A Study On English Writing Teaching Based On Memetics In Junior High School

As one of the basic language skills,English writing is an indispensable part of junior high school English teaching.Writing,as an output of language,can effectively detect and consolidate the understanding and application of language input.Therefore,writing teaching in junior high school English teaching is very important.However,there are still many problems in junior high school English writing teaching,such as the old method of English writing teaching "proposition-writing-correcting",the insufficient number of words in students' compositions,incomprehensible and illogical sentences,grammatical errors,Chinese-English expressions,and so on.So under such circumstances,this study introduces memetics into junior high school's English writing taeching,hoping to change the status quo.Memetics is a new theory of explaining cultural evolution based on Darwin's evolutionism.It was put forward by Dawkins,a foreign scholar.Professor He Ziran introduced it into China and began to study it in combination with language learning.He Ziran,Xie Chaoqun and Chen Xinren(2007)mentioned that "language itself is a meme.Memes mainly reside in language.As long as any words,phrases,sentences,paragraphs and even chapters are copied and disseminated through imitation,they can become memes." That is to say,in the process of language learning,if the words,phrases,sentences and paragraphs that constitute language can be imitated by learners,then these factors are memes.At the same time,meme communication also needs to be completed through four stages.That is,assimilation,memory,expression and transmission.Therefore,inspired by memetics theory,combined with cognitive development theory and psychological characteristics of junior high school students,the author proposes a teaching model of junior high school English writing based on memetic life cycle,aiming to explore whether this model can reduce students' anxiety in English writing,change their negative attitudes towards writing and improve their English writing level.In order to explore the influence of this teaching method on junior middle schoolEnglish writing teaching,the author conducted a four-month teaching experiment in a middle school in Chengdu,Sichuan Province.The subjects of the study were 45 students from class 5,Grade 2 of a middle school in Chengdu,Sichuan Province.This study try to answer the following questions through teaching experiment.(1)How should the teaching model based on Memetics of junior high school English writing be established?(2)How does Memetics-based English writing model affect students' attitudes towards English writing?(3)How does Memetics-based writing model affect students' English writing proficiency? What are the effects on students at different levels?This research obtained experimental data through tests,questionnaires,interviews and text analysis.SPSS23.0 was used to analyze the experimental data.The results show that there have been great changes in the results of questionnaires on English writing attitudes.Positive changes have taken place in students' attitudes towards English writing after the experiment.English writing based on memetics reduces students' writing anxiety and strengthens their confidence in writing learning.Secondly,after a semester of memetic-guided writing teaching,students' writing level has been improved to some extent,which is reflected in the improvement of vocabulary use,sentence structure,grammar and paragraph structure.