A Study On The Application Of Project-based Learning In Senior High School English Writing Teaching

Writing,as the key and difficult part of English teaching,is the best embodiment of students’ comprehensive English ability.However,many scholars found that students lack interest and active inquiry in English writing classroom and lack confidence in their own writing,resulting in low performance of students’ English writing.Therefore,English teachers should actively change the teacher-centered teaching concept.In other words,the teacher should regard students as the main body of classroom teaching,stimulate students’ initiative in learning,and let students learn actively.A large number of studies showed that teaching approach based on project-based learning insists on taking students as the center in teaching and advocates students acquire knowledge and skills in the process of solving problems through cooperative inquiry under the guidance of teachers.In the whole teaching process,students are no longer passive receivers of information,but active explorers of knowledge,which is helpful to cultivate students’ consciousness of active inquiry.At the same time,it integrates formative evaluation and summative evaluation,and attaches importance to promoting learning by evaluation.As an effective teaching approach,project-based learning has been widely used in many countries.However,according to the results of literature review,the researcher found that the study based on project-based learning in senior high school English writing teaching is slightly insufficient.Therefore,continuing to engage in study in this area is of great significance to the teaching of senior high school English writing.Based on constructivism theory,Bruner’s discovery learning theory and Dewey’s pragmatic theory,the project-based learning approach was applied to senior high school English writing teaching in this thesis.The experimental research was carried out in two parallel classes in Grade 1 of Zhouqu Middle School.The experimental tools are tests and a questionnaire.This research aimed to explore two questions:(1)Can project-based learning improve senior high school students’ English writing achievements? If yes,which dimensions(content,organization,language,vocabulary and mechanics)are improved?(2)What are the effects of applying project-based learning on senior high school students’ inquiry ability? In the four-month experiment,project-based learning approach was conducted in the experimental class,and the control class adopted the frequently used teaching approach according to the content of the textbook.After the experiment,the data was collected and SPSS 24 was used for statistical analysis of the collected data.The results of study showed that project-based learning can improve students’ writing achievements;and compared with the control class,although the students in the experimental class has not significant improvement in terms of mechanics,they performed better than the students in the control class in terms of writing content,organization,vocabulary,and language use.Secondly,this teaching approach can improve senior high school students’ inquiry ability.