The Application Of Production-Oriented Approach In Junior High School English Writing Teaching

In our country,there is a common problem of separation of learning and use in English teaching for a long time.In view of this phenomenon,production-oriented approach(POA)was proposed.It is a language teaching approach targeted at Chinese foreign language teaching.It should be noted that this teaching approach is applicable to intermediate and advanced foreign language learners,it can be rarely found for those learners in the junior high school.This study seeks to explore the application of production-oriented approach in the junior high school English writing teaching,and addresses two research questions:1.How does POA influence junior high school students’ English writing performance?2.How does POA influence junior high school students’ interest in English writing?The students of Class 1(Experimental Class,abbreviated as EC)and 2(Control Class,abbreviated as CC)in Year 9 were selected as the subjects of experimental research in a local junior high school in Taizhou City,Jiangsu Province.A total of 90 students were divided into two classes,with 45 students in each class.These two classes are randomly divided according to their final exam grades in the eighth grade.The two classes were taught by the same teacher,and teaching material was completely the same.The only difference was that the author adopted production-oriented approach(POA)in EC while adopting traditional task-based approach(TBA)in CC.In response to the present situation and problems of English writing teaching in junior high school,the author carried out experimental comparative study through POA and TBA,in order to find out effective teaching approaches for junior high school English writing teaching and to solve some problems encountered by junior high school students.The experimental lasted for 12 weeks.The author designed two tests,one is an entrance examination as Pre-test,and the other is a monthly test in the 12th week as Post-test.What’s more,the author carried out two questionnaire surveys.The first one is to elicit the students’opinions on English writing before the experiment.The second one is to collect the students’views on the new writing class after applying new writing teaching approaches for six weeks.The questionnaires were anonymous surveys of all students in the two classes,with a total of 180 copies.In order to obtain students’ feedback on POA,the author randomly invited 6 students in EC to have interviews at the end of the experiment.The interview was conducted in Chinese,and the results were analyzed after being converted into words.The author carries out quantitative and qualitative analysis of data,which yielded following major findings:1.POA has produced positive effect on improving the writing performance of junior high school students in some aspects.Students in EC which adopted POA get higher marks than those in CC which adopted TBA,so students can make more progress by adopting POA.Among them,English writing performance of those students with low English proficiency level is less improved,and middle and high-level English writing performance of junior high school students is greatly improved.Therefore,POA may improve low-level junior high school students’ writing performance,but the effect is not very remarkable.It’s obvious that POA has produced much more significant effect on the English writing performance of junior high school students with middle and high English proficiency levels.2.POA can arouse students’ interest in writing.On the basis of the questionnaires and teaching effect,the effect of POA on students’ English writing interest is more obvious.The output-driven link of POA can arouse students’ interest in writing,and make them have higher autonomy and enthusiasm in learning.In the input promotion process,it can help students better understand vocabulary,grammar and develop good English writing habits,so as to effectively improve their English writing performance.This study proposes some pedagogical implications and suggestions for using this approach.The teacher should carry out the teaching idea of POA deeply,combine learning with use.When designing teaching activities,teachers should stimulate students’ interest in learning,let students spontaneously use language to communicate with each other,and cultivate foreign language skills.