Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
As we all know, English writing needsstudents to use their own language to express their thoughts and ideas, so inevitablyenhancement of English writing can also make students improve other English skillsincluding reading, listening, speaking and translating, as a result, students can achievecomprehensive development.However, there are many problems in current teaching and learning of Englishwriting. On one hand, most teachers in vocational colleges have placed greatemphasis on writing products, ignoring students’ writing process and students’ needs.Nowadays, many teachers still use the traditional “teacher-centered” writing teachingmethod. Generally, they first teach the writing skills in writing class, then show theparadigm compositions to students to let them imitate it and practice by themselves.Lastly, they collect the finished compositions and make comments and corrections forthem. The students’ thoughts, minds and needs are all ignored in this kind of processbecause of imitating the model texts’ layout, expression and ideas.On the other hand, teachers always do not have enough time to teach studentsEnglish writing methods because they have to complete their task of reading teaching. They usually list out so many so-called samples and make a simple analysis, and thenlet students write by themselves alone after which they will correct it briefly andhurriedly because teachers are usually overloaded with too much teaching task.Therefore, students cannot gain the systematic writing training and instruction so thatthey do not know how to start to write when given a composition, even they do notknow how to plan, design and correct by themselves. Furthermore, students cannotfind their deficiency from the teachers’ correction and evaluation to theircompositions because the evaluation is so simple such as “very good”, “good”, “notbad” and “bad”. It is easy to lose students’ initiative and interest of English writing.
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1.2 Objective of the Research
Writing teaching plays an important part in overall English teaching and alwaysattracts attention of many researchers and teachers. To some extent, it is likely to beconsidered as the most important and difficult skill for most second language learners(Nunan, 2001).Writing test can concentrate on student’s linguistic competence invocabulary, grammar and logic, etc. So it can reflect the students’ ability ofcomprehensive English proficiency.The present study is an empirical one which focuses on The Prose ModelsApproach applied to English writing of vocational college students. Based on theempirical research and some related theories on The Prose Models Approach, thepurpose of this study is to explore vocational college students’ attitudes towards TheProse Models Approach and make an analysis of its feasibility and effectiveness. Thefinal aim of current study is to promote students’ progress in English writing abilityand develop their ability of learner autonomy in their further study. Most researchesconducted before aim at studying the application of The Prose Models Approach inEnglish writing of postgraduates and graduates or make an analysis of The ProseModels Approach theoretically. They lack the empirical research. And however, thisstudy will apply The Prose Models Approach into English writing of vocationalcollege students and make an analysis of its feasibility and effectiveness. So thisresearch’s goal is to generally answer the following three questions:
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 An Overview of The Prose Models Approach
The Prose Models Approach is a new writing approach which can be concludedby a sentence which is presented by Eschholz in 1980: “The Prose Models Approach:Using Products in the Process.” The Prose Models Approach is a new approach which focuses more on theprocess rather than the product. Brown (2001) states that writing is a process ofthinking, which is the basis of producing a final draft. In addition, Brown quotesElbow (1973) that writing should be regarded as an organizing, developing process,not as a way to send a message but as a way to cook a message.Eschholz P. A. firstly publicly used The Prose Models Approach in hismonograph, “The Prose Models Approach: Using Products in the Process” in 1980. Itmodified the traditional models approach by initiatively using models in the writingprocess rather than before the writing. Process approach is the core pedagogy of TheProse Models Approach and it was integrated with using models in the process. Prosemodels were introduced into the students in the writing process, instead of beingpresented before the writing begins. (Eschholz 1980: 28). He holds the opinion thatwriting must have two features: Students must have opportunities to realize their ownwriting problems; models text could be a positive and helpful device in writingteaching if they were thoughtfully and purposefully integrated into the individualstudent's writing process.
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2.2 Theoretical Foundations of The Prose Models Approach
In this part, it mainly states the theoretical foundations of The Prose ModelsApproach, including the balanced activities approach represented by Harmer andFlower and Hayes’s Cognitive Process Theory. It is believed in modern foreign teaching theory that the process of languagelearning involves input, intake (processing & memorization), and output. Input andoutput cannot be separated. The former is primary, which is the basis and necessary preparation of the latter. And the latter is secondary, which is the purpose of the latter.They complement perfectly each other and are beneficial for foreign languageteaching. Harmer pointed out that “balanced activities approach sees the methodologyas being a balance between the components of input and output. Both for pedagogicalobjective and for our students’ continuing interest in the language program. Moreover,this balance is the necessary ingredient of the methodology.” (1983: 39). The teachingshould focus on the process of input→intake→output, just like the following figure2.1:
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Chapter Three Methodology ......22
3.1 Research Questions .........22
3.2 Subjects .........22
3.3 Research Instrument ............. 23
3.3.1 Writing Tests and Assignments ......23
3.3.2 Questionnaire .........24
3.3.3. SPSS 17.0 ........25
3.4 Procedures ...........25
3.5 Data Collection .........32
Chapter Four Results Analysis and Discussion ......34
4.1 Results Analysis of Pre-test and Post-test in EC and CC ......34
4.2 Results and Data Analysis of Different Levels in EC ......... ..38
4.3 Results and Data Analysis of Different Genders in EC .........39
4.4 Results and Data Analysis of Questionnaire .......41
4.5 Discussion ...........44
Chapter Five Conclusion .......... .46
5.1 Major findings ...........46
5.2 Pedagogical Implications ........... 47
5.3 Limitations of the Study ........48
5.4 Suggestions for Further Research ...........49
Chapter Four Results Analysis and Discussion
4.1 Results Analysis of Pre-test and Post-test in EC and CC
After the two tests, the author collected all the students’ scores respectively, gavethem an analysis through the statistical analysis instruments SPSS 17.0 and drewreliable conclusions which can truly make the experiment rewarding and meaningful. Every student in EC and CC is required to take part in pre-test to make sure thattheir writing abilities are at the same level. After pre-test, all the scores of thiscomposition are collected by author and marked by the author and other two teacherswho have passed TEM-8. Then the data is put into the computer using the SPSS 17.0and the results of independent samples T-test come out as follows.(see Table 4.1 andTable 4.2). From Table 4.1, it shows that the mean score of EC is 7.5500 while that of CC is7.5750. Although the mean score of EC is lower than that of CC, the difference can beignored and the difference is of no significance. Furthermore, the standard deviation is3.24985 in EC which is similar to that in CC (3.08751), which demonstrates that thewriting ability in two classes is at the same level.
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Conclusion
According to the data analysis and results in above chapter, major findingsrelated to the questions mentioned in the introduction part of the study can beconcluded as follows:Firstly, students can really benefit from The Prose Models Approach and it canbe of great help for students’ English writing competence in vocational college. Afterthe four months’ training of The Prose Models Approach, students in EC have mademuch greater progress than students in CC. So we can see the more improvement ofEnglish writing competence in students’ future study with the help of The ProseModels Approach.Secondly, students of different levels and genders have made progress todifferent extents. On one hand, high-scorers’ progress is not as large as thelow-scorers’. It is evident that high-scorers have previous foundation of Englishlearning competence so that their improvement of English writing is not so obvious.However, low-scorers can learn much knowledge including vocabulary, tense,grammar and organization that just they lack previously with the help of The ProseModels Approach, which results in that they made greater progress than high-scorers.On the other hand, female students made more improvements in English writing thanmale students. As we all know, female students are better at language learning thanmale students, so it is common that female students are more adaptable to thisapproach and gain more achievements than male students under the guidance of TheProse Models Approach.
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Reference (omitted)