A Study Of Imitation Based On Memetics In English Writing In Junior Middle School

Memetics is a new theory for interpreting cultural evolution based on Darwin’s evolution theory and it reveals the rules of the language development.The types,replication and transmission of the language memes provide referential theoretical basis and a new research method for English writing teaching.Imitation,based on memetics,has been applied to English teaching in recent years,which has great influence on English writing.It is well known that English writing is an essential part in English learning and it plays a significant role in developing students’ comprehensive ability of using English.However,how to improve English writing seems to be a tough problem due to lack of effective teaching approach.Therefore,this paper aims to study the effects of imitation based on memetics on junior middle school students’ English writing.Three questions are researched in this paper:(1)Can imitation based on memetics improve students’ writing achievements in junior high school?(2)What are the effects of the imitation based on memetics on writing to the students with different levels?(3)What are the attitudes of the different levels of students towards the imitation based on memetics ?The study lasted two months.115 students of two classes in Grade Nine in Shuren Junior Middle School participated in the experiment.Class Six is experimental class in which imitation based on memetics was used.Class Eight is control class,which was taught by Product Approach.In the experiment,the writing tests and interview were used and all the collected data were analyzed by SPSS 13.0.The results show that:(1)Students writing achievements can be improved by imitation based on memetics.(2)Different levels of students can make progress in different aspects in writing by imitation.As for top level students,they have made progress in the aspects of organization and language use,as for students with medium level,they have made progress in the aspects of content and organization,as for students with low level,they have made progress in the aspects of content,vocabulary and mechanics.(3)It reveals that most students in experimental class gained from the imitation.Given the opportunity,they are willing to learn more about imitation based on memetics.Some suggestions are given for further research on how to apply memetics to English writing teaching effectively:(1)The teacher should design a good teaching process based on the memetics to help students to imitate effectively.(2)As for memes input,language memes should be comprehensible.(3)During the process of learning imitation,memetic genotype and memetic phenotype should be combined together to help students to learn how to imitate.(4)Only after a long time period of imitation can the students become adept imitative writing.