A Study On The Correlation Between English Writing Strategies And Writing Self-efficacy Of Private Junior High School Students

With the continuous deepening of educational reform and the continuous development of educational psychology,people pay more and more attention to the“people-oriented” educational concept,and teachers begin to cultivate students’ learning strategies and learning self-efficacy consciously.It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive investigation on English writing strategies and writing self-efficacy of junior high school students in private schools with distinctive teaching characteristics.This thesis is based on Liu Zhiqun’s(2006)definition of foreign language learning strategies,using Petric and Czarl’s(2003)questionnaire on foreign language writing,and based on Jones and Woodrow’s(2011)definition of self-efficacy in foreign language writing,using Bruning’s(2013)self-efficacy questionnaire on foreign language writing,this study investigated 737 second-grade junior high school students of Jiangyou Foreign Language School.Specific research questions are:(1)What is the current situation of private junior high school students’ using of English writing strategies?(2)What is the current situation of private junior high school students’ English writing self-efficacy?(3)What is the correlation between English writing strategies and writing self-efficacy of private junior high school students?Through descriptive analysis with SPSS,it is found that the current condition of using writing strategies is middling.Students use writing strategies with a medium frequency,among which the most frequently used is the while-writing strategy,followed by the planning strategy,and the least frequently used is the revising strategy.Writing self-efficacy is at medium level,among which the level of convention is the highest,and self-regulation is the second,while ideation is the last,and there is still a lot of room for improving the level of students’ writing self-efficacy.By means of Pearson correlation coefficient analysis,it is found that the correlation between English writing strategies and writing self-efficacy of junior high school students in private schools is extremely low,and it is a negative correlation,which means that the higher the writing frequency of strategy using,the lower the level of writing self-efficacy.Through interviewing 6 students who have different level of using English strategies,the cause for the current situation is that the ability of students using English writing strategies correctly is inadequate,in other words,they do not know which writing strategies should be used at different stage of writing.The objects of this thesis are to investigate the overall level of English writing strategies and writing self-efficacy of private junior high school students,and find out the most and least frequently used writing strategy,the highest and lowest level of writing self-efficacy,and clarify the correlation between English writing strategies and writing self-efficacy through two questionnaires.This paper further explores the main causes for the current situation by interviewing 6 students with different frequency of using writing strategies,and puts forward some suggestions on teaching English writing strategies for junior high school English teachers.