An Action Research On English Writing Teaching Of Rural Junior High School Based On Lexical Chunk Theory

Language skills are an important part of English course content and one of the content foundations for the development of core literacy.Writing in English is an important language skill.The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022)also put forward higher requirements for junior high school students’ writing skills.Through preliminary investigation,the author found that: on the one hand,most rural teachers do not pay enough attention to English writing teaching and seldom spend time to help students practice writing.On the other hand,students’ writing performance is not satisfactory.Most of them lack confidence and interest in writing.In recent years,some researchers have introduced lexical chunks into English writing teaching and achieved good results.But most of their research objects are English majors or senior high school students.There are not many action researches on lexical chunks,especially on the teaching of writing for rural junior high school students.In this thesis,the author attempts to carry out a semester-long action research on English writing teaching in a rural junior high school based on the lexical chunk theory.It aims to explore and find the influence and changes that the teaching based on the lexical chunk theory brings to students.The specific research questions are as follows:(1)What kind of changes does the teaching based on the lexical chunk theory bring to the students’ attitudes towards English writing in rural junior high school ?(2)Can teaching based on lexical chunk theory change the students’ writing performance in rural junior high school? If so,what are the main aspects?This thesis followed the "plan-action-observation-reflection" model and carried out two rounds of action research.First,the author confirms the problem and formulates a plan through questionnaires,tests,interviews,etc.Then,two rounds of action research were carried out in succession,and students’ writing problems were continuously improved in the two rounds of action.Finally,all research data are analyzed in detail to find and demonstrate the effectiveness of lexical chunk-based teaching.The results of the research showed that: the writing teaching based on lexical chunk theory is helpful to improve rural junior high school students’ interest and confidence towards English writing,and to correct their attitude towards English learning.At the same time,with the help of lexical chunks,students’ English writing performance has been significantly improved.Their progress in writing gradually becomes the driving force of English learning.After accumulating a large number of lexical chunks,most students can correctly select the relevant lexical chunks and express the key points of the composition fluently.Sentence framing and heads can greatly help students build the structure of the composition and enhance the coherence and logic of the composition.