The Importance of English Writing in Middle School1

1、中學(xué)英語寫作的重要性the importance of english writingin middle schoolabstract: in resent years, writing as a communication way is extremely important. english writing is the perfect embodiment for students english level. it gives us a vivid pictures of students how to master english knowledge. however, it is

2、always a problem that how to improve middle school students writing skill in english writing. in the process of writing, students will be not avoiding to have some difficulties. so, they will make a variety of mistakes. in order to cultivate the practical writing ability, we should consider the writ

3、ing teaching as one of the essential contents and tasks in middle school in english teaching. this paper expounds the significance of english writing in middle school from different angle. and it reveals some difficulties and common errors in the process of english writing. finally, several methods

4、are put forward to solve these problems. key words: writing; cultivate; writing ability; methods and strategies摘 要： 近幾年來，寫作作為一種交際方式尤其重要。英語寫作是學(xué)生英語語言運(yùn)用能力的綜合體現(xiàn),是學(xué)生英語學(xué)習(xí)程度的實(shí)際反映。但當(dāng)前的中學(xué)生寫作能力的訓(xùn)練與提高一直是當(dāng)前中學(xué)英語教學(xué)的難點(diǎn)。在寫作的過程當(dāng)中，中學(xué)生們不可避免的會遇到很多困難,會犯各種各樣的錯誤。因此為了培養(yǎng)和提高學(xué)生們的寫作能力，根據(jù)資料顯示發(fā)現(xiàn)教師們應(yīng)把寫作教學(xué)當(dāng)作中學(xué)英語教學(xué)中重要的內(nèi)容和任務(wù)之一。本文首先從

5、不同角度闡述了中學(xué)英語寫作教學(xué)的意義，文章揭示了一些在英語寫作過程中會出現(xiàn)的困難和常見的錯誤，最后，還提出了幾個(gè)解決的方法，可供參考。關(guān)鍵字： 寫作；培養(yǎng)；寫作能力；方法和策略 contents. introduction.1. learners difficulties in cultivating writing ability.3a. not accustomed to using english writing pattern.3 b. the influence of mother tongue.3c. lack of good bases in english4d. lack of

6、 more english writing practices.4.common errors in the process of writing.4a. mistaken ideas on the dew of the methods of writing training.4b. lack of practice.5c. psychological problems.5. the methods and strategies of cultivating writing ability.6 a. providing more knowledge about other countries.

7、7b. doing more reading.7c. enhancing vocabulary8d. doing more useful exercises.8e. motivating students to write.8f. feedback timely9g. recitation is an effective way in english writing.9. conclusion.9work cited.11. introductionthere are four basic skills in the process of english learning. they are

8、listening, speaking, reading and writing. writing is a kind of comprehensive expression ability. and writing is the same important as the other basic skills. “within the communicative framework of language teaching, the skill of writing enjoys special statusit is via writing that a person can commun

9、icate a variety of messages to a close or distant, know or unknown readers. such communication is extremely important in the modern world”(celce-murcia 207). it is one of the essential content and task to cultivate writing ability in middle school teaching. writing ability belongs to written communi

10、cation ability. “writing can give a voice to shy students as writing can serve as a medium through which less confident students can communicate with their teacher and others”(wang 207). “moreover, writing can be less threatening for anxious students as it gives them time to think about their meanin

11、g and purpose” (morgan 151). written language is a form of language communication as same as spoken language. writing is an important communication ability to use written language. secondly, cultivating writing ability is one of the english teaching purposes in middle schools. it is a kind of langua

12、ge skill as same as listening, speaking and reading. the four basic skills are complementary to each other. if one of them is weak, the other three skills will be affected. developing the writing ability can combine with some activities of listening, speaking and reading. and if the writing ability

13、is improved, the other basic skills have improved enormously. thirdly, practicing writing makes students master language knowledge exactly. writing can raise awareness of how language works. through writing, students will become familiar with the linguistic and social conventions of writing in engli

14、sh. in the process of learning english, whether you practice writing, the results are different obviously. for example, through writing to recite new words, students can remember 91 percent. on the contrary, dont use this method, students only remember 58 percent. fourthly, writing is an important w

15、ay to check teaching effect. it may be used as a testing device, not necessary to grade the students, but rather to provide feedback on what the students have learned. writing is tangible and has high “face validity.” thus, the ability to write is commonly viewed as evidence of students having learn

16、ed the language and a visible record of what has been achieved. writing can reflect the real standard of students english learning exactly. so, teachers can know the problems and weak links of students in the process of english learning exactly. so far, written examination is a main way to check eng

17、lish learning.“writing is a very important way of communication in our daily life. the ability to write in english is recognized in society and in the schools as an important objective of foreign language teaching and learning” (shu 78). the need for writing in modern society is much more extensive

18、than what we imagine. its true that, in everyday life, writing can help us do many things such as recording the history of human civilization and social development, and communicating with others. with the fast development of chinas economy and overall national strength, more and more contact with t

19、he outside world makes writing skills more necessary than ever before. modern technology does not diminish the function of writing. furthermore, in many places, writing might be more proper and feasible than oral communication to achieve a desired result. more and more people begin to realize that w

20、riting is an indispensable tool for them to exchange information, share experience, and build and strengthen their friendship with foreign friends.because of our one-sided emphasis on “l(fā)istening and speaking first”, it appeared that teachers ignore despise even to cultivate writing ability. finally,

21、 students writing is scratchy and perfunctory and it is hard to distinguish. there are lots of mistakes in their works including make sentences, paragraph. and it is more difficult to write whole passage. even students dont know how to write letters, notes and notices. in order to cultivate the prac

22、tical writing ability, we should attach great importance to this phenomenon. so this paper will talk about the importance of writing ability, common errors in the process of writing, the learners difficulties in cultivating writing ability and the teaching methods and strategies of cultivating writi

23、ng ability. ii. learners difficulties in cultivating writing abilitythe ability to express ones ideas in writing in a second or foreign language and to do so with reasonable coherence and accuracy is a major achievement; many non-native speakers of english never truly master this skill. following ar

24、e the main difficulties in writing in the students of middle school.a. not accustomed to using english writing pattern. to some extent, this is also a cultural issue as chinese rhetoric encourages an inductive way of reasoning and expression. therefore, chinese students prefer to use quotations and

25、paraphrases rather than draw their own conclusions or observations. nevertheless, quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing from other authors without the proper acknowledgment are still plagiarism. these are some of the most common problems contained in the english writing of chinese students and to on

26、e degree or another, can be found in almost all their compositions.b. the influence of mother tongue. patterns of chinese thought, no doubt influenced by culture, are different than those of the west. this issue can create serious problems in writing english. many essays that i read contain complete

27、 sentences that are intelligible, because the writer is thinking in chinese and writing english words. this situation is most unacceptable as it not only completely confuses the reader, but the work also loses its credibility and is not considered worthwhile reading.writing，as one of the basic skill

28、s of english learning, refers to the ability to use english to express ones inner thought，which is supposed to have been put stress on. up to now, however, many problems still exist: why those english compositions by chinese students are more like translation products literally than a real english e

29、ssay? why it is so easy to differ from an article by a chinese to one by a native english speaker? undoubtedly, the lack of english knowledge accounts for one of the phenomena. on the other hand, the overlook of culture instruction makes it unavoidable. it is wellknown that culture, language and tho

30、ught are an organic part, in which the interaction occurs among the three factors. as a result, cultural differences, not only in the form, sentences and vocabularies but also in the way of thinking and expression habit, all be seen obviously from a writing product by a chinese. c. lake of good base

31、s in english.in the period of when i was an intern. i found about 80 percent of middle school students often made mistakes in word spelling. some students do not like study english because they have not good bases. for example: lake of grammar, they will not familiar with sentence structure; lake of

32、 background knowledge, they will not clearly well know the main idea of the article and lake of good motivation, they will not interested in writing. above all, if students lake of good bases, their writing ability will not be good.d. lake of more english writing practices.some students do not like

33、writing, when they have chance to practice writing, they always feel boring. writing involves some aspects; they will pay more attention to reading and speaking etc. practice makes perfect. so if students want improving english writing, they should cultivate their interest. they will more read, more

34、 write. they should have a good habit. they can write some small article in one or two days. if they insist on writing practices, it will helpful for you writing.iii. common errors in the process of writinga. mistaken ideas on the dew of the methods of writing trainingenglish is not our mother tongu

35、e, so students will have more concerns about the accuracy of their work than native speakers, but it is important to realize that writing is much more linguistic accuracy. when writing, students lay more emphasis on the grammar, spelling than the content and the idea. in actual fact, it is a waste o

36、f time and energy. there is no help for the training of english writing. also, there is little effect to improve the students writing ability. students are seldom told the importance of the instruction of writing and show less interest in writing courses. for example, they have come to understand th

37、at writing is done for teachers to examine and that form takes precedence over meaning. they have been drilled in rules and formulaic principles and have little awareness of audience and reader perception. in writing courses, the teacher teaches writing techniques in the order of word, sentence, par

38、agraph and discourse. the lessons seem quite abstract and dull and make the students sleepy. they assume that writing is done in response to tests or homework assignments that are evaluated by the teacher: they usually come to a writing course with an anxiety about writing and about their ability as

39、 writers. when teaching students how to write, teachers plan the lessons, carry out activities, face problems, and look for approaches. however, students writing works are still full of repetition of mistakes, inadequate development of ideas, but lack of involvement in the topics, and confidence in

40、their ability to write well in english. the teachers doubt that their present writing instruction doesnt meet their needs or the goals of english writing courses. in fact, the methods of writing training dont just mean the grasp of the theory and strategies. how to put the theory and strategies into

41、 practice is the key factor of the success of failure.b. lack of practicechinese middle school students are mainly trained to succeed in the national college entrance exam through learning how to tackle those multiple choice questions. they are not instructed comprehensively in the skills of listeni

42、ng, speaking, reading and writing. “writing receives the least attention, and in the most case, no attention at all. deadly lack of practice, our students would be surely at a loss as to what to do in the writing class” (xu 122). the best way to learn to write is by writing. practice makes perfect.

43、so is english writing. senior middle school english teachers should instruct their students that writing ability can be improved simply through writing. in our teaching practice, we spend much more time and energy in reading than in writing. few teachers and students have enough awareness of the int

44、egration between reading and writing. in fact, although reading takes up most of students time in english class and in various kinds of exams in china, they still find it so hard to apply what they have learnt in the reading activities into their actual compositions. on the contrary, if senior middl

45、e school english teachers demand their students to spend more time and energy on writing, emphasize the relationship between reading and writing and try to instruct the students to learn writing through reading, they will certainly help their students benefit from an interactive play between reading

46、 and writing and thereby improve their comprehensive language skills.c. psychological problemslearning to speak is a natural and inborn faculty, but learning to write is artificial, a process of social conditioning. so there are many differences between them. speech is carried out among persons as t

47、he main way of communication. of course, the circumstance of speech is indispensable for the formation of speaking ability. it is the process of language acquisition. but learning to write requires some kind of conscious effort, effective instruction and constant practice. therefore, the writer is u

48、nder quite a different environment between the activities of writing and that of speaking. communication by speech usually takes place in a context that often makes references clear, direct interaction possible and immediate feedback feasible. writing, on the other hand, is essentially a solitary ac

49、tivity in which the writer has to create a context and therefore the meaning expressed has to be fully explicit. this may result in the writers psychological barriers when they are producing a written text. the writer needs to anticipate possible difficulties that the reader might have and take thes

50、e into account in creating his text. the lack of direct contact with the reader makes it impossible for him to make use of direct feedback to adjust his message, by which communication is facilitated. there are two mainly kinds of writing approaches: one is product-oriented approach; the other is pr

51、ocess-based approach. the most important principle of product approach is that writing is the product of accurate language, while the key factor of process approach is that teaching focuses on the writing process rather than the final product. however, according to horowitz, in essence, the process

52、approach overemphasizes the individuals psychological functioning and neglects the social cultural context. the methods and strategies of cultivating writing ability “it is important to remember that in the english as a second language/english as a foreign language context, writing, likes the other

53、language skills, need to be dealt with at the particular level of linguistic and discourse proficiency that the intended students have reached” (raimes 64). the proposed sequence of activities will start with primary focus on the mechanical aspects of writing, as the basic instrumental skill, and gr

54、adually move on to a combination of “purpose for writing” and language focus. eventually, the communicative perspective will become more central to such writing activities.writing activities should serve to encourage a process of brainstorming, drafting, writing, feedback, revising and editing, whic

55、h proceeds in a cyclical fashion resembling the writing process of a real writer. these types of activities should encourage the idea that learning to write is more important than creating a final product; it is the learning of a series skills leading to that product.teacher does not only pay attent

56、ion to what students do while they are writing, it also attaches great importance to what they and the teacher do before they start writing and after they finish writing. the main procedures of process writing include creating a motivation to write; brainstorming; mapping; free writing; outlining; d

57、rafting; editing (peer editing and self-editing); revising; proofreading and conferencing.maybe it is unimportant what kind of writing method is chosen. the most important thing is to evoke students writing interest and motivation. however, different kinds of writing have different conventions for their organization and expression. as an instructor, we should recognize the importance of the theory of writing. according the kinds of writing, we can require students to choose the method of writing appro