An Action Research On The Process Writing In English In Junior Middle School Under The Guidance Of "Four Square Writing Method"

English writing is one of the integrated language skills of listening,speaking,reading and writing,and it plays a crucial role in junior middle school’s English teaching.Although the Ministry of Education has clearly put forward the requirements for the developing the English writing skills in the “English Curriculum Standard of Junior Middle School” and “English Teaching Syllabus of Junior Middle School”,and the current practice of junior middle schools’ English writing teaching is still facing many difficulties in this province,especially in some junior middle schools in rural areas where English education is relatively inadequate.Under this circumstance,it is imperative to probe into the problems with English teaching learning in the rural and suburban schools and pave a way to change the teaching situation.This research was intended to explore a problem and find a solution to it for teaching English writing in a suburban junior middle school.The theoretical basis for this research involved Constructivism Learning Theory,Cognitive Process Theory and Cooperative Learning Theory.The “Four Square Writing Method” was adopted in the English process writing,namely: pre-writing,while-writing and post-writing,which guided the students to complete their compositions.During the teaching procedure,especially the students’ ideas of pre-writing and the ways of evaluation and correction of the post-writing were emphasized.The purpose was to resolve difficulties of junior middle school students in English writing,so the students’ English writing ability was improved.This research took the students of Grade seven in Gui Zhou Province Baiyun National Junior Middle School as participants in this action research,and the author conducted it in process writing activities for three months.The research was mainly to focus on the questions below:(1)Under the guidance of the “Four Square Writing Method”,do the junior middle school students improve their thinking about a sketch of writing in the pre-writing stage?(2)By the guidance of the “Four Square Writing Method”,do the students achieve internalization of English expression? How does internalization of English expressionhappen to them?(3)Do the training of “Four Square Writing Method” help the students to constructthe English writing framework and improve their sense of overall writing?Firstly,this research analyzed the current situation and the existing problems of English writing in detail through conducting a questionnaire survey and observing the students’ daily compositions.The action program was targeted to make according to the students’ actual problems,and then the teaching plan which was available for operation was worked out and carried out.Through the period of training,the author continued to take the next action after reflecting and improving the original plan according to comparing the pre-post content and the scores of the compositions.The teaching was adjusted and improved to ensure the effective implementation of the action program.This research mainly used a qualitative analysis and a quantitative analysis as a supplement,and collected the data by a questionnaire survey,classroom observation,written feedback and the writing tests.The data of the questionnaire survey were handled and analyze,and the scores of students’ compositions were adopted Paired-Sample T-Test for statistical analysis.On this basis,the author researched and discussed the teaching of process writing under the guidance of the “Four Square Writing Method”.The result of this action research indicated that the most students’ overall level of English writing had been improved after the period of training under the guidance of the “Four Square Writing Method”.Students learned to think over the topic and had an idea of the writing framework in pre-writing,and their thinking was inspired and expanded.The repeated practice was to get familiar with English expressions,which could gradually enable students to achieve the process of internalization of English expression form.Students could write the sentences which accorded with the English norms basically,so the contents of compositions looked clear and complete.The training of “Four Square Writing Method” helped students better construct the English writing’s framework,and the students started to experience a sense of achievement in compositions.To some degree,it stimulated the students’ interest in English writing and enhanced students’ confidence in English writing.The results of this study indicated that process writing under the guidance of “Four Square Writing Method” helped to improve the English writing teaching and improve the junior middle school students’ English writing level.