以活动理论为基础的高中英语写作教学研究

1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study
Writing is an important embodiment of students’ comprehensive English ability and animportant measure of students’ English learning. Both students and teachers pay muchattention to English writing, however, it is difficult to make great progress in writing teaching.There exits many problems in terms of both teachers and students.
Problems in writing teaching. First, the level of teachers’ own quality directly affects thelevel of English writing teaching. Due to the heavy task of senior high school Englishteaching and the existence of practical problems such as class hours, the teachers musttransfer the knowledge to the students in the shortest time. Second, the teacher’sunderstanding is wrong. On the one hand, with the deepening of education reform, manyteachers do not understand the new teaching concepts. Some teachers still continue to use theold-fashioned writing teaching mode, which makes students lack of interest in Englishsubjects. On the other hand, some teachers don’t pay much attention to English writing anduse a lot of time to improve other abilities of students. Thirdly, teachers lack professionaltraining. There are relatively few reference textbooks for English writing. The writing trainingin textbooks is mostly for the subsidiary content of a certain unit.
Problems in students’ writing. First, students have a heavy psychological burden andthink that English writing is difficult. Most students are afraid of English writing, and theydon’t know how to start. Second, the writing foundation is in a bad situation. In this respect,the most prominent problem for students is the lack of vocabulary. Third, students lackwriting skills. Many students lack comprehensive and systematic learning in writing skills.Students pay much attention to the grammar and word spelling of each sentence whileignoring the articulation of the sentences of the context, so the composition is intermittent andthe topic of the article is ambiguous.
..........................

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study
This study aims to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of the activity theory basedEnglish writing teaching model in senior high school English writing teaching. It emphasizesthat learning generated from activities. In addition, activity theory has been widely used incollege English teaching and has made great progress. However, there are fewer peopleapplying the theory of activity to high school classrooms. Therefore, this thesis studies thecurrent situation of senior high school English writing teaching and confirms the activitytheory based English writing has positive effect on English writing teaching in senior highschool.
From the theoretical point of view, this study can improve the understanding of activitytheory. The biggest difference between the activity theory based English writing teachingmodel and traditional writing teaching model is that it focuses on the writing process ratherthan the result, and the writing is finished by the activity. This study will detail the activitiesprocess and application to deepen the understanding of the activity.
From the practical point of view, this study provides a new writing teaching model forhigh school English writing teaching. For students, in the process of writing, it has a positiveeffect on improving students’ writing ability that students finish the writing tasks throughactivities. In the community, it can promote writing through collaborative interactions amongteam members. As for teachers, the design of writing activities can help students achieve theirlearning goals. In addition, they can promote students’ interest in English writing and enablestudents to actively participate in writing activities, thus improving students’ English writingability. Through this study, teachers in senior high school will master a new writing teachingmodel, and it will provide some theoretical guidance for the study of activity theory in otherteaching fields.
..........................

2 Literature Review

2.1 Relevant Studies on Activity Theory Abroad
In this part, the definitions, the origin and development of activity theory are introduced.
2.1.1 Definitions of Activity Theory
Activity is a situation where something is happening or a lot of things are being done,however, in teaching it can help students achieve learning goals. Leont’ev (1981) definedactivity as the “unit of life that is mediated by mental reflection” and characterized it as areciprocal transformation between subject and object.
Jonassen and Ronrer-Murphy (1999) defined activity theory. They believed that“conscious learning generated from activities, and it focuses on the interaction of humanactivities and consciousness in related environments.”
Issroff and Scanlon (2002) defined activity theory as “the conceptualization of learningas involving a learner, a task or activity and mediating artifacts”.
According to Lantolf (2004), in the language-learning research, activity theory is atheory of mind “that recognizes the central role that social relationships and culturallyconstructed artifacts play in organizing uniquely human forms of thinking.”
Jaworski and Goodchild (2006) emphasized that a key idea in activity theory is “thathuman activity is motivated within the sociocultural and historical processes of human lifeand comprises (mediated) goal-directed action”.
To sum up, activity theory is a philosophical and interdisciplinary theoretical frameworkthat studies different forms of human activities. As for learning and teaching, activity theoryemphasized the bridge role of activity in the learning and teaching process. Therefore, thisthesis based on the idea that learning generated from activities, applying the activity theorybased English writing teaching model to senior high writing class to improve students’ writingability.
..............................

2.2 Relevant Studies on Activity Theory at Home
In China, some psychologists began to elaborate on the activity theory in the 1980s.Zhang Shiying (1985) first analyzed the basic ideas and historical formation in the article.Most of the scholars began to apply activity theory to the field of education at the beginningof this century, and made certain achievements in theory and practice.
In theory, it mainly introduces the role of theoretical guidance of activity theory ineducation. Zheng Tainian (2005) introduced the application of activity theory in education andits development process in his article. Lv Jinjiao, Shi Lifan and Liu Meifeng (2007) analyzedthe main viewpoints and representative figures in activity theory of three generations in thearticle.
In practice, it is mainly reflected on how to apply activity theory to education. LaiXiaoyun and Xiang Guoxiong (2005) specifically analyzed the influencing factors of theactivity theory on the learning environment design and proposed the design process. YuShulin and Icy (2013) used the activity theory as a theoretical framework to reinterpret peerfeedback in the teaching of second language writing. They constructed the companionfeedback system model.
Through further reading relevant literature, it can be found that most researchers applyactivity theory to the writing classrooms in universities and explore the influence of activitytheory on college English writing.
.............................
3 Research Methodology.................................... 11
3.1 Research Questions......................................11
3.2 Research Subjects.......................................... 11
3.3 Research Instruments....................................12
4 Results and Discussion..............................................18
4.1 Analysis of Pre-test and Post-test.................................... 18
4.1.1 Analysis of Pre-test in EG and CG................................... 18
4.1.2 Analysis of post-test in EG and CG.....................................19
5 Conclusion........................................... 29
5.1 Major Findings.....................................29
5.2 Implications.........................................30
5.3 Limitations...................................30

4 Results and Discussion

4.1 Analysis of Pre-test and Post-test
The result of the pre-test and post-test is analyzed in this part. Through alaysis, it can beseen whether the activity theory based English writing teaching model has a positive impacton senior high school English writing performance.
4.1.1 Analysis of Pre-test in EG and CG
This part is to analyze the result of pre-test in experimental class and the control class toknow their English wrting level before the experiment. This part aims to see the Englishwriting level of the experimental class and the control class.

The data showed the pre-test scores in the Table 4.1. It can be seen that the mean score ofEG is 10.3250 and the mean score of CG is 10.2750. What’s more, the value of Std. Deviationof EG and CG is 1.65464 to 1.54890. Therefore, we can conclude that the pre-test scores aredistributed in normal in both CG and EG. Furthermore, the two classes’ mean score of10.3250 and 10.2750 with the full mark of the composition is 20, which shows the students inEG and CG aren’t good at writing. In addition, these data shows that there is no significantdifference in the experimental class before the experiment. In other words, we can infer thatthe writing grades of the students in the experimental class and the control class are at thesame level. Hence, it can infered that the English writing level of the experimental and thecontrol class is the same before the activity theory based English writing teaching model, andthere is no significance between the two classes.
............................

5 Conclusion

5.1 Major Findings
Through data analysis, it can be seen that compared with the control class, the wordaccuracy has been improved and complexity of sentence structure has changed significantlyafter using the activity theory based writing teaching model. The students in the experimentalclass performed better than the students in the control class. Therefore, it can be concludedthat the activity theory based English writing teaching model can improve students’ Englishwriting ability. Hence, the activity theory based English writing teaching model has a positiveimpact on students’ English writing performance in senior high school. There are majorfindings are as follows:
First of all, the activity theory based English writing teaching model can improvestudents’ English writing performance. Through the analysis of the test results of post-testbetween the experimental class and the control class, the scores of the experimental classstudents are much higher than the students in the control class. Therefore, the activity theorybased English writing teaching mode can improve students’ English writing performance.
Secondly, the activity theory based English writing teaching model can make students’word accuracy. Through the analysis of pre-test and post-test of the experimental class, theword accuracy of the students is significantly improved. After experiment, the students in theexperimental class have accumulated a large amount of vocabularies, and have been able tobasically avoid errors such as spelling errors. Therefore, the activity theory based Englishwriting teaching mode can improve the word accuracy of students.
Third, the activity theory based English writing teaching model can enrich the sentencestructure of students. Through the analysis of the pre-test and post-test in EG, the students’sentence structure is relatively simple before the experiment. While after the experiment, thesentence structure of students in the experimental class changed significantly. Throughinterviews, students also believe that this writing teaching mode enriches their sentencestructure. Therefore, the activity theory based English writing teaching model can enrich thesentence structure of students.
reference(omitted)