The Influence Of Developmental Evaluation On English Writing Of Senior High School

Writing evaluation, as an important process of English writing teaching, has a direct impact on students’ English writing level. However, for a long time, summative evaluation has been more frequently adopted in English writing teaching of senior high school. It only focuses on the writing results and ignores the writing process. Moreover, students are placed at the passive status and their writing potential can not be brought out. Therefore, students’ writing level of senior high school is difficult to raise.In view of this, this study aims at adopting different developmental evaluation strategies to raise students’ English writing level by combing the developmental evaluation theory with English writing teaching of senior high school.In order to demonstrate that developmental evaluation can effectively raise students’ English writing level, the thesis researches into the influence of developmental evaluation on English writing of senior high school. The theoretical bases in this study are humanism, constructivism and the theory of multiple intelligences, and research questions are listed as follows:(1) What influence does developmental evaluation have on students’ interest in writing?(2) What influence does developmental evaluation have on students’ awareness of self-reflection?(3) What influence does developmental evaluation have on students’ writing ability?In view of the questions above, this study employs both quantitative design and qualitative design. For the part of quantitative design, a questionnaire and a writing test are selected as research instruments. The questionnaire involves five aspects:students’ attitudes towards English writing, reader awareness in writing, participation in English writing, peer evaluation and self-evaluation ability. The writing test is taken from the English writing part of Jiangsu College Entrance Examination in 2010 and 2012 as the pre-test and post-test. Research subjects in this part are the two classes of Senior 2 of one certain middle school in Yangzhou (Class 11 as the experimental class, Class 12 as the controlled class). Before the research, it is proved that the English writing level of the two classes is almost the same. The two classes are taught by the same teacher with different evaluation methods. Developmental evaluation is applied to English writing teaching in the experimental class while summative evaluation is applied to English writing teaching in the controlled class. At the beginning and the end of the research, both of the two classes are required to complete the questionnaire and the writing test. For the part of qualitative design, an interview is conducted. Ten students from the experimental class are randomly selected as research subjects for the interview.Through data collection and data analysis, the following findings can be generated:(1) Developmental evaluation can inspire students’interest in writing. As is reveled in the questionnaire, before the research, most of the students in the experimental class and the controlled class think English writing is difficult for them; after the research, students in the experimental class have gradually shown interest in English writing, while students in the controlled class still show no interest in English writing. Moreover, students in the experimental class are more willing to participate in English writing than students in the controlled class. According to the interview, it is the incentive assessment strategy that inspires students’interest in writing.(2) Developmental evaluation can increase students’awareness of self-reflection. As is indicated in the questionnaire, before the research, students in the experimental class and the controlled class are weak at self-reflection, such as having no reader awareness and having difficulty in modifying and reflecting on writing by themselves; after the research, the reader awareness of students in the experimental class has increased to a certain degree. Besides, students’ability of reflecting on the suggestions from the teacher and classmates and modifying their own writing has improved greatly. However, there are no obvious changes occurring to the students in the controlled class. According to the interview, it is multiple-subjects evaluation strategy that increases students’awareness of self-reflection.(3) Developmental evaluation can improve students’writing ability. As is shown in the writing test, before the research, the writing level of the students in the experimental class and the controlled class is almost the same; after the research, students in the experimental class make great progress in English writing, while students in the controlled class also improve their writing ability under the carful instruction of the teacher, but there is still a long way to go compared with the students in the experimental class. According to the interview, it is the application of various developmental evaluation strategies that improves students’writing ability.This study provides some pedagogical implications for English writing teaching of senior high school:Firstly, teachers can arouse students’interest in writing by means of the incentive assessment strategy. Secondly, teachers can develop students’awareness of self-reflection through multiple-subjects evaluation strategy. Thirdly, teachers can improve students’writing ability by applying various developmental evaluation strategies.