A Study Of English Writing Teaching In Junior High Schools On The Basis Of Process-genre Approach

Writing plays a vital part in English learning.It is one of the four basic skills that English learners have to master.Though the importance of writing is well acknowledged,writing ability is far from ideal especially for junior high school students in China.Due to its complexity in its own right and lack of proper guidance in writing teaching,writing has long been a headache for both teachers and students.Additionally,with the curricular reform and the launch of the New National English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education(2011),higher requirements of students' writing ability are put forward.So it's necessary to explore a feasible and effective approach to English writing both to improve students' writing ability and to meet the demand of the New National English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education.The present study presents three prevalent approaches to writing in the history of language teaching: product approach,process approach and genre approach.Based on the comparison of the three approaches,it is concluded that the three approaches have their own strengths and weaknesses.Then it introduces the process genre approach put forward by Badger and White in 2000.Since the process genre approach is viewed as a synthesis of the three approaches,it has attracted wide attention of researchers as well as English teachers over the past decade.But most of the research has been confined to colleges and senior high schools.The research concerned with junior high schools is scarce.So the present study aims to testify if the process genre approach is feasible and effective for junior high school students especially for the author's large class.Three research questions are addressed as follows:1.In what aspects does the process genre approach have influence on students'writing performance in junior high schools?2.Is the process genre approach effective for the author's large class?3.Which part of students benefit most from the process genre approach?In order to investigate the research questions listed above,the author analyzes the data qualitatively and quantitatively in the present study.The data for this study are collected from multiple sources including two questionnaires,two writing tests and an interview.56 Junior Three students complete the questionnaires and take the two writing tests.4 students at different writing proficiency levels participate in the follow-up interview.Findings from the study reveal that the implementation of the process genre approach has positive influence on students' writing performance.Students' interest and confidence in writing are enhanced.Good writing habits are gradually fostered.The process genre approach is feasible and effective for the author's large class.It has more significant influence on intermediate students.Despite the limitation of a small sample size and the constraint of experimental time and available teaching materials,the study contributes a lot to a proper understanding of the nature of writing.Based upon the current findings,practical suggestions for pedagogy and future research are also identified.