Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Current Situation of EngVsh Writing Teaching in China
The objective of middle school English teaching is to make basic training oflistening, speaking, reading and writing for students and to preliminarily cultivatestudents the abilities of using English in speech or writing. Therefore, the teaching ofwriting has great significance in middle school English teaching. Of the four basicskills in the English learning, writing is a kind of comprehensive ability. It can reflectif the students are able to express their views in English flexibly. With thedevelopment of researches in English teaching, the majority of English teachers paymore and more attention to how to teach writing effectively.
For the middle school students, writing seems to be one of the important and alsodifficult abilities. The new standard of English curriculum (SEC} makes clearrequirements on writing ability. For example, for the eighth grade, students arerequired to write complete essays to narrate matters or express their views coherently(SEC, 2001).In the college entrance exams, writing accounts for more than 20percent. Of course most students have realized the significance of writing, butsometimes they feel helpless. Even though they have spent much time and tried theirbest to improve their writing ability through different ways, there is still no effect.Tribble (1996) said that "writing is a language skill which is difficult to acquire" (p.3)Most Chinese students feel headache when talking about it, therefore, the teaching ofEnglish writing becomes a knotty problem for most English teachers in China.
Up to now, the most popular writing teaching approach in China is theproduct-oriented writing approach, which requires students to finish the compositionall at once with teacher feedback and lays emphasis on the writing product. Many ofthe domestic English writing teaching materials are designed according to thisapproach. Its defect is that teachers can't recognize the difficulties students meet in thewriting process and students just pay attention to the scores they get. The evaluationof this approach, teacher feedb(Chaudron, 1984), but teachersack,don'tcan improve students' language proficiencyknow the response of the students to theircomments and they also don't know if students realize the reason of their mistakes.Thus the product-oriented approach is still characterized by teachers being the coreand students being passive in the English learning. There are little interaction betweenteachers and students.
From the perspective of teachers, they make great efforts with little effect. TheEnglish teachers in China found it cost too much time to mark more than 100compositions, let alone to provide counseling to each inpidual students and solveeach student's writing problem. When the author was an intern teacher in a seniormiddle school last semester, she found that teachers did do many writing exercises inclass, but the guidance was only limited to the organization and some usefulexpressions. After the drafts finished, teachers would help to correct some languagemistakes without any comments, let alone suggestions. Even though the teacher hasbeen exhausted evaluating their compositions, some students don't realize thesignificance of teacher's corrections in red ink. They just cast a glance at their scoreand bundle the paper into their desks. Not surprisingly, students always make similarmistakes and the teacher's hard-working yield little result. Therefore, it's hard for thepresent writing teaching in China to help students solve their problems.
Therefore, other forms of evaluation of writing are expected. With the popularityof process approach, the effect of peer feedback arouses much attention fromresearchers and teachers. They are trying to find a complementary form of teacherresponse. "In recent years, the use of peer feedback in English as a Second Languagewriting classrooms has been generally supported in the literature as a potentiallyvaluable aid for its social, cognitive, affective, and methodological benefits" (PaulRollinson, 2005, p.23). Under such circumstances, this research is necessary andconstructive reference for researchers and teachers in the teaching of English writing.
This paper will go deep into the students' minds both as feedback givers andreceivers in the process of givingexplore the elements which improveand receiving peer feedback. The author willthe students' writing ability in the research andhow teachers can make use of them.
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初探高中英语写作中的学生互评
摘要 5-6
Abstract 6
Table of Contents 7-10
List of Tables 10-11
Chapter One Introduction 11-15
1.1 Current Situation of English Writing Teaching in China 11-13
1.2 Significance of This Study 13-14
1.3 Organization of the Thesis 14-15
Chapter Two Literature Review 15-34
2.1 Definition of Peer Feedback 15-16
2.2 Rationale of the Research 16-20
2.2.1 Theory of Process Writing 17-18
2.2.2 Collaborative Learning Theory 18-19
2.2.3 The Theory of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development 19-20
2.3 Previous Researches 20-34
2.3.1 Researches Abroad 21-26
2.3.1.1 The Effectiveness of Peer Feedback 21-24
2.3.1.2 Comparative Studies of Peer and Teacher Feedback 24-26
2.3.2 Researches on Peer Feedback in China 26-33
2.3.3 The Gap of Previous Researches 33-34
Chapter Three Methodology 34-44
3.1 Research Objectives 34
3.2 Research Subjects 34-35
3.3 Research Design 35-40
3.3.1 Grouping 35-36
3.3.2 Training 36-39
3.3.2.1 The First Period 37-38
3.3.2.2 The Second Period 38-39
3.3.3 Writing Assignment 39-40
3.4 Research Instruments 40-43
3.4.1 Classroom Observation 40-41
3.4.2 Semi-structured Interview 41-42
3.4.3 Questionnaire 42-43
3.5 Data Collection 43
3.6 Data Analysis 43-44
Chapter Four Results and Discussion 44-65
4.1 Results of the Data Analysis 44-62
4.1.1 Students' Attitudes Towards Peer Feedback 44-46
4.1.2 The Benefits of Peer Feedback for Feedback Givers 46-51
4.1.3 The Benefits of Peer Feedback for Feedback Receivers 51-57
4.1.4 Revisions in Response to the Peer Feedback 57-62
4.2 Discussion 62-65
Chapter Five Conclusion 65-69
5.1 Major Findings of the Present Study 65-66
5.2 Pedagogical Implications of This Study 66-67
5.3 Limitations of This Study and Recommendations for Further Researches 67-69
References 69-74
Appendix A:Interview Outline 74-76
Appendix B:Questionnaire Paper 76-78
Appendix C:A Sample of Students' Writing 78-79
Acknowledgments 79