An Action Research On The Application Of The Theme Model Of Content-Based Instruction To Teaching English Writing In Junior High School

English writing is a basic skill in English Learning and an important standard to evaluate students’ comprehensive English ability.As a process of language output,writing requires a lot of meaning input.However,researches show that the traditional writing teaching methods pay too much attention to the input of grammar knowledge and neglect the discussion of the topic content,and they are teacher-centered and ignore students’ subjectivity,resulting in students’ low interest in English writing,poor critical and creative thinking ability on writing topics,and slow improvement in writing ability.Given the shortcomings of traditional teaching methods,Content-Based Instruction(CBI)has attracted more and more attention from scholars at home and abroad in recent years.As one of the teaching models of CBI,the theme model has strong flexibility in teaching environment,teachers level and students level,and it focus on content of a certain topic,which can help students integrate listening,speaking,reading,and writing naturally.And researches show that empirical research about CBI in China is still to be enriched.Under the guidance of the input hypothesis and the output hypothesis,with the “6-T”method proposed by Stroller and Grabe(1997)and the Activity-Based Approach,the theme model of CBI is applied in junior high school English writing teaching to explore the following questions:(1)What is the influence on students’ English writing interest after applying the theme model of CBI to junior high school English writing teaching?(2)What is the influence on students’ English writing habit after applying the theme model of CBI to junior high school English writing teaching?(3)What is the influence on students’ English writing ability after applying the theme model of CBI to junior high school English writing teaching?The research objects are 106 students from Class 51 and Class 52,Grade 8 of X Junior High School in Changzhi City.A four-month action research is conducted through questionnaires,interviews and tests.According to research findings,the application of the theme model of CBI in junior high school English writing teaching plays a positive role in students’ English writing,which is embodied in the following three aspects:(1)It increases students’ interest in English writing.(2)It improves students’ English writing habit.(3)It is beneficial to improve students’ English writing ability.According to the research results,the following suggestions are put forward:(1)Before writing,teachers should know the topics that students are interested in,provide students with a variety of learning materials related to the topic,try their best to create a real language environment for students,and pay attention to classroom participation of all students.(2)During writing,teachers should pay attention to the rationality of students’ writing outline,the richness of the writing content and its relevance to topic,and the cultivation of students’ critical thinking and creative thinking ability.(3)After writing,teachers should adopt a variety of assessment forms to students’ composition.