An Empirical Study On The Ecological Teaching Model Of English Writing In Higher Vocational Colleges

English writing can reflect students’ comprehensive competence of using language and their organization and expression competence.Therefore,enough attention should be paid to English writing teaching.However,there are some problems of English writing teaching in higher vocational colleges.On the one hand,some English teachers still hold that they are the center of the class and follow the traditional teaching model of English writing in some higher vocational colleges.Teachers constantly instill words and phrases as well as grammatical knowledge into students,requiring students to recite a large number of model essays and directly copy the complex sentences written by others.There is almost no teacher-student interaction or student-student communication in the classroom.On the other hand,students have improper learning attitude or incorrect learning methods,and thus they gradually have a psychological resistance to English writing.Their motivation for learning English is just to pass CET-4 or CET-6 and their English writing performance fails to be improved.Therefore,the author attempts to explore an ecological teaching model of English writing to seek a balance among teachers,students and the teaching environment,in order to enhance students’ writing grades and their interest and confidence in English writing,and make English writing teaching in higher vocational colleges more efficient and effective.Two questions are put forward in this research.One is whether the ecological teaching model of English writing can help students improve their English writing grades.The other is whether the ecological teaching model can stimulate students’interest and confidence in English writing.The research subjects are 32 students from the experimental class(12 boys and 20 girls)and 32 students from the controlled class(14 boys and 18 girls).They are all students from the Business English Department in Grade 2018 of a higher vocational college.The research has lasted for one semester(about 16 weeks).As the English writing teacher of the two classes,the author adopts the ecological teaching model of English writing in the experimental class and the traditional teaching model of English writing in the controlled class.The research tools include the tests,the questionnaires and the interview.The author conducts two writing tests respectively at the beginning and the end of the experiment in order to compare the changes and differences in English writing grades between the two classes.The author carries out two same anonymous questionnaire surveys in the experimental class both before and after the experiment,to detect the changes of students’ writing habits and their interest and confidence in English writing.Finally,the author invites 10 students from the experimental class to have a personal interview,in order to grasp their views on the teaching model and their writing competence.The author collects and analyzes the relevant data after the experiment.The results indicate the following:(1)in the post-experiment test,students in the experimental class have improved their total scores(Mean=75.97)of English writing.The scores of the four dimensions,namely content(Mean=18.91),expression(Mean=19.19),language(Mean=18.91)and organization(Mean=18.97),have also been improved.However,little significant improvement of both students,total scores and their scores of the four dimensions can be seen in the controlled class.There is no significant performance difference between the two classes in the pre-experiment test(Sig.(2-tailed)=0.872>0.05),but obvious difference in the post-experiment test(Sig.(2-tailed)=0.001<0.05).Therefore,the ecological teaching model of English writing is helpful to improve students’ English writing grades.(2)The results of the post-experiment questionnaire show that most students in the experimental class are interested in English writing(P=68.8%)and show confidence in English writing(P=62.6%).Seven out of 10 interviewees in the interview indicate that they have enhanced their interest and confidence in English writing.Therefore,the ecological teaching model of English writing helps to stimulate students’ interest and confidence in English writing.(3)It can be seen in the questionnaire that more students in the experimental class have positive writing motivation(P=68.8%)and develop good English writing habits before the writing(P=81.2%),during the writing(P=87.5%)as well as after the writing(P=84.4%).The questionnaire also shows that the teacher pays attention to achieving the teaching goal of emotional attitudes and values(P=87.5%),and the communication between teachers and students is smooth(P=81.3%).These are the important reasons for the improvement of students’ English writing grades,interest and confidence.According to the questionnaire,most of the students in the experimental class are not satisfied with the traditional teaching model(P=68.8%),but they think highly of the ecological English teaching model(P=78.2%).Ten interviewees who receive the personal interview give generally positive assessments of the ecological teaching model.Therefore,it is feasible and effective to apply the ecological teaching model of English writing to the English writing class in higher vocational colleges,which is worth popularizing.