AnActionResearchFocusingontheImprovementofStudents’WritingCompetence

陈伟平 黄国君

Abstract：Based on the theory of Consciousness-Raising（CR）， this paper proposes a teaching reform in her class， aiming to improve students writing competence.Activities have been carried out in their English study and different tasks have been performed at different stages to train the students to be more effective in writing.This paper has expounded the feasibility of this action research and carefully presented the teaching procedures，hoping to help teachers to become more reflective and innovative in their teaching.Key words：action research writing competence consciousness-raising activity

1 Background

The two classes I teach consist of 84 students， among them 30 students major in preventive medicine and 54 of them are clinical students. According to an English exam given to test their writing competence in their first year's study in college， the results come out to be very unsatisfactory. Therefore I decide to carry out an action research plan， aiming at the improvement of students' writing competence. The designated course book is New College English published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Various methods， which are generally common to the qualitative research paradigm， include： document collection， participant observation， questionnaire surveys， structured and unstructured interviews， field-notes， logs， journals， diaries， and personal accounts （Wallace， 2000）.

2 Problem identification

Form the analysis of the students' compositions， the problems can be mainly characterized as follows：

（1）Grammar and vocabulary mistakes.

（2）Unidiomatic use of English. Sentences are written in Chinese syntax which are grammatically correct but not the unique English syntactic features.

（3）Little variety in the sentences. Simple sentences in the composition take a large proportion， which makes the composition read flat and monotonous.

（4）Devoid of content. Students simply do not know what to write. The written work is a mere skeleton with little substance and a tenuous argument.

（5）Sentences are slovenly organized without consideration of coherence. There is an inclination to apply spoken English in their writing.

3 Making hypothesis

Given the problems mentioned above， according to my knowledge about writing and the former study on this subject， I assume that it's the following factors that mainly lead to the deficiency of English writing.

（1）The poor mastery of grammar and vocabulary.

（2）The Mother Tongue interference--a natural phenomenon that inevitably occurs when learning a second or foreign language.

（3）Very narrow knowledge about the topics owing to the insufficiency of reading.

（4）A lack of training in writing.

4 Analysis of the interview

An interview was carried out with 12students， among whomwere writers of different levels of English proficiency. The interview was made for a deep probe into the students' writing problems， their difficulties， and their ways of study to further reflect my teaching and testify my hypotheses. It comes up with several findings. Thedifficulties can be summed up and roughly categorized into five types， here is the summary shown as follows：

（1）The difficulty in choosing words to form a correct and meaningful phrase or sentence due to the poor production of words.

（2）The difficulty in the idiomatic use of English and the lack of ability of distinguishing and correcting their Chinglish.

（3）The difficulty in writing owing to the poor mastery of grammar knowledge.

（4）The difficulty in arranging sentences well.

（5）The difficulty in generating good ideas and getting a start.

5 Rationale and Strategies

5.1 Consciousness-raising activities

Learning to write requires time and efforts. This is especially true of Chinese students in a learning context where they have little opportunity to be exposed to authentic materials and to communicate with native speakers. In order to improve students' writing proficiency， I need to adopt an effective teaching method and ensure the amount of time available for writing practice. What learners know about their learning tasks can directly influence the process and even the outcome of their learning . When learners are conscious of their learning tasks， they will learn effectively. Just as Dave Willis and Jane Willis put it in their book （2002： 63）： "Language is so vast and varied that we can never provide learners with a viable and comprehensive description of the language as a whole. We can， however， provide them with guidelines and， more important， we can provide them with activities that encourage them to think about samples of language and to draw their own conclusions about how the language works. The general term for activities of this kind is consciousness-raising （C-R）."Consciousness-raising activities have been a pan of language teaching for a very long time. In the 1970s and 1980s a good deal of the research into language learning suggested that， given exposure to the language， learners could be left to work out the grammar for themselves. Formal instruction was seen as contributing very little to learning. Such views are associated particularly with Krashen （Krashen and Terell，1983）. Current concern with C-R， however， is largely a reaction against approaches to language learning which played down the contribution of instruction. Consciousness-raising activity can be seen as guided problems solving，I decided it was a good start for my teaching reform.

5.2.Consciousness-raising activities for improving the writing competence

Based on the investigation and the data analysis， especially the consideration of students' specific difficulties in writing and what they have expected of their teacher to help them， the consciousness-raising activities in my action research have been carried out focusing on the following four aspects：

（1）Activity focusing on learning strategies

Evidence has shown that students can benefit from even limited exposure to activities designed to raise their general level of awareness of language learning strategies （Flaitz & Feyten， 1996） and help to foster learner autonomy， therefore， the prospects of encouraging strategy use seem generally promising. Through a combination of guided whole-group and small-group discussions， students may become more aware of their learning strategies ， their beliefs about second language learning， the relationship between their own beliefs and the informed opinions' of language researcher or educators ， and some steps they might take to become more effective language learners

（2）Activity of noticing lexical chunks

Vocabulary is widely perceived as being the most difficult element in English learning. The lexical approach has received interest in recent years. It concentrates on developing learners' proficiency with lexis— words and word combinations. It is based on the idea that an important part of language acquisition is the ability to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes， or "chunks，" and that these chunks become the raw data by which learners perceive patterns of language traditionally thought of as grammar （Lewis， 1993： 95）. In a lexical approach， it is believed that language is stored in memory in the form of prefabricated chunks. With sufficient chunks taken in， the learners will be able to express themselves so that they are capable of using the target language more effectively. Therefore， the aims of the activities are：

①To raise students awareness of different types of lexical chunks— what I called fixed collocations （groups or pairs of words which almost always appear together， e.g. idioms） .

②To develop the learning strategy of reading authentic text and noting lexical chunks.

（3）Activity of noticing cultural differences

The production of Chinglish is partly due to the writers neglect of cultural differences embodied in the language when they deal with words， sentences and ways of organizing their ideas. Only when students distinguish the cultural differences embodied in languages can they produce idiomatic English writings. It is from this situation that this activity focusing on "cultural differences" is designed in order to raise students' consciousness of writing from the cultural perspective. Activities of noticing cultural differences aims at：

①Make students understand the connotation of“writing from the cultural perspective”.

②Help students notice the writers thought patterns which are different from our Chinese in the level of diction and syntax. （For the organization of paragraphs， or paragraphs into an article， it will be left for discussion in the activity focusing on the writers techniques）

（4）Activity of noticing the writing techniques

In this activity I will discuss with my students the differences embodied in the level of organizing paragraphs and the paragraphs into an article based on the texts the students learn in my class. We will use the reading texts to examine a writer's organization of ideas， including different ways of beginning， developing and concluding a composition. Students will also learn from the writers how to achieve cohesion and coherence by using some techniques， which is also a difficulty in writing according to the survey. Activities include：

①Set the students to carry out the group discussions： discuss how the text is organized， including the writer's organization of ideas， finding topic sentences and thesis sentences， making sound judgment and inference， and arriving atconclusions，and write an outline illustrating the organization of the text.

②Find out the cohesive devices， and different orders of information structures. （Sometimes this can be done by incorporating with the activities of noticing lexical chunks and noticing cultural differences.）

（5）Activity of writing summary essay

Generally there are two types of summary writing： summary writing for oneself and summary writing for the audience. A summary essay aims at writing for the audience and so it should functions as a substitute for the source that is being summarized； therefore an important feature of the summary essay is its fidelity to the source； one must represent his source accurately and comprehensively， with as little of his own interpretation as possible. At the beginning of learning to write， this involves the reader's going deep into the authentic language， thus contributes to both the reciprocal reading and productive writing skills. In the while-reading stage， the technique of "paraphrase" is usually used by the teacher for a understanding of the text， while at the post-reading stage， summary essay writing can help for a further understanding of the text as well as practicing writing.

（6）Activity focusing on writing as a process

The activities that aim at raising students consciousness of writing as a process should mainly include the following aspects：

①Helping students learn how to generate ideas.

②Helping students experiment with the developing of their own successful writing process， including how to achieve sentence variety and coherence. Students seem to avoid writing more complex sentences with subordinate clauses， appositive phrases， and other marks of sophisticated writing， because they are uncertain about how to use such structures and avoid the risk of error by keeping their writing syntactically simple. This activity of sentence variety will help to elicit more complex sentence structure spontaneously in their writing.

The consciousness-raising activities designed are based on the analysis of students' writing problems and the consideration of the gap between teaching and learning. They are to be implemented in college English class over a 15-week periods. The activities are designed following the sequence of wording→ syntax→ discourse→ writing. The activities are carried out under the instruction of the teacher during the classes of the 15weeks. To the students， these activities will serve as guidance for their further study.

6 Report on the implementation of the plan

Through the implementation of planned actions aiming at improving students' writing competence， my students have made their progress in many aspects of their study. Meanwhile， we have achieved a great deal in terms of the abilities in solving problems both in teaching and learning English. The following table shows the score of the composition measured by the standard of CET4 and a comparison with the other classes of the same grade. From the data we can see that the students of the two classes （Class 2 and Class 4） have caught up with and even done better than the other three classes in writing.

Score of the composition in the exam after training

The figures shows students of the experimental class has done far more better than those of the controlled class. In the class interview when I asked what they had learned from the activities， these are some of their comments：

①Now I know why I fail in writing.

②You have to learn words not in the form of a test， but from the context.

③You should always look at the words around a word， not just the word itself.

④You should learn words together with other words， not just on their own.

⑤You should not only recite the grammar rules without thinking how to write in variety and with coherence.

⑥ You have to read more and regularly after class， and take down the useful expressions after reading.

⑦Reading and writing have a close relationship.

⑧Write everything you want to. Freewrite first， revise after.

⑨Now I know how to make a feasible plan and follow it.

⑩I find learning English becomes interesting.

⑾Now I know what to learn and how. I know my weak points.7 Conclusion

Richards （1990： 223） argues that action research is not full-scale research， which follows the procedures of the scientific method， but small-scale inquiry built around the teacher's normal classroom practices. It advocates that action is a central and ongoing component of the effective teaching and research， in which teachers and learners reflect upon the learning process and make some adjustment. Teachers are not viewed merely as "performers"， who carry out the role prescribed by the method or apply an externally derived set of principles to their teaching. Teachers are seen rather as investigators of both their own classroom practices and those of the learners.

References：

[1]Flaitz， J. and Feyten， C. A two-phase study involving consciousness raising and strategy use for foreign language learners[A] in R.L. Oxford （Ed.）， language learner strategies around the world： Cross cultural perspectives. Honolulu： University of Hawaii， Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center，1996.

[2]Krashen， Sand Terell， T. The natural approach[M]. Pergamon Press，1983.

[3]Lewis， M. The lexical approach： The state of ELT and a way forward[M].Hove， England： Language Teaching Publications，1993.

[4]Richards， J.C. "Integrating theory and practice in second language teacher education" in Georgetown University round table on languages and linguistics，1990.

[5]Willis，J. and Willis，D. Consciousness-raising activities in the language classroom[A]in Dave Willis &Jane Willis（Eds.） Challenge and change in language teaching：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 2002.

[6]Wallace，M.J.Action Research for Language Teachers[M].Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and People's Education Publishers， 2000.

本文为广东省教育科学十二五规划2011年度研究项目：重视医学生综合素质，创新大学英语教学模式（项目编号：2010TJK255）；广州市高等学校第四批教育教学改革基金项目：医学院校大学英语教学模式的改革与实践研究（项目编号：B129094） 系列成果之一。