The Frequency Effects On Senior Three Students’ English Writing

Writing teaching plays an important role in English teaching in senior high school.As an important way of output in the English language, English writing can examine students’ integrated skills of occupying English. However, the students’ writing ability in ordinary senior high school is a far cry from syllabus’request, which is caused mainly by the improper teaching methods in writing. For many years, English teachers have been adhereing to the principle of analyzing writing points-writing-reviewing-displaying samples, which is of inefficienciesThe frequency effect is mentioned for many times in such linguistics theory as the connection theory, cognitive theory, task duplication theory recently. According to some empirical studies, the frequency effect is also proved to have an positive impact on second language acquisition. In my studies, I had chosen 40 students in an ordinary senior high school,who were then divided into four groups according to their English ability as well as whether a feedback was given. Within eight weeks, the students were required to write a same English essay for three times, occurring on the first Wednesday, the second Wednesday and the eighth Wednesday from October 10,2012. After each rewriting, I had a statistic about the five amendments (content, structure, grammar, vocabulary and technical details),the scores each group gets and the length of each piece. According to the study, I have drawn a conclusion that by rewriting a same essay for three times,the students may modify grammar most and structure least. All the students have improved their writing ability regardless of their original English levels, but the frequency effect is more significant in a short period than a long one. At the same time, teachers’ feedback has obvious effects on the students’modifying and improving the quality of English composition.