The Effects Of Discourse-Analysis-Based Reading-to-Writing Instruction On The Writing Competence Among Junior High School Students

Generally acknowledged,writing as one of basic skills of language learning is an indispensable part of English teaching and learning.Highly valued in the cultivation of “comprehensive language proficiency” and “key competence” by Chinese Ministry of Education,writing has witnessed a reform of English proficiency test in Zhejiang.With changes of the examination requirements and the writing evaluation,there are strong backwash effects on English writing teaching and learning in junior high schools.However,English writing teaching in middle schools is barely satisfactory.Students lack of interest and discourse knowledge,weak at discourse organization of writing.Widely recognized,reading and writing mutually affect each other.Reading,a language input,requires full understanding and analysis of materials and lays a foundation for writing.And writing,a productive skill,requires the creative output of language proficiency.Therefore,starting from the status quo of English writing teaching in middle schools and reading-writing relationships,it is a research topic of theoretical and practical significance to explore effective ways to improve students’ writing competence so as to provide references for practical English teaching.The empirical study aims to explore the effectiveness and the effects of reading-to-writing instruction based on discourse analysis on students’ writing competence in junior high schools based on Input Hypothesis,the Output Hypothesis and Schema Theory.It is to investigate:1)What is the status quo of junior school students’ writing competence? What is the most serious problem in discourse organization?2)How does reading-to-writing instruction based on discourse analysis influence students’ writing competence in junior high English classes? In which aspects has it improved the most?In this study,mixed research methods including qualitative and quantitative methods,and text analysis of writings are adopted.Firstly,questionnaires and text analysis of the pre-test writing are to identify the status quo of English writing teaching and learning in one junior high school in Hangzhou,Zhejiang.Then,a teaching experiment lasting for three months is carried out on 88 students at Grade 9 of the middle school,and descriptive analysis and grounded analysis are conducted on the collected data by means of Statistics Package for Social Science(SPSS 16.0).Finally,text analysis of writings of the pre-and the post-test is to determine the exact effects on students’ writing competence.Meanwhile,sampling interviews for the experimental group is to supplement the research results.The major findings are listed as follows: 1)Students’ writing competence is relatively weak at discourse organization,especially at logical paragraph development,cohesion and coherence.2)Students’ writing competence can be significantly improved through reading-to-writing instruction based on discourse analysis.Their discourse-related writing skills,especially of cohesion and coherence,can be greatly influenced through reading-to-writing instruction.The implications of the study are that: 1)Highlighting the function of reading-to-writing instruction can efficiently promote students’ writing competence.2)Teachers need to pay attention to text selection and text analysis in the implementation.3)English teachers should improve their ability of text analysis and interpret texts from a comprehensive perspective.4)Not only the output of writing but also the training of reading skills is supposed to be emphasized in the implementation of reading-to-writing instruction.