Application Of Process-based Pedagogy To The Teaching Of English Writing In Senior Middle School

With the development and innovation of education reform in recent years, the listening and reading skills of students are enhanced gradually. Both teachers and students are more devoted to the training of students'oral English and listening skill. As a result, students' writing skill is not evidently improved. Although both teachers and students have made sufficient endeavors, their writing skill does not improve satisfactorily. So, it's vital to find a suitable way to improve their writing.Process-based pedagogy emerges in 1970s, which considers writing as a communication of groups rather than the writer's independent process. It focuses on the students'writing process and writing ability, and aims to enhance their thinking ability and to cultivate the collaborative spirit.An empirical research was conducted in a senior middle school in China, with the purposes of testing the effectiveness of process-based pedagogy in English writing teaching in senior middle school and getting the students'attitudes towards this approach. By adopting the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the researcher used the tests (a pre-test and a post-test) on all the subjects, In addition, two parallel close-ended questionnaires were designed to elicit subjects'attitudes prior to and after the experiment toward applying process-based pedagogy to English writing teaching. To triangulate and supplement the quantitative data, qualitative data were also. collected via close-ended one-to-one interview.The findings show that process-based pedagogy has positive effects on improving senior middle school students'English writing proficiency. Process writing provides the environment and space to stimulate students to think creatively and logically, and to cultivate their autonomous learning ability and collaborative spirit. The collaboration and interaction in process writing class successfully help students construct the writing knowledge and develop writing ability. The change of affective factors, such as motivation, self-confidence and anxiety, is also demonstrated clearly in the data.It's hoped that this thesis will bring enlightment to the teachers of English writing in China which will benefit more teachers and students.