Empirical Research On English Writing Teaching In Senior High Schools Based On The Concepts Of Positive Psychology

The newly-issued Senior Middle School English Curriculum Standards(2017Edition)(2018)lays emphasis on the concept that it is necessary to give full play to the role of students and help them eliminate psychological barriers,so as to arouse their interest,build confidence,and improve learning methods.However,in the current English writing teaching in senior high schools,there is a tendency of placing more emphasis on developing students’ cognitive abilities instead of their psychological states,motivations and needs.Positive psychology aims to study ordinary human strengths and virtues,helping people achieve positive experience and psychological expectations,so as to obtain the greatest sense of well-being and fulfillment.However,the theories and findings of positive psychology have not been adequately applied and researched in English teaching.Based on the above-mentioned context,this research combines flow theory and selfefficacy theory to explore the effectiveness of interventions based on the concepts of positive psychology in English writing teaching in terms of positive emotions,positive character traits and positive institutions,which constitute the main research contents of positive psychology.The major research questions discussed in this thesis are as follows:l)What kind of psychological states do high school students have when they are learning English writing? 2)In what aspects do the interventions based on the concepts of positive psychology affect the English writing learning of high school students? 3)Compared with traditional English writing teaching,what are the advantages of English writing teaching based on the concepts of positive psychology?Focusing on the above three research questions,the author conducted a three-month quasi-experiment based on English writing teaching in senior high school.The participants were all from two parallel classes in Senior Two of a senior middle school in Hefei.One class acted as the experimental class,in which the mode of English writing teaching was adopted with the interventions of the concepts of positive psychology,and the other was the control class,where the traditional English writing teaching approach was implemented.The research instruments such as questionnaires,interviews,writing evaluation tests and teacher’s reflective journals were used to collect data and track the psychological development of high school students in English writing,and then qualitative and quantitative analyses of research data were made.Through qualitative description and data processing results,this research found that:1)Before the implementation of the quasi-experiment,students felt afraid and anxious about English writing learning,and were unwilling to actively learn English writing.2)Application of interventions of positive psychology to English writing teaching in senior high schools helps to enhance students’ writing motivation,reduce students’ writing anxiety,and improve students’ comprehensive writing competence.3)English writing teaching in senior high schools based on the interventions of PP not only places great emphasis on the teaching of writing skills,but also enhances students’ psychological wellbeing,which can help eliminate psychological barriers of students in writing,and cultivate positive psychological tendencies and behavioral patterns of the students.