An Experimental Study Of Applying Authentic Materials To Teaching Junior School Students’ English Narrative Writing

Writing in English is regarded as one of the most important and valuable communication skills to be developed in English learning.However,it is one of the major difficulties for Chinese learners of English.Existing research has studied the positive influence on students’ interest and skills through the use of authentic materials in English teaching.But it mainly focuses on teaching English listening,using a target group of mostly college students.Based on Input Theory,Output Theory and Constructivism,this study researches the use of authentic materials in teaching English narrative writing to junior high school students in order to examine its effectiveness.The experiment used quantitative and qualitative research methods to study what effects,if any,the use of authentic materials would have on students’ writing interest and ability.To some extent,it will enrich the empirical research of authentic materials in China.In addition,it combined authentic materials with writing teaching and learning,which could give teachers some inspiration on how to choose and develop materials for English writing teaching.It will also encourage them to try using a variety of materials in teaching and integrate them creatively.As for students,it will provide them with some new ideas to enhance their English writing skills and promote the overall development of their English.The author chose the participants from two parallel classes(50 in each class)in a junior high school in Rizhao.Authentic materials were used in teaching the experimental group for 12 weeks,while textbook was used in the control group.Data was collected by questionnaire,writing test and interview.The procedures are as follows: Firstly,the author conducted questionnaires and writing tests on writing English narrative for the students in the experimental group and the control group before and after the experiment;secondly,a teaching experiment was conducted on the experimental group;after the experiment,the author analyzed and compared the writing performances of the students in the experimental group and the control group from before and after the experiment.Lastly,the author interviewed some of the students in the experimental group in order to understand the students’ attitudes and views towards authentic materials more deeply.The experiment proved the effectiveness of using authentic materials in teaching English narrative writing.The result showed that there was a significant difference in English writing scores between the experimental group and the control group after the application of authentic materials to the teaching of English narrative writing(p=0.031<0.05).There was a significant increase in the mean value of writing scores in the experimental group compared with those from before the experiment(p=0.00<0.05).According to the interviews,generally speaking,students reported that authentic materials were more interesting and closer to life,which better aroused their writing interest and motivation.Thus,authentic materials have proven to be effective in teaching English narrative writing.To some extent,the study enriches research into authentic materials and provides some enlightenment for the teaching and learning of English writing in junior high schools.At the same time,it also has some limitations: the number of the subjects is relatively small,and the studying time is short.Future studies can make up for these deficiencies by enlarging the study sample and extending the study time.