Chapter One Introduction
1.1Background of the Research
Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the major aspects of ESL teaching,especially writing ability. The writing ability can reflect students’ communicationability and their English speaking level. In addition, English writing is also necessaryin students’ career. Since 1980s, a number of researches on English writing have beenfocused. A lot of teachers and researchers put an emphasis on this aspect. However,writing teaching in the class is always the weak aspect in the ESL teaching. It isessential for English teachers and researchers to find an effective way to improvestudents’ English writing .In addition, some problems in the English teaching are obvious at present. first,teachers pay more attention to vocabulary and grammar than contents. Generally,some think as long as students master the writing skills, grammar points and enoughvocabulary, they are able to write good essays. Nevertheless, the basic knowledgeabout culture and background is ignored. Therefore, it results in the boring and hollowcontents of the English writing. Second, in the English teaching class, most teachersare much more likely to focus on the writing results rather than the writing processes.This kind of writing teaching method is the form of product teaching approach. Itfocus on grammar, fluency, sentence structure and error. It states that learners needlinguistic knowledge (Badger&White, 2000). As a result, students’ imagination orcreativity during the process of writing is neglected. Otherwise, the boring Englishwriting class makes students losing their interest in writing. Third, the English writingteaching class is mechanical. Usually teachers give students a writing task, then thestudents finish it over certain time and hand in to get a mark. The teaching processlacks activity and practicality.
…………
1.2Purpose and Significance of the Research
In recent years, although many researchers and teachers concentrate on theimprovement of English writing teaching, most of them just make theoretical researchand often choose high school students and college students as the subjects. What’smore, the approach is applied in a single mode. The methods to help the writing ofstudents in the vocational colleges is rare. Thereby, according to the writing problemsamong the vocational college students, process approach combined with thecooperative learning is applied to the English writing teaching class in thevocational colleges. The main purpose is to improve students’ ability to write Englishessay in the daily life as well as in the future career. It aims to build a new writingteaching approach to stimulate vocational college students’ interests in the Englishwriting. To prove this writing teaching approach is feasible and effective, anexperimental study is carried out in order to testify the effect of application of processapproach and cooperative learning in the writing teaching.
……………
Chapter two Literature Review
2.1 Introduction to the Process Approach
Since the 1960s, the disadvantages of product approach are prominent. In 1971,Emig found out that the writing is not a linear, but a complex, a recursive and creativeprocess. The process approach began to emerge.As for the definition of process approach, there is no common opinion at present.Most researchers tend to definite it from deliberating its characteristics. WallaceDouglas, as the pioneer of the process approach, pointed out that writing should be aprocess, what the teacher teaches in the writing class should be the writing methods orsteps. That is the nature of the process approach in teaching English writing.According to Tim Caudery(1995), instead of concentrating on the writing thatstudents produced and making comments on it, the teacher could aim to help studentswrite better by aiding them in the actual process of writing, by finding the source oftheir problems in creating good written texts and enabling them to overcome thosedifficulties. Such ideas also are expressed in the late seventies in numerous articles byDonald Murray(1980). He placed emphasis on the importance of a series of drafts inthe writing process as the writer gradually discovered through writing what it was thatshe/he wanted to say.
……………
2.2 The Development of Cooperative Learning
The cooperative learning is a linguistic theory and strategy which rose from the1970s and made a substantial progress between late 1970s and 1980s. It becomes oneof the most popular and effective field in linguistic educational theory and practice.Many researchers and scholars all over the world study on it. Some researchers give their comprehension about the cooperative learning.According to Jones, et al.(1994), cooperative learning may best be defined as smallheterogeneously mixed working groups of learners learning collaborative/social skillswhile working toward a common academic goal or task. He thinks that all models ofcooperative learning utilize the basic elements of positive interdependence, inpidualaccountability, collaborative/social skills, and group processing. Jonsons (1998) statesthat cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students worktogether to maximize their own and each other’s learning. Slavin (1996) defines CL as“instructional programs’’ in which students work in small group to help one anothermaster “academic contents”. He points out that most methods of CL involve studentsworking in groups in which they are responsible not only for their own learning, butthat of their fellow group members.
………
Chapter Three Methodology..... 26
3.1 Research Questions..... 26
3.2 Instruments...... 26
3.3 Subjects ....... 27
3.4 Procedures....... 28
Chapter Four Data Collection and Analysis.... 33
4.1 Data Collection and Analysis of the Test .... 33
4.1.1 Data Collection and Analysis of the Pre-test ....... 33
4.1.2 Data Collection and Analysis of the Post-test...... 34
4.1.3 Caparison between Pre-test and Post-test .... 34
4.1.4 Discussion .... 36
4.2 Data Collection and Analysis of the Questionnaire .... 37
4.2.1 Data Collection and Analysis of the Pre-questionnaire ....... 37
4.2.2 Data Collection and Analysis of the Post-questionnaire...... 40
4.2.3 Discussion .... 42
Chapter Five Conclusion....... 45
5.1 Major Findings.... 45
5.2 Implications..... 46
5.3 Suggestions for Teachers and Students ....... 48
5.4 Limitations ...... 49
5.5 Recommendations for Further Study ...... 49
Chapter Four Data Collection and Analysis
4.1 Data Collection and Analysis of the Test
In the above table, the mean scores of the experimental class is 10.8269 and thecontrol class is 11.5962. The mean scores in the experimental class is just 0.7 pointslower than the control class. So both classes nearly have similar meaning scores. Andthe deviation of the students' grades in the experimental class and the control class isnot large. Through the examinations of the independent sample T-test, the p= 0.141＞0.05. It indicates that there is no significant difference between the experimentalclass and the control class in students' overall English proficiency before theexperiment, and it can be said that both classes are at the same level. From the data in the Table 4.2, the mean points of the experimental class is13.1154 while the control class is 11.2308. Apparently the mean score of theexperimental class is higher than that of the control class. It can be concluded that inthe experimental class, students' English writing proficiency is improved after theexperiment. By the independent sample T-test, p=0.031 <0.05，which shows theexperimental class excels the control class and there is a great difference of students’overall English proficiency between the two classes. All this proves that comparedwith the traditional product approach, the six-step writing teaching process whichcombined process approach and cooperative learning together is more effective inimproving high vocational college students' English writing ability.
……………
Conclusion
Based on combining process approach and cooperative learning in the Englishwriting, the six-step writing teaching process is put forward in the research . After theexperiment, the feasibility and effectiveness of the six-step writing teaching processare testified. It influences various aspects of English study, not only students but alsoteachers and English writing class. The major findings are as follows:According to the data in the experiment, we know students change a lot indifferent aspects, such as writing level, writing attitude and cooperative ability.Firstly, students’ writing level is improved. The six-steps writing teachingprocess is a specific but flexible method in teaching English writing. It has specificprocesses and aims to develop students’ creative mind, so there are more flexibletopics or content to arouse students’ potential to write. In addition, group work ishelpful to develop one student’s writing ability. Group discussion and evaluationmakes them avoid some mistakes that they always make in the writing. And theprocess of revising is crucial for students to improve their writing level.
……………
Reference (omitted)