.

Keywords:highschoolEnglishwriting,effectiveteachingandlearning,actionresearch

Ⅰ.Putforwardquestionsandassumptionsandanalyzethem

Intheprocessofmarkingthecompositionsincollegeentranceexamination,teachersparticularlyprefersomeexcellentcompositions.

However,moststudentsdonothavetheawarenessofupgradingcompositionsatall.Manystudents'compositionsare“thesamecontent,low-level

language,disorganizedparagraphs,non-coherence,andsinglesentencepattern”.Compositionslikethesecan’tgethighmarksobviously.In

viewoftheaboveproblems,theauthorhasmadethefollowinghypotheticalanalysis.

1.Teachers’problems

Mostteachersdon’tvaluewritingclass,especiallywhenstudentsareinGrade1andGrade

2.Teachersoftenskipwritingteaching

inordertokeepupwithteachingschedule.Thiswayofhandlingwritingmakesstudentsthinkthatwritingisnotthefocusoflearning.Asa

consequence,students'writingabilityisstillnotsignificantly1improvedevenwhentheyareinGrade

3.Someteachersspendalotoftime

andenergycorrectingcompositions,butstudentsdonotfocustheirattentiononthecorrectedparts,andthesamemistakeswillbemadeagain

instudents’compositionslater.

.Students'problems

Manystudentshaveweakawarenessofimprovingwritingandspendlittletimepracticingwriting.Theyarejustdealingwitherrands,with

aseriouslackofsystematicwritingguidance.Afterwriting,theyneitherpayattentiontothecorrectedparts,norcareaboutteachers’comments,

nottomention,reflectingontheproblemsexistingintheirwriting.

Inordertoverifythecausesofstudents'writingproblems,the

authorconductedaquestionnairetosurveystudents’writingproblemsinClass3andClass5atthebeginningofGrade2in2020inMingguang

SeniorHighSchool.

Questions

OptionsApproximately

(0%)

Do

you

think

your

English

teacher

values

Very

muchwritingclass？

Alittle15

850No

Howoftendoyouwriteacomposition？

Onceeverytwo

weeksOnceamonth

Twiceayear30

703Doyou

look

at

the

parts

corrected

by

your

Look

carefully

Englishteacher？

Take

a

quick

look

27

Notlooking

at

all

70Doyou

know

the

main

elements

of

obtaining

Very

clear

0a

high

score？

（Content,

structure,

Alittleclear12

88grammar,

vocabulary,

sentence

patterns）

Not

clear

Theresultofthissurveyshowsthattherearemanyfactorsthatleadtostudents’poorEnglishwritinginourhighschool.First,teachers

andstudentshaveweakawarenessofimprovingwriting.Secondly,teacherslackeffectiveplansandinstructionstoimprovestudents’writing

abilityandstudentslackwritingguidanceandpractice.

Ⅱ.Plan,implementationprocess,andstage

summaryoftheactionresearch

1.Researchobjects

Thisstudytakestwoclasses(Class3Grade2andClass5Grade2inMingguangSeniorHighSchool)taughtbytheauthorinthefirstacademic

yearandsecondacademicyearfrom2020to2021asresearchobjects.

.Researchpurpose

Thepurposeofthisresearchistoverifywhethertheplanoftheactionresearchcansolvetheproblemsexistinginstudents’writing

throughapproximatelytwoacademicyears.

3

.Design,specificimplementation,andstagesummaryofthe

actionresearchStage

⑴

The

first

week:

Writing

theory

class

Theteachergavefourdifferentcompositionsfromcollegeentranceexaminationwithfullmarks.Studentsweredividedintofourgroupsand

askedtodiscussthemainelementsofthehigh-scorecompositioninthecollegeentranceexamination.Finally,theteachersummedupthe

discussion.Therearesixprinciplesinhighscorewriting:①Content.

Itisessentialthatallthecontentpointsshouldbecovered.②Advanced

vocabulary.Thereshouldexistproperuseofcharmingwordsandexpressions.Simplewordsandphrasesarenotwelcome.③Appropriateuse

oflinkingwords.Itisofgreatsignificancetouselinkingwordssuchas“first,furthermore,finally,etc”.becauseusinglinkingwords

appropriatelycanmakethearticlemorecloselyconnected.④Thecombinationoflongandshortsentencesandvarioussentencepatterns.

Itismistakeninthinkingthatthelongerthesentencesare,thebetter.

Additionally,thereshouldavarietyofsentencepatternssuchas

emphasizingsentences,invertedsentences,variousclausesandfixedsentencesetc.⑤Clearthemeandreasonablelayout.Agoodcomposition

3shouldcontainatopicsentenceandsupportingdetailssothatthereader

iseasytograspthetheme.Meanwhile,agoodarticleshouldbewellorganized,suchasasking,analyzingandsolvingproblems.⑥Correct

grammarandstandardhandwriting.Itistheembodimentofstudents'basiclanguageskills.

Stagesummary:Itisworthremindingstudentsthatinthepursuitofadvancedvocabularyandchangeablesentencepatternstheyshouldpay

attentiontotheproperuseoflanguage.

Stage

⑵

From

the

2nd

week

to

5th

week:

Vocabulary

Intheprocessofmarkingcompositionsinthecollegeentranceexamination,teacherswillparticularlyprefersome"advanced"words.

However,moststudentsdonothavetheawarenessofupgradingwordsatall.Alotofsimplewordssuchas“good,badandnice”areappliedto

theirwriting.Suchlanguageistoosimpleandboringtogethighscores.

Consequently,studentsmustavoidthesesimplewordsandupgradetheir

vocabulary.Whatkindofwordscanattractteacherswhogoovertheexaminationpapers？①Teacherspreferthewords“learnedlater”,

becausetheuseofvocabularylearnedlatercanreflectthestudents'awarenessof“applyingwhattheyhavelearnedtopractice”.Ifameaning

canbeexpressedinwordslearnedbothinjuniorhighschoolandseniorhighschool,trytochoosethelatter,suchas“Adj.beautiful→

appealing；

attractive；charming；fascinating”.

②In

the

view

ofteacherswhogooverexaminationpapers,theflexibleuseofphrasesis

areflectionofanexaminee’sability.Therefore,wecantransformcertainsimple

words

into

phrases,

such

as

“

ⅴ.

visit

→

pay

a

visit

to”.③Themostcommonalternativemeans:Adjective=of+noun.suchas“veryimportant=ofgreatimportance；veryvaluable=ofgreatvalue；

verynecessary=ofgreatnecessity”.④Specificwordsaregiven4priority.Pleasecomparethefollowingtwosentences:Example1→Mr.Wang

isagoodteacher.Example2→Mr.Wangisakind,patientandknowledgeableteacher.Example1onlystatesthatMr.Wangisa“good”teacher.Example

2clearlytellsthereaderthatMr.Wangisgoodinthreeways:“kind,

patientandknowledgeable”.Ascanbeseen,Example2adoptsthreespecificwordstoreplace“good”,makingtheoriginalcolorless

sentencesuddenlybecomesvivid.Therefore,wemustlearntomakegooduseofmorespecificwords.

Afterteachingstudentsmethodsofapplyingvocabulary,thenextistohelpstudentsapplywhattheyhavelearnedtopractice.Theauthor

orderlyarrangedforstudentstowritefourcompositionsonebyonefittinginwiththetopicsineachunitfromthetextbooklearnedrecently.

Theauthorencouragedstudentstotrytheirbesttousethewordsandphraseslearnedinthecorrespondingunit.Studentswererequiredtowrite

onecompositioneveryweekandediteachother’swriting,focusingonimprovingwordsandphrases.Thentheteacherchoseseveralexcellentones

tocommentontheminclass.

Stagesummary:Afteraboutfourweeks,theexperimenthasgiven

initialimpressiveresults.Students'awarenessandabilityofupgradingvocabularyhavebeengreatlyimproved.

Stage

⑶

From

the

6th

week

to

9th

week:

Various

sentence

patternsInordertoimprovethelevelofthelanguage,studentscan’tblindly

usesimplesentences,butshouldusevarioussentencepatternsflexiblyaccordingtotheactualsituationsothattheycanwinthefavorof

teacherswhomarkexaminationpapers.Theauthoremployedthefollowingexamplestoguidestudentstoanalyzeandexperiencethesubtletyof

variouschangeablesentencepatterns.①Invertedsentence→Onlyinthisway,canyousolvethisproblem；Tiredashewas,hestillwentonworking.

②Emphaticsentence→Itwasthisyoungguywhohelpedtheoldladyout

5oftheburningkitchen.③Variousclauses.Theexamplesareasfollows.

Adverbialclause→Iftheyoftencheatintheexams,theywilldevelopabadhabit，whichwillhaveabadeffectontheirlife.Attributive

clause→Weallknow,theearthisround.Nounclause→Whatstruckmemostinthemoviewasthefather’sdeeploveforhisson；Thereasonwhyhe

succeededwasthathealwaysworkedhard；IamwritingtotellyouthatIamgoingtoyourcityforaconference；Imadeapromisethatthisyear

wouldbedifferent.④Compoundsentence→Thismorningwemetattheschoolgateandwenttheretogether.⑤Exclamatorysentence→Whatawonderful

giftyou'veboughtforme⑥Ellipticalsentence→We'lldoeverything（that）

wecan

（do）

tohelp

him

out

of

trouble.

⑦Infinitive→The

park

isagoodplaceforpeopletohavearestandenjoythemselves.⑧Presentparticiple→Onarrivinghome,IwrotedowneverythingIhadseen.

⑨Past

participle→Followedbymanystudents,theteacherwalkedoutofthelab.⑩Prepositionalphrase→

Despitethe

heavy

snow,

the

workers

were

still

at

work；Isawayoungladywalkingslowlyinthestreet,withahandbaginherhand.

Next,studentswereaskedtopolishthesentencepatternsofthecompositionswrittenfromthe2ndtothe5thweekthemselvesandthenthe

desk-matesexchangedmutualevaluation,putforwardsuggestionsonrevisionandmademodificationsfurther.Theauthorselectedseveralof

thebestwritingsandmadecommentsonthesentencepatterns.

StageSummary:Afterfourweeksoftrainingsentencepatterns,the

authorfoundthatthesentencepatternsofstudents’writingaregraduallymoreflexibleanddiverse.

Stage

⑷

From

the

10th

week

to

13th

week

:

Paragraph

layoutFirst,theauthorpresentedfourarticlesofdifferenttypes,and

6guidedstudentstoanalyzetheparagraphlayoutofthem.Forexample,

students

were

asked

to

read

the

passage（

module

1

Unit

3

page

45）

matchthetopicswiththeparagraphsandsummarizethelayout.

Para.APara.B

Para.CPara.D

developmentintroduction

conclusionthebeginning

Withthistaskcompleted,studentsrealizethatifapassagehasproperlayout,itmeansthatitiswellorganized.Afterlearninghowto

arrangethelayout,theauthoraskedstudentstotakeoutthepreviouswritingspolishedfromthe2ndto9thweekforthepurposeofupgrading

vocabularyandsentencepatterns.Thenstudentsevaluatedeachother’swritingaimingtoarrangethelayoutbetter.Finally,theauthorselected

severaloftheexcellentwritingswithimprovedlayoutandmadecommentssothattheotherstudentscouldbenefitfromthem.

Stagesummary:onthebasisofstudentsanalyzingandansweringtheproblems,theteacherdrewtheconclusion:agoodwritingnotonly

includesadvancedvocabulary,changeablesentencepatters,butalsohasagoodparagraphlayout.Afterfourweeks’practice,students'writings

arebetterorganized.

Stage

⑸

From

the

14th

to

17th

week:

Proper

use

of

linking

words

Firstofall,theauthorpresentedanarrativepassageandaskedstudentstofindoutthelinkingwordsinthepassage.“Thenextday,

wesetoffearly.Whileclimbingthemountain,weenjoyedthewarmsunshineandabeautifulview.However,whenwereachedthetop,wewereshocked

toseelitterhereandthere,suchasbottlesandbananapeels.Afterwards,westartedtopickupthelitter.Finally,weputtherubbishintothe

nearbyrecyclingbinandnon-recyclingbinrespectively.”Then,theteachersummarizedthelinkingwordscommonlyusedinthenarrative

7passage.Theyare“atfirst,then,later,afterwards,soon,before,after,

when,while,assoonas,since,during,eventually,atlast,finally,intheend,immediatelyandsoon”.

Next,theauthorhelpedstudentstosummarizethelinkingwordsusedinargumentative

essays

in

the

same

way.

①

Linking

words

to

introduce

opinions→inmyopinion,inmyview，frommypointofview，asfarasIamconcerned，

asfor

me，personally.

For

example,

personally,

I

used

to

tryeffectivemethodstoachievemyacademicgoals.②Linkingwordstodiscussrespectively→first,firstly，firstofall，tobegin/start

with，firstandforemost；second,secondly,besides,inaddition,additionally,

furthermore,

moreover,

what’s

more；

third,

thirdly,

last,lastly,lastofall；lastbutnotleast,finally,mostimportantly.

Theexamplesareasfollows.“Tobeginwith,myparentsareinsupport

ofme.Studyingabroadcanbroadenmyview.Besides,theycanaffordalltheexpensesthere.Mostimportantly,IamgoodatEnglish,whichenables

metohavenodifficultycommunicatingwithstudentsfromothercountries.

③

Todrawaconclusion→inconclusion，insummary,ina/oneword，onthe

whole,in

general,

to

sum

up,

all

in

all，

in

short,

in

brief

and

so

on.

Forexample,inaword,ifwehadsuchamagicwatch,ourlifewouldbecome

moreconvenient.”Afterlearningtheusageofthelinkingwords,studentswereaskedtodothefollowingexercisetoconsolidate.

Readthepassageandchoosethelinkingwordstofillintheblanks.

Additionally,Lastbutnotleast,Inconclusion,

AsfarasI’mconcerned,Firstofall“Recently,ithasbeenagreatpublicconcernthatthestudentslack

self-protectionawareness.AsfarasI’mconcerned,itisofgreatsignificanceforusstudentstolearntoprotectourselves.Therefore,

I’dliketorecommendthreesuggestionstoensureusstudents’security.

Firstofall_,inordertoprotectusstudents,weshouldstrengthen

oursecurity

awareness.

Additionally_,

when

accidents

occur,

we

should8calmdown

and

turn

to

teachers

or

parents

for

help.

Last

but

not

least,

thegovernmentalsoplaysaleadingroleinprotectingstudents.

Inconclusion,onlybythecombinedeffortsofeverysideinvolved

canwestudentsliveandstudyinharmony.”Itisworthmentioningthatteachersshouldnotpresentthelinking

wordsdirectlytostudents.Firsttheteachergivesexamplesandthenasksstudentstodoexercisesandsummarize.Thekeypointisgettingstudents

tobeinvolvedintheteachingandlearningprocesstoexperiencethecorrectuseoflinkingwordsinthecontext.

Afterlearninghowtouselinkingwordsproperly,afour-weekexercisefollowed.Theteacheraskedstudentstotakeoutthewritingspolished

fromthe

10th

to

13th

week.

Students

edited

in

pairs

for

the

purpose

ofusingthelinkingwordsappropriately.Theteacherchosesomeofthe

writingswithgooduseoflinkingwordsinorderthattheotherstudentscouldlearnfromthem.

Stagesummary:Theteacherconcludedthatagoodwritingnotonlycoversallthecontentpoints,advancedvocabulary,changeablesentences

patterns,agoodparagraphlayoutbutalsothetransitionisessentialbecauseitcanmakeourarticlemorecloselyconnected.Afterfourweeks

practice,moststudentscouldusethelinkingwordsmoreproperly.

Stage⑹

From

the

18th

to

21th

week:

The

accuracy

of

grammar

and

standardhandwritingInthebeginning,Ilistedthecommongrammarmistakesinstudents’

writingsandaskedstudentstocorrecttheminordertoenhancestudents'sensitivityof

these

common

mistakes.

Meanwhile,

students

were

guided

topracticinghandwriting.Then,studentswereaskedtotakeoutthewritingspolishedfromthe14thto17thweekandcorrectgrammarmistakes

foreachother.Thentheteacherexplainedthemtostudentsonebyone.Meanwhile,theauthorpointedoutstudents’problemsinhandwriting

9andarrangedforthemtopractisehandwritingeveryday.

Stagesummary:Notonlyhavegrammarmistakesinstudents’writingsbeenreducedgreatly,butalsostudentshandwritinghasimprovedalot

afterfourweeks’practice.

Stage

⑺

From

the

22th

to

41th

week:

Guidance

and

training

Onthebasisofthepreviouslearningandtrainingaboutwriting,another20-weekguidanceandtrainingondifferenttopicswerearranged.

Time(week)TopicsWritingHelp

22223333342th-23th

4th-25th6th-27th

8th-29th0th-31th

2th-33th4th-35th

6th-37th8th-39th

0th-41thLifestyleContent,

vocabulary,

sentence

patterns,

linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingHeroes

Content,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linkingwords,layout,grammar,handwriting

HeathContent,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingLearning

TheseaContent,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingContent,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingAdventureContent,

vocabulary,

sentence

patterns,

linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingMoney

Content,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linkingwords,layout,grammar,handwriting

Culturepeople

LearningContent,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingContent,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingContent,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linking

words,layout,grammar,handwritingAccordingtotheabovetable,studentswererequiredtowriteone

compositioneverytwoweeks.Ofcourse,beforewriting,theauthorpresentedawritingtask,showedamodelpassageandanalyzedthecontent,

layout,advancedvocabulary,sentencepatternsandlinkingwordsinthepassage.Afterthat,theteacherandstudentsworkedtogethertofigure

outmoreadvancedvocabulary,varioussentencepatternsandlinkingwords.Withallthepreparationsdone,studentsgotdowntowriting.After

finishingwriting,studentsexchangedideaswitheachotheraboutthecontent,layout,vocabulary,sentencepatterns,linkingwords,grammar

mistakesaswellashandwriting.Thentheteacherinstructedstudents’10writingsfacetoface.

Stagesummary:Afterpracticingwritingforanotheracademicyear,theauthorfoundthatstudents'compositionshavegraduallyimproved

greatlyincontent,structure,vocabulary,linkingwordssentencepatterns,grammarandhandwriting.

Ⅲ.Datacollectionandanalysis.Comparisonofcompositionscores

1Inordertoverifywhethertheactionresearchiseffectiveonsenior

highschoolwriting,theauthorcomparedthecompositionscoresinthefinalexaminationinthefirstyearofseniorhighschool（beforethe

action

research

plan）

with

those

in

the

second

year

of

senior

highschool（aftertheactionresearchplan）.

Class3（Scienceexperimentalclass）

Time

Average

score

Maximum

score

Minimum

score

Excellent（%）

Beforeactionplan1

5.38

After

action

plan

18.7419

2210

1608.77

Class5（Scienceexperimentalclass）

Time

Average

score

Maximum

score

Minimum

score

E