On The Application Of Writing-to-Learn In ELT In Junior Middle Schools

Since 1970s, many educators have advocated writing as a mode of learning, or learning through writing. It can be traced to Emig's (1977) researches concerning the process of writing. He supports that writing represents a unique mode of learning, and writing possesses a group of attributes that correspond to certain effective learning. In China, the research of writing-to-learn in foreign language teaching and learning was attributed to Wang Chuming (2000), who supports that writing long compositions can improve English language competence in college education and lead writing-to-learn to Length-Approach. Followed him, many researchers have carried out a great deal of experiments on college students and senior high students with Length-Approach. Reports have shown that writing-to-learn can promote foreign language teaching in colleges and senior high schools.In the areas of English language teaching, many educators and researchers studied a cluster teaching and learning methods such as the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Audio-lingual Method, and so on. These methods mostly focused on listening, speaking, and reading. But the influence of writing on language competence was ignored. Length-Approach has been under experiments in Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and some other universities in china for years, and it has appealed to the nationwide English researchers because of its great prosperity. It emphasizes writing as a means of enhancing English learning and it has adapted to Chinese condition, where students learn through reading and listening, and rarely through speaking and writing. However, as language theories point out that language learning needs both receptive and productive training. Chinese students have no the real opportunities to speak or write English, which forces teachers to create"real"activities of using English. These created activities are not real, but tend to be contextualized, meaningful, and personalized, even when students are focusing primarily on language form.This thesis aims to study the application of writing-to-learn in ELT in junior middle schools. Supported by Swain (1995) theory, this study attempts to apply writing-to-learn to ELT in the hope of improving the present complexion of"time-consuming and low-efficiency"(Dai, 2001) in junior middle schools. This study aims to address the following questions:1. Can writing-to-learn be applied to ELT in junior middle schools?2. Which aspects of English abilities can be improved after applying writing-to-learn to ELT in junior middle schools? 3. How do teachers apply writing-to-learn in junior middle schools'ELT?The experiment lasted four months from September to December 2008. One intact class was selected from the grade 8 in No.19 Middle School of Puyang oilfield. The class divided into two parts, one was the experimental group, and the other one was the control group. Writing-to-learn was applied in the experimental group while the traditional teaching method was used in the control group. Data collection involved both scores of pretest and posttest and the data analysis was by SPSS13.0. Through experiment and analysis, the research questions are confirmed, and some findings and implications are concluded in English teaching and learning.The results of research reveal that the students in the experimental group have improved their English learning more efficient than those in the control group do. The study demonstrates that writing-to-learn is of great value in improving junior middle school students'English language learning. This improvement included grammar knowledge and vocabulary, reading and writing abilities.In the thesis, the findings and implications are presented in the process of applying writing-to-learn in ELT. The findings involve designing of the writing task, requiring of the length of writing task, and noticing the process of writing. The implications include two aspects, which are shifting the English classroom from teacher-centered to learner-centered and helping students overcome shyness and increase self-confidence. The author expects that this study will shed light on English teaching and learning in junior middle schools.