A Study Of Activity Theory Based English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

Writing is an important manifestation of students' comprehensive ability in English learning,and it is also the center and difficulty of English teaching.Both teachers and students attach great importance to English writing.They have paid a lot,but their English level has not improved significantly.There are still major problems in word accuracy and sentence structures in the students' compositions.This thesis applies activity theory to senior high school English writing teaching,aims to improve the English writing performance of senior high school students,and also makes breakthrough in word accuracy and sentence structure.The activity theory proposed by Vygotsky is based on sociocultural theory and constructivism theory.Activity theory focuses on the organic interaction between teachers and students,which uses “activity” as the logical starting point and central category to study and explain the students' learning.It emphasizes the bridge role of activities in the learning process.Under the guidance of teachers and the constraints of rules,students should conduct activities in the community to achieve the goal of learning.This paper aims to answer the three questions:(1)What is the impact of activity theory based English writing teaching model on senior high school students' writing performance?(2)What is the impact of activity theory based English writing teaching model on the word accuracy in senior high school students' writing?(3)What is the impact of activity theory based English writing teaching model on the complexity of sentence structure in senior high school students' writing?There are 80 students from two classes in Grade One of a senior high school in Panjin city in this study.Both control class and experiment class have 40 students.The experiment lasted for 16 weeks and the same textbook Book 1 for Grade One was used in the experimental class and the control class.In the experimental class,the activity theory based English writing teaching model was adopted while the control class continued to adopt the traditional writing teaching method.The research instruments are interviews and tests.The data obtained from the experiments are analyzed by using SPSS 21.0 software.The study found that students' writing performance has improved significantly.Compared with the control class,the word accuracy has been improved and complexity of sentence structure has changed significantly after using the activity theory based writing teaching model.Therefore,the activity theory based English writing teaching model has a positive impact on students' English writing performance in senior high school.