A Study Of The Application Of RAFT Strategy In Senior High School English Practical Writing Instruction

Writing is an effective way for students to express themselves,exchanging their ideas and information in a written form.Practical writing,as a type of writing,takes up a score of as high as 25 points out of the full score of 150 points in the English testing paper of College Entrance Examination.Therefore,practical writing is the focus of senior high school English writing instruction,and it is significant for students to improve their practical writing performance.However,there exist some problems in present senior high school practical writing instruction,such as focusing too much on the results and ignoring the process greatly,which as a result weaken students’ writing motivation as well as teachers’ instruction effects.A more effective writing strategy is needed to change and improve such a situation.RAFT strategy,made up of four elements: role,audience,format and topic,is a teaching strategy of writing which has worked well in writing instruction in foreign countries.In China,RAFT strategy has been proven to be effective in improving learners’ English writing performance in junior high schools and colleges as well.And it is still worth probing whether RAFT strategy is similarly suitable and effective for senior high school English practical writing instruction.Based on theories of constructivism,functional linguistics and situational cognition,this study adopts the method of experimental research,questionnaire survey and interview,and takes the students of two parallel classes of Grade Two in a senior high school in Zhangzhou city as the research subjects for a three-month English practical writing instruction.The experimental class（43 students）adopts RAFT strategy for English practical writing instruction,while the control class（46 students）adopts the traditional product approach.This study aims to solve the following three questions:（1）Can RAFT strategy improve students’ performance of English practical writing? If so,are there any differences in the improvement of practical writing among students with different writing levels?（2）Can RAFT strategy improve students’ motivation of English practical writing?（3）What’s learners’ attitude towards using RAFT strategy in English practical writing instruction?The results show that:（1）After the experiment,the average score of English practical writing in the experimental class（11.884）is higher than that in the control class（11.196）.There is a significant difference in the post-test average score of English practical writing between the two classes（P=0.023<0.05）,indicating that RAFT strategy can improve learners’ practical writing performance.To be exact,the post-test writing scores of the high-score learners in the experimental class decreases by 0.273 points compared with the pre-test scores,and there is no significant difference（P=0.082>0.05）.The post-test writing scores of the medium-score and low-score learners are 0.524 points and 1.546 points higher than the pre-test scores,which exist differences before and after the experiment（P=0.045<0.05,P=0.001<0.05）,showing that low-score learners have the greatest improvement in practical writing,followed by medium-score learners,while high-score learners have no improvement.（2）After the experiment,the average score of English practical writing motivation of the experimental class（3.342）is higher than that of the control class（3.164）.There is a significant difference in the post-test average score of English practical writing motivation between the two classes（P=0.019<0.05）,indicating that RAFT strategy can improve learners’ practical writing motivation.（3）Learners show a positive attitude towards applying RAFT strategy in practical English teaching.According to the research results and discussion,the study puts forward the following teaching suggestions: 1.Build a thinking framework for learners and train their divergent thinking;2.Cultivate learners’ consciousness of role and audience;3.Focus on the accuracy and richness of language;4.Select life-oriented and different writing topics;5.Improve the practical writing feedback.