Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research background
Many researches in abroad and at home have showed that language output can give positive effect inimproving language input. Written language needs clearness, accuracy, and structural integrity. So, writingpractices make the students master the proper meaning and usage of the words. At the same time, writingpractices also need students grasp the correct grammar rules and sentence structures. So, if the students canimprove their writing, they can also improve their other skills at the same time.During the five skills of English, speaking and writing belong to the output. Compared with speaking,writing is a more practical way to improve language output, because of the lacking environment forspeaking practice.Writing is a more convenient and practical way to learn a foreign language. Students can control it bythemselves. What students need is just a pen, a piece of paper, and herself. Students can decide when tostart, when to stop, how fast it should be, and how it should be. As the result, writing has been becomingone of the most popular ways the students prefer to choose for learning.Now, English have been widely used in every aspect in our daily life. Many people use English towrite letters, e-mails, messages, papers, etc. And, if we want to get our voice heard by more people in theworld, we should write down it in English.
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1.2 Research motivation
Though writing teaching has become an essential part in English teaching, teachers spent little time inteaching writing and students pay little attention to English writing too. As a result, many problems can befound in students’ writing papers, such as spelling mistakes, vocabulary using mistakes, semantic mistakes,improper tense and so on. Few students are aware to use some writing strategies in their writing to improvetheir writing. In fact, in their researches, some researchers have proved that if the inefficient learners aregiven effective strategies, they could solve their learning problems better. Wen Qiufang’s researches showthat (1) learning strategies are the main factors which influence the rest of learning; (2) the usage of the suitable and scientific learning strategies can help one a lot; (3) some learning strategies are very useful, butthese strategies are flexible. Students use different learning strategies in their learning, and they maychange their learning strategies with time.The development of students’ writing ability and writing level need a lot of work. And teachers shouldchange the traditional teaching approaches and update their teaching methods.In the 1970s, language researchers and teachers convert their attention in study. They began to paymore attention to the learning strategies. Students’ learning instead of teachers’ teaching becomes the mainfocus of researchers’ study. The scholars from both domestic and foreign have done many researches in thesecond language learning strategies. These researches have provided important suggestions for the teachingof English writing.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Definition of learning strategy
Rubin (1975) views the learning strategy as some techniques or devices learners may adopt to learnknowledge. In Stern (1983)’s words, he puts the learning strategies as general tendencies or overallcharacteristics of the approach employed by the language learner in their learning. As for the techniques, itmeans the particular form of observable learning behavior. Oxford (1989) holds that the second languagelearning strategies are behaviors or actions which learners use to make language learning more successful,self-directed and enjoyable. As for O’Malley & Chamot(2001), learning strategies are the specificthoughts or behavior that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information.Griffiths (2003) states learning strategy is a specification that consciously employed by the learner for thepurpose of learning language.Different researchers give their own definitions on learning strategies. Ellis (1994) notes the reasonsfor different definitions. Firstly, whether learning strategy is considered as a behavior or mental, or as both,then, if it is a action or behavior and then what the essence is. Secondly, learning strategy is taken asconscious or unconscious. Finally, learning strategy has a direct of indirect effect on inerlanguagedevelopment or not.Nunan(2004) points out that learning strategy is a process the language learners used their wisdom andcommunication methods to learn and use language. He also points out that language learners always use atleast one learning strategy to finish the learning tasks. However, in most situations, the language learner didnot realize that.
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2.2 Classification of language learning strategy
The different classification of language learning strategies makes that there are different classificationsof language writing strategies. So, it is necessary to figure out the classification of language learningstrategies first.Based on the cognitive psychology, O’Mally &Chamot(1990) give the earlier classification of learningstrategy. O’Mally& Chamot present three-dimension division, which includes the metacognitive strategy(advance preparation, directed attention, delayed production, selective attention, self-managementself-monitoring). Cognitive strategies (resourcing, repletion, grouping, deduction, imagery, auditory,representation, key words, transfer, note-taking, recombination, translation, inference, Contextualization)and Social/Affective strategies (question for clarification, cooperation).Metacognitive strategy is a very important learning strategy. Metacognitive strategies refer to the somemethods, such as planning first, directing one’s attention and monitoring oneself in their learning activity.And cognitive strategies are used by students during their writing process directly. The cognitive strategiesrefer to the resourcing, repletion, grouping, deduction and so on. The last social/affective strategies refer towriters’ emotional movement or communication with others.
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CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH DESIGN ......... 11
3.1 Research questions ....... 11
3.2 Research subjects ......... 11
3.3 Research instrument ..... 11
3.3.1 Questionnaire ........ 11
3.3.2 Interview......... 14
3.4 Research procedure ...... 15
3.5 Data collection....... 15
CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .... 17
4.1 The results and discussion of the interview..... 17
4.2 The results and discussion of the questionnaire ..... 19
4.2.1 The writing strategies most frequently used by the research subjects....... 19
4.2.2 The writing strategies mainly used by different writers ....... 23
4.3 The comparison of successful and unsuccessful writers.......... 30
CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION.... 37
5.1 Summary of the major findings......... 37
5.2 Pedagogical implications..... 38
5.3 Limitations and prospects.... 41
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
This chapter will present and discuss the results with some charts. What’s more the answers of theinterviews will be analyzed to find out the students opinions on English writing and writing strategies. Andthe questionnaires will also be analyzed to find the most frequently used writing strategies by the subjects,the main strategies mainly used by the successful English writers and the unsuccessful English writers andthe comparison of the different usage of writing strategies between the successful English writers and theunsuccessful English writers. From this chart, we can see that most of the students in Xinxiang No.3 Senior High School hold thatEnglish writing is difficult for them. Although they have learned English for many years and may havepracticed English writing, the students still have special feeling towards English writing. When asked whythey think English writing is difficult, most students said they don’t know what to write down when theysee the title. Some students states that when they write, they can’t find out the suitable words to write.The next chart is about the students’ ideas in the importance aspects in English learning, including thelistening, speaking, reading and writing.
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Conclusion
The previous chapter is a survey of the strategies the students in Xin Xiang No.3 Senior High Schooladopted in their English writing. This chapter presents the major findings of this study, provide thepedagogical implication for its practical use and discuss the limitation and suggestions for further study. The main present writing problem of the students’ English writing in the No.3 Senior High School inXin Xiang is that English writing is not given enough attention. Nearly no writing strategies are taught inthe English writing classes. The students don’t have enough time to write in or after class, although almostof the students think it is necessary to practice writing. It is a vicious cycle. The students don’t practiceEnglish writing, so they don’t know how to write and what to write in the writing exam, with the result that,almost all the students think English writing is very difficult for them which make them don’t want topractice again.
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Reference (omitted)