An Action Research To Improve Primary School Students' English Writing Ability By Writing Instruction Based On Picture Books

English picture books,which are both interesting and idiomatic,are believed to make effective teaching materials for primary school students.Enlightened by previous researches on picture books and writing instructions,this study attempts to improve primary school writing teaching with an action research based on picture books and probe answers to the following research questions: 1)What are the specific effects of writing instruction based on picture books on primary school students' English writing ability? 2)How does the writing instruction based on picture books influence students' writing attitude?Theoretically guided by Krashen's Input Hypothesis and Affective Hypothesis,Swain's Output Hypothesis and Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory,this action research conducted the writing instruction based on English picture books for 4 months from September to December 2018.With 46 students in Class 2 Grade 5 of No.10 Primary School in Zhuhai as the participants,the research intervened 3 rounds of actions,each with some writing training measures aiming at arousing and maintaining learners' English writing interest and improving their writing performance.In the first-round action,students were required to imitate writing picture books in order to enlarge their storage of basic vocabulary and sentence patterns.In the second-round action,they were encouraged to rewrite a new ending for the picture books,before which they should understand the text,work out the logic of the context and learn to organize their contents.In the third-round action,students were asked to write freely according to the given title,which aimed at improving students' ability of overall planning of their ideas and adopting suitable vocabulary and sentence patterns.The questionnaires,interviews and writing tests were used as instruments to collect data and support the author's reflection.Paired samples t-test was used for the pre-test and post-test results.The results of the paired samples t-tests of both the total score and sub-score in the pre-test and post-test show significant improvement(p<0.05).Students had better organization in their writing as well as the logic of the sentences.Their errors in lexical spelling,grammar,punctuation and capitalization of letter were significantlyreduced.The results of the questionnaires and interviews indicate students held more positive attitude towards English writing,their writing interest were aroused and well kept during the action research through imitative writing,rewriting and free writing picture books.As their storage of vocabulary and sentence patterns was enlarged,students felt more confident and less anxious about English writing.Reflecting on the entire process of action research and the teacher's observation,here are some pedagogical implications for primary English teachers who are eager to improve their students' English writing.First,this action research provides a new perspective to reduce students' cognitive load and intrigue their interest in English writing.Second,the selection of proper picture books is very crucial and important.Picture books published by famous educational publishers are better choices as they have guaranteed quality,graded level and well-arranged difficulty.Third,the writing tasks should be flexibly assigned to ensure that each student of different English ability can complete the writing tasks so that their confidence in writing will not be dampened.Fourth,teachers should try every means to arouse and keep students' writing interest during writing training.If students feel bored about one kind of training activity,teachers are well–advised to change some elements of the writing tasks;add some fun activities like exhibition of their writing works or awarding students' writing progress.