The feedback of English writing.doc

The feedback of English writingContentsI Introduction3II The Process of Writing 3III group Revision 31The first revision42The second revision53Problem related to group discussion5IV Feedback 71The background of the feedback in China7 2How to improve the students writing skills though effective use of the feed back7V Conclusion 9VI References9Abstract There have been a lot of complains from the teachers who teach English writing in China on the correcting students work and the low efficiency involved. In writing class, students often puzzled about how to write good idea on the composition topic though teachers usually spend most of the time talking about the writing skills. The students cant express themselves and others exactly and improve writing skills. Based on the researchers finding and the many-year teaching practice. The author describes the process of the writing and some ways of helping students improve their writing using group revisions, feed back and so on . Key words the English writing ,the process of writing ,group revision ,feed back摘要 一直有来自负担着修正学生作业的英语老师的抱怨。在写作课上,即使老师们花费大量的时间谈论写作技能，但是学生们仍然对于怎样写出好的作文主体而感到困惑。学生们不能准确的表达自己的或者他人的思想，也不能改进自己的写作技能。基于研究者的发现和多年的教学经验，作者描述了如何用小组讨论、信息反馈等手段来提高学生的写作能力。关键词：英语写作 写作过程 小组讨论 信息反馈The feedback of English writing I Introduction Writing is a productive skill of languages, which usually cones at the four languages skill. Many students find it difficult when they write either because they dont know how to write or because they dont have anything to write .As a result , they will feel headache while meeting the English writing .I hope this will be helpful for the students to write better compositions and thus the quality of communication through English in daily life ,in exams.II The process of writing Before writing a composition ,you must know the process of writing .It is very necessary that the students know this . When I teach the writing process ,I get the students to experience the actual process in writing by carrying out the tasks. The tasks are presented as follow. You are going to write a composition entiled:“The advantages and the disadvantages of watching TV.” First you need to make notes of the things youd like discuss about .The teacher guides and the students may discuss in pairs. The following is a list of ideas about the advantages and the disadvantages of watching TV, Then decide the ideas that you think are useful and remove any that you think are of little use .Then write a draft on the composition based on the ideas that you decide to use .Next ,revise the first revision of your work. You can recognize your work by shifting emphasis or changing the order of the paragraphs .In the end ,write the final revision .You need to correct any errors in grammar , vocabulary, spelling ,punctuation and references. After finishing the above five tasks ,the students have gained a good understanding of what the process of writing is .By teaching the process of writing , the students get two aims at a time .On the one hand ,the students learn some writing skills ,which help to improve their own writing competence. On the other hand , they also learn the ways by which these skills are used .III Group RevisionGroup revision has proved to be a very important step in writing and yet it has not receive d much attention to English teaching in China .This paper explores the problems related to peer group revision in China and provides suggestions for solving the problems and practices guide for group revision.In teaching writing to English students in Shanxi Teachers University in China ,you may find a problem which is common to all the students in China .Though teachers have emphasized the importance of revision in writing and given students time to revise ,students seem to benefit little from it .Later ,with farther study and experiments, the people recognize that peer group revision is an effective activity in helping students to improve their writing. Much research has been done on the different aspect of peer group revision.(Nelson and Carson, 1998,villami 1996). Based on these findings and the authors own experience. I want to provide a practical guide. Before starting the group revision, the teachers needs to divide the students into groups There are usually three to six members in each group. The teacher should guide the students to realize the necessity and importance of peer feedback to improve their writing. Peer feedback helps the writer to know what others think of the writing. It will enable each student to become an independent writer and to cultivate an objective approach to his own writing.According to the research and the authors own experience, students should make at least three revisions to bring about the final product. The first two revisions are made according to the peer group feedback and the third one is made based on the teachers.1 The first revision.The fist revision is on the structure and organization of the text. Before the students actually start to write and while theyre practicing to write in the writing class, instruction should be given on what the organization and structure of a good article is like (it is very important for students to learn the structure and organization of articles of different styles in the writing class ,though it is one of the major objectives of the reading class.) There are many ways in raising the students awareness . The author suggests the guided group conference as an effective means to solve the problem. The teacher selects typical articles of different styles and ask the students to read , one at a time . After the students finish reading , the teacher devides the students into groups and asks them to discuss and find out the outline , or the thread of the article ,the main idea of the article ,the supporting details .After the students are guided to be aware of the writers purpose in writing the article and how that is realized. Compare and contrast of the structure and organization of English and Chinese article are needed to help the students to know the features of English texts. In the writing class , after students finish their first draft ,or the students bring their first drafts to the class if they are assigned as homework, the teacher devides the students into groups based on their choice .Firstly the students writer reads aloud their draft while the other listen and they read essay together after the writer finishes their reading while reading ,the writer may do some self-response revision .After reading ,the group begins to discuss the essay ,mainly the content and organization of the essay ,such as the following aspects:A. Check the topic is this clear enough for you to understand?B. Check the structure is the organizational structure clear enough for you to follow ?C. Check the development are these adequate supporting ideas? Does it have enough introduction , enough body or enough conclusion?D. Check the writing purpose is what the reader receives exactly what the write means to express?After the group conference ,the writer is given time to revise according to the feedback .Then the revised essay is brought to the second group revision begins. 2 The second revision The students attention is good to more detailed aspects of the essay in the second group revision. Students are reminded to focus their attention on aspects such as the following :A. Check for sentences which need to be delected or re-written to make the passage clear.B. Check for grammatical errors or mistakes which makes the passage difficult to understand .C. Check for transitional words which are needed to make the essay more logical and smoother.D. Check for words used wrongly ,or with a wrong convatation ,or which are ambiguous.Efforts should be made to help students to realize what a good sentence is like and what kinds of sentences are ungrammatical. The teacher can list those sentences in the students drafts and discuss with the students what can be done to improve one is needed to develop the students awareness. This can be done in a teacher-group or teacher-student conference .Implicit teaching on grammar is preferred to develop the students ability to produce grammatical and idiomatic sentences. During the group revisions ,the readers are encouraged to express their opinions directly and specifically ,not fearing that they will offend the writer since the purpose of peer feed back is to co-operate rather than to criticize. The writers are encouraged to listen carefully, ofter some explanation, participate in the interaction actively, and later revise their drafts based on their understanding of the peer feedback .In general, an active reader brings to the work a critical eye ,and acts as a provider of suggestions ,and simplier of tasks . An active writer , on the other hand , is a reviser aware of audience needs and receptive to feedback , a composer and final decision-maker. Party and Homs by (1985)describe the group revision activities as the following : Reading (writer)-critical listening (reader) speaking, and listening (readers)-listening , speaking ,note-taking (writer)-re-writing (writer).3 Problems related to group discussionA conflict occurs when members disagree over two or more options that a group can take in trying to resolve a problem. In group revision discussion, it often happens that the writer or the reader tries to gain control of the interaction and lead the revision. The reader and the readers may take possession of the task and obliterate the presence of the writer. And the writer, on the other hand, may struggle to maintain authorial control. Extreme struggles for control and hot clashes are not conducive to major revisions and are harmful to group discussion. but , conflict and Geed not be avoided at all coats. Conflict, in fact, shows both the writers and the readers sense of responsibility in doing the task. Conflict can be an important, indeed useful, part of group communication .If a group experienced no conflict, it would have little to discuss. One value of conflict is that it makes a group test and challenge ideas. What is important is that the teacher should guide the students to make conflict beneficial to their discussion.One of the students need to do is to try to avoid conflict resulting from misunderstanding. Both the writer and the readers need to describe their feeling to the others accurately and, on the other hand , try to understand what the others really mean . They would listen attentively, question when one is not sure what the others mean, ask the peer to paraphrase etc. To enable themselves to check their perception of both the content of the message and the feeling of the other people and help to develop a supportive rather than defensive climate in the group. Another way to avoid conflict is for the students to keep their discussion focus on the task rather than personalities. The important thing is to develop collaborative interactions. The participants should recognize this point and respect the others. The writer values the peers opinions as a very important feedback and the reader, sometimes, tries to say the essay through the eyes of the author in order to help him or her achieve the task goals.B. Poor response The author found, in teaching writing that the students were not so active in group interaction as expected, especially in the beginning period. Most students were reluctant to express which were different from other fearing creating conflict within the group, or being laughed at if their opinions which were not right. Some felt they had no authority as teachers and they kept silent for they could not think of a better solution. To solve this problem, the author persuaded the students to realize the goal of group work while acknowledging the need to respect the work and the feeling. On the other hand ,the writer can only learn from honest feedback to his/her draft, and on the other hand, the teachers can learn from the interaction with the writer to benefit their own writing. The author also realized the importance of the providing the students with necessary knowledge techniques and even ways of expression needed for peer response. Sometimes, especially in the beginning period, the author participated in the group work to elicit feedback from the student readers and motivate the student writer to respond actively. After a short period of time, great improvement could be detected, which is in accord with Wei Zhus finding (1995) that training students for poor response via teacher-student conferences had a impact on both the quality of feedback students provided on peer writing.IV Feedback1 The background of the feedback in China The traditional approach to English writing in China is generally product based. Giving feedback has been an issue since such an approach focus on producing different kinds writing products (such as essays, stories, notes, letters) and emphasizes imitation of different kinds of model paragraphs or essays instead of the writing process. Students are chiefly engaged in displaying writing rather than real writing (Brown, 1994). They write to be judged or evaluated rather than to communicate ideas. Teachers spend hours correcting students writing, providing written comments and grades to each piece. However, their diligent work is not appreciated. Students see little need and have no chance of revising the teacher-evaluated compositions. Many teachers of English writing have been trying to explore effective ways that can improve students writing skills. However, theres currently no overall theoretical guide or specific approach that can be used in the particular teaching environment of China. What is more, they are frustrated with many practical problems such as the standards between being consultant and judge, the heavy load of handing big classes students high anxiety and low interest in writing, and being unable to keep up with the latest research in writing. There seems to be a long way ahead to improve the effect of writing instruction in China. Though there is no top-down requirement from the notional syllabus on a shift of focus from product to process, the other does feel the need of incorporating the process approach into the traditional writing curriculum. It doesnt mean that the teacher should go to the other extreme to diminish, the importance of product, which is the ultimate goal and the very reason that we go through the process of prewriting, revising, and editing. What is suggested here is to draw students attention to the writing process- the means to the goal, to train students to appreciate feed