An Action Research On Improving Junior Middle School Students' Linguistic Accuracy In English Writing By Teacher's Feedback

Linguistic accuracy is one of the important indicators of scoring criteria for English writing in high school entrance examination.Much research has demonstrated that teacher's corrective feedback can help improve students' linguistic accuracy.However,the author finds that many language errors are made in students' writings,even though the teacher spends lots of time in giving corrective feedback.Hence,it is necessary to optimize the way of giving teacher's feedback.Relevant studies prove that the combination of teacher's written feedback and oral feedback can facilitate linguistic accuracy of students' writings.Therefore,this study attempts to integrate written feedback and oral feedback and answer two questions: 1)How can teacher's written feedback and oral feedback be integrated in English writing teaching to improve junior middle school students' linguistic accuracy in English writing? 2)How effective is the integration of teacher's written feedback and oral feedback in improving junior middle school students' linguistic accuracy in English writing?This thesis takes 42 junior middle school students in Class Three,Grade Two of Qiaolian Junior Middle School in Nancun Town,Panyu District,Guangzhou City as participants and conducts an action research of 18 weeks.Before actions are taken,a preliminary investigation is conducted and confirms the most important reason for the low linguistic accuracy: Students are limited in language competence and lack relevant knowledge about the English grammar.However,the traditional written feedback can not provide detailed guidance on text revision for students.To improve the linguistic accuracy of students' writings,the written feedback and oral feedback are integrated.Each round of action includes four basic steps: planning,implementation,observation and reflection.In the first round action,students are provided with both direct written feedback and oral feedback.In the second round action,the author adjusts the way to give written feedback.Both indirect written feedback and oral feedback are supplied to students.By the Paired-Sample T-test of the overall writing scores and the numerical values of E/T in the pre-test and post-test as well as the analysis of data frominterviews and teaching journals,two conclusions are made: First,to improve junior middle school students' linguistic accuracy in English writing,written feedback and oral feedback can be integrated,instead of providing written feedback alone.As for the provision of written feedback,indirect feedback by which errors are located by teachers but corrected by students should be given,rather than direct feedback.In terms of the difficult points in error-correction for students,oral metalinguistic explanations are provided by teachers.Second,the integration of written feedback and oral feedback can improve the overall writing quality and the linguistic accuracy of junior middle school students in English writing,no matter whether direct written feedback or indirect written feedback is provided.This thesis provides some pedagogical implications for English writing teaching:First,teachers should provide sufficient guidance for students.Besides written feedback,detailed oral feedback on the difficulties of students is suggested to be offered by teachers.By oral feedback,students can receive more knowledge about English,better master the correct expressions of English and finally improve their ability of self-editing.Second,it is recommended that teachers adopt indirect written feedback,in order to consolidate what is learned and better develop students' ability of self-editing.