| English written expression is the focus of College Entrance Examination as well as the difficulty of students’ English learning.Students are required not only to accumulate a large amount of language knowledge,but also to have strong comprehensive language ability and be good at using English thinking to organize writing ideas.However,writing teaching is a relatively weak step in high schools.Teachers pay more attention to the content of output than to the effective information of input.For a long time,the teaching of English writing can’t provide necessary writing skills effectively to guide and train students’ way of thinking,which stifles students’ creativity and imagination.Gradually,students no longer have interest in writing.How can English teachers guide students in a targeted way so as to improve their English written expression? The teachers have an obligation to guide students to do well in two aspects: one is how to help students have something to write,the other is how to help them write well.Based on Constructivism theory and Zone of Proximal Development,this study reviews the basic concepts,the guiding principles,the organizational structures of the “Opinion Writing Method” and “Scaffolding theory” as well as their application in English writing teaching,which attaches great importance to students’ learning process and the way of students-centered helps students find a writing foothold.Meanwhile,withdrawing the scaffolding slowly enables students to learn to write independently,and attaches importance to the transformation and improvement of students’ writing way of thinking.On this basis,an empirical research was carried out to explore “Opinion Writing Method” which was adopted as a kind of scaffold based on “Scaffolding theory” for English writing teaching.The research experiment was conducted in Bijie No.1 Senior High School,a total of 99 students whose writing proficiency are basically the same were selected from Class 34(the control class)and Class 35(the experimental class)of Grade One and the experiment lasted for 15 weeks.This research attempts to discuss the following questions:(1)What kinds of scaffolds adopted in writing teaching can improve students’ way of thinking in writing?(2)Is it feasible that “Opinion Writing Method” used as the “scaffold” can motivate students’ interests and reduce their anxiety in the process of writing?(3)In what aspects can the “scaffold” that teacher used helps students improve their writing ability?Questionnaires and pre-test were conducted in the experimental class and the control class before the teaching practice.On the basis of the analysis of the learning situation,the teaching objectives were formulated,and the teaching steps were designed.During the experiment,the “Opinion Writing Method” based on “Scaffolding theory” was used in the experimental class while the traditional Product-based Approach was used in the control class.Finally,after the end of the teaching practice,a questionnaire,interview and post-test were conducted.The data were tested and analyzed by SPSS19.0 for purpose of testing the validity and feasibility of applying the “Opinion Writing Method” based on “Scaffolding theory” to English writing teaching in senior high school.The following results are drawn from the experiment: Firstly,the “Opinion Writing Method” based on “Scaffolding theory” can change the students’ writing way of thinking and cultivate the ability of higher-order thinking in writing.Secondly,it is feasible for this kind of method to motivate students’ interests and reduce their anxiety in the process of writing.Thirdly,this kind of scaffold that teacher used can improve students’ writing ability from the six aspects of opinion,organization,words selection,fluency,grammar and persuasive skill.Hopefully,this study can provide some suggestions and ideas for senior high school teachers in English writing teaching and provide some inspirations for future researchers. |
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