电大英语专业毕业论文.doc

Project ReportWriting Work Design & Students InterestInvestigatorWang YahongTianShui Branch of GSRTV UniversitySubmitted on 20th May 2011In fulfillment of the coursePractical Project DesignAcknowledgmentI am mostly grateful to my supervisor Miss Xu , without whose support and patience this project would not even have got off the ground.I am also grateful to my headmaster, my colleagues Wang Yan and Li Zhen for their help and panel discussions with me.No amount of thanks will be adequate for my students, without whose willing participation in the project implementation, it wound have remained on paper.Last but not the least, big thanks to my husband and my family who have shared with my worries, frustration, and hopefully my ultimate happiness eventually finishing the project.AbstractIt presents a detailed report of the project implemented to solve the problem that I spent a lot of time correcting my students errors in their writing, some of them always seem to make them again . It is hypothesized that learners errors in writing can be reduced by better-designed writing exercises. This hypothesis is verified by a three-week class teaching of the newly designed pair and group exercises about writing. Methodologically, four methods are used, they are analytic method, cause analysis, questionnaire and brainstorming.Key words: writing correction practice design interest,.Main Headings of the Project Report1. Introduction2. Project objective3. Project hypothesis4. The methods of problem analysis5. Project rationale6. Writing work design7. Control and target group8. Project implementation9. Project evaluation10. Project findings and discussion Appendixes:Appendix A: The timetable of the projectAppendix B: The methods of problem analysisAppendix C: Writing work designAppendix D: Teaching notes:Appendix E: DiareriesAppendix F: Students handout1. IntroductionI have been teaching the students who are in their second year of a junior middle school. In my teaching I have found there are some problems. Now Ill finish my study in Gansu TV University. I hope I can solve the problems that have troubled me for some time through the action research so that I can apply my knowledge and theory into practice, which I learned from Gansu TV University.2. Project objective To improve my students ability in writing through better-designed activities . 3. Project hypothesis: It is hypothesized that students ability in writing can be improved by better-designed writing exercises.4. The methods of problem analysis1 . Analyze the possible causes of the identified problem In unit 1，Professor Guide mentioned 6 scientific methods that are potentially useful for problem analysis. I have decided to use cause analysis, brainstorming and questionnaire to analyze my problem.Brainstorming:I discuss the problem with my students and my colleagues.Cause analysisI start with a list of why questions those contribute to the causes.A. Why traditional written practice isnt the better method to practice? (1) Is it because they do not like written English?(2) Is it because the writing tasks are poorly designed? or(3) Is it because they are not motivated? or(4) Is it because my instructions are not clear?(5) Is it because they do not like to practice writing tasks alone? (6) Is it because they do not think writing practice is important and necessary?B. All those make me find out the misunderstanding in writing practice. (1) The teachers side:I was not enthusiastic myself. I failed to give instructions clearly. I did not do any monitoring .I simply sat there, reading the correct answers.(2) The students side:My students came from the countryside. Their mastering the vocabulary is too small to finish writing by themselves. Some of them, especially the top ones, would rather give their answers in class to impress their teachers than exchange opinions with their peers. Some of them are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed by their peers. (3) The class size:The class size of over 45 students may have some negative effects.(4) The classroom management:The number of the class is too large to b e controlled. Students may not be properly corrected their writing.After the cause analysis, I feel quite strongly that my poor instruction of writing practice activities is the primary cause of my students not using cohesive devices in the writing .Since I am really scientifically minded ,I want to further confirm my analysis through still another method of scientific investigation, viz. questionnaire.2. Design a draft questionnaireI have followed these steps in my questionnaire 1. Choose the informants2. Work out a list of things that call for the students opinions3. Design a draft questionnaire4. Try the draft questionnaire out with a few students5. Revise and finalize the questionnaires6. Distribute the questionnaires7. Collect the questionnaires8. Process the results9. Evaluate the findingsI want to adopt Wang Lings tips on how to make questionnaire. Informant selectionWho will be my questionnaire informants is not a trivial issue. I should be as neutral as I can possibly be. That is, I should not choose only those who are likely to support my view. I should also include those who may be against my view. Strictly speaking, my informants should be randomly selected, that is without my knowledge of their views such as their order in the class register. Items to be testedThe sorts of questions to be raised in the questionnaire should be carefully worked out. In my case, after I have gone through the problem analysis by the analytic method, cause analysis, I feel quite confident about what sorts of questions I should raise in my questionnaire. If I had not gone though the process, I dont think I would have been able to know which questions I should ask my informants to answer.Design a my draft questionnaire1. Do you think the teacher has given you clear instructions about how to do writing practice?¨ Yes¨ No2. Do you think the teacher is too serious in class for you to feel free to write well?¨ Yes¨ No3. Do you think the teacher herself is enthusiastic herself?¨ Yes¨ No4. Does your teacher always help you when you meet difficulties?¨ Yes¨ No5. Do you like doing writing practice?¨ Yes¨ NoTry the draft questionnaire out with a few studentsAfter I have finished my questionnaire, I tried it out with a few students, to see how they react to the questionnaire. In this way I got rid of a lot of “bugs”, or faults, that I had failed to detect myself.The draft version question is a bad one. It is bad, not because of its grammar, which is perfectly acceptable, but because of the way it is put. My students knew I was going to read their answers, and as you can very well imagine, no-one would like to offend me by ticking “no”.So the opinion I wanted to find out by the question was actually fixed before the questionnaire was distributed to my informantsThe revised version of the question is much better one. I did not ask my students to comment on my performance straightaway. I did so in an indirect way. Thus I found out my students genuine view of my instructions. Revise and finalize the questionnaireIt always pays off in the end to revise my questionnaire after trailing it .It improves the validity if my questionnaire tremendously. Then I should really version, and so on, till I get what I want -a questionnaire that obtains the exact information I need Remember also that you will get more honest responses if the questionnaire is left anonymous, that is without the students having to write their names .My informants will be: both some of my students and some of my colleagues studentsI want to find out my informants opinion on the following things:1. Does the teacher have given the students clear instructions about how to do the writing practice on a certain topic before they begin with it?2. Is the teacher too serious for the students to feel free to write that the teacher asks them to do?3. Is the teacher enthusiastic herself when she demonstrate the task?4. Do the students need the teachers help when they meet difficulties?5. Do the students like doing writing practice both in class and after class?6. Do the students want to try their best to improve their writing skill?7. What kinds of measures have you taken to improve their writing skill?8. What are their favorite writing practice activities?9. Which activities can improve their motivation in learning written English?10. Which teaching method do you think is more interesting and more useful?11. What kind of praise can arouse your enthusiasm for learning written English?Questionnaire on Writing Practice Dear Student：I know you are very busy with your study. But could you spare me 10 to15 minutes by answering this questionnaire? Your help will improve my teaching of written English, and my better performance will in turn help you to improve your writing.Please return your questionnaire to my pigeonhole at your earliest convenience.Please ticket the box next to the answer that expresses your opinion.Thanks a lot!1. How do you like writing? a. Like a lot b. Like c. Just so so d. Dislike e. Dislike very much2. How would you like your teacher to give you instructions about how to write? a.In plain English. b. In Chinese. c. First in English, then in Chinesed. Give instructions followed by a demonstration.e. Help you brainstorm the topic and write some useful words and expressions on the blackboard. 3. How many linking words are you familiar with? a. Most b. Some c. only a few d. none4. What kind of topics would you like your teacher to give?a. The topics from the texts books. b. The topics from the real life.5. What measures do you take to improve the writing skill?a. Copying the texts b. Translating single sentences.c. Do nothing d. Writing English as often as possible. 6. What kind of praise can make you feel successful and do better?a. A big hand. b. Well done. c. What a good job! d. A humorous praisePlease provide the following information:Class:_ Age:_ Sex:_. Thank you for your cooperation!5. Project rationale1). The role of peer check.Peer-correction offers a way out in case the student can not discover or self-correct her or his mistake. The teacher can then ask others in the class for assistance. Another student will then give the correct answer. Once the classmate has given the correct answer, the teacher will ask the student who made the mistake to repeat the correct form. In this way the teacher reinforces the learning of the correct form. The advantages of the method are many. First, both the student who made the mistake and the student who corrected it are actively involved in the learning process. Second, the students get the feeling that they can learn from each other .This then also trains them for more teacher-independent learning in group or pair work. Finally, peer correction gives the teacher a clear picture of the level of more than one students ability. Group work is my teaching and learning technique. Some people may think that group work is not “real” learning and it is true that it can be lack of enough practice, and time-consuming, however group work is a very good way to manage large class with mixed abilities and it can improve the students motivation of use English.2) Teacher check after correction needed.What will happen if the teacher feels a mistake should be corrected, but if the student who made a mistake can not correct it, and if at the same time no other student seems to be able to correct the mistake. In that case teacher correction seems to be the only possible way out. It is essential that we understand that the teacher correction does “not” mean that the teacher immediately gives the correct answer. On the contrary, the teacher will first give more help. My students should realize that the teacher has many roles so that students realize that the teacher takes only a minor helping one. My students should realize that the teacher has many roles in the class not just that of evaluator. I would like students to get used to being responsible for their owe learning and not depending on the teacher all the time.3) The treatment of mistakesIt is not a teacher duty to correct mistakes which the students can correct themselves. If the teacher considers an exercise to be careless he may hand it back to the child to be corrected by the child himself or he may ask another student in the class to correct it .As a demonstration that the exercise is not the best that can be done.6. Writing work designI designed an adequate amount of activities (Cover four weeks of teaching) to test the hypothesis. If writing exercises are better designed, then the learners errors in writing will be reduced accordingly. In my project, I decide to improve my teaching technique in three ways: I would first make more detailed and insightful the corrections of the students errors, and ask them to rewrite their work incorporating corrections；Next I would ask them to work in pairs or groups. I would pick up some typical errors from students writing work, carry out an error-analysis and design relevant remedial exercises.I have designed six activities to be tried out in four weeks.Week 1 Activity1 This Unit adapt to junior high school, Spread topic，Writing A DiaryPurpose: Learning through the text and learn the simple past, to write a diary; this part of the teaching and the general discourse around the time of teaching for the past. Instruction: 1)Training; flexible use of the past tense; 2)Students look at pictures, understand image content, the ability to obtain useful information； 3)Students basic writing skills.For the students:Students in this class key training teachers under the guidance of complete a diary, preliminaris master the skill, diary genre article using the unit of past tense learned to describe what happened in the past.Procedure: 1) The teacher himself diary from introducing, lets the student enter figure captions sentence verbs, helps the student to review this unit the tense knowledge: general study past. 2）Through the text six picture, students are required to