An Action Research On The Application Of The Continuation Task To English Writing Teaching In Junior High School

Scholars have made many explorations to solve the problems existing in junior high school English writing teaching,and the continuation task proposed by Professor Wang Chuming has been proven to be an effective way to improve the efficiency of foreign language learning,which provides a new idea for English writing teaching.However,with regard to the effect of the continuation task on English writing teaching,scholars pay more attention to writing ability and interest,while studies of writing language,content,discourse structure and technical specifications are not sufficient,which needs to further study.Therefore,in order to provide a reference for improving English writing teaching in junior high school,this research,guided by the input and output hypothesis,the interactive alignment theory and the continuation theory,tries to apply the continuation task to English writing teaching in junior high school and discusses the following two questions:(1)What is the effect of the continuation task on English writing scores of junior high school students?(2)What is the effect of the continuation task on English writing in terms of language,content,discourse structure and technical specifications for junior high school students?The input and output hypothesis indicates that input and output are closely related.The alignment originates from interaction according to the interactive alignment theory.The continuation theory emphasizes that the continuation task is to get students to write on the basis of understanding the input text.The “continuation” is conducive to the intersection between understanding and output and then produces the flattening effect which promotes students to align with the language level of the reading material in the process of writing,so as to improve the level of language output.Based on the above theories,two rounds of action research that lasts four-month are carried out in Class 5,Grade 7 of Xinyang Nanwanhu Middle School where has 53 students to further verify the effect of the continuation task on English writing teaching in junior high school.Students are guided to write on the basis of fully understanding the reading material in the process of this action research.And students align with the reading material when they write so as to improve their writing level.In this research,the data from interviews,writing tests and teaching logs are scored and statistically analyzed by the i Write system and SPSS 25.0.The results show that after the action research,students’ English writing scores in the post-test are higher than those in the pre-test(p=0.000)and students’ English writing scores of language,content,discourse structure and technical specifications in the post-test are higher than those in the pre-test(language: p=0.000;content: p=0.000;discourse structure: p=0.017;technical specifications: p=0.009).And combining the results of interviews and teaching logs,the research results can be further concluded as follows:(1)The continuation task can improve English writing scores of junior high school students to a certain extent.(2)The continuation task has a facilitative effect on junior high school students’ English writing in terms of language,content,discourse structure and technical specifications.