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【Abstract】Writing is an important part in learning English. In almost all china’s schools, the teaching aims about English learning contain like this: the school students must have certain skills about listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing is very tough to develop among the four skills. And over the years the poor performance in writing on the part of Chinese students has upset even the most experienced teachers in China. It is still a headache for many English teachers to find ways to improve students’ writing ability.
【Key words】English writing teaching; problems; approaches
I. Problems in Teaching English Writing
English teachers usually follow the traditional method with emphasis on the grammar and vocabulary. And all that just serves for helping the students to score better in examinations. Most of students cannot find appropriate strategies for learning to write and they do not know how to express and organizing their ideas in English. What they do is just draft in Chinese first, and then translates the Chinese materials into English. So it is not surprising that some Chinese students’ writing appears to be unclear and with confused logic.
II. Suggested Approaches to Improve the Students’ Writing Ability
1. Topic discussion
In this activity, the teacher will first give a simple topic sentence before class, and then students are told to develop the sentence into a short passage according to his or her preferences and improvisation. This is a writing activity that is especially useful during a lesson sequence and also can be used as a prelude to a discussion, or a debate. In this interesting process, students are asked to change the sentence to reflect their own points of view around the topic sentence. Through topic discussion, students can develop freely their own thoughts and their writing ability will gradually be enhanced.
2. Abbreviation, Summary, Comment
In this activity, the teacher will give the students a long passage that is not difficult for average students, and then students are asked to give a brief statement about the main idea and the important details. The teachers often pick up the passage for abbreviation materials from the text learnt before, because on one hand, students tend to be familiar to these articles and it is relatively easy for them to catch the main idea in short time, on the other hand, it is an effective way to improve students’ writing ability. In the process, the students will be given enough time to read the materials intensively in order to first catch the main idea, and then get the information in details. In the end, the summary should be accomplished briefly and concisely. Sometimes, the teachers will give an article about the hot controversial issue; students can make a comment on it.
【Key words】English writing teaching; problems; approaches
I. Problems in Teaching English Writing
English teachers usually follow the traditional method with emphasis on the grammar and vocabulary. And all that just serves for helping the students to score better in examinations. Most of students cannot find appropriate strategies for learning to write and they do not know how to express and organizing their ideas in English. What they do is just draft in Chinese first, and then translates the Chinese materials into English. So it is not surprising that some Chinese students’ writing appears to be unclear and with confused logic.
II. Suggested Approaches to Improve the Students’ Writing Ability
1. Topic discussion
In this activity, the teacher will first give a simple topic sentence before class, and then students are told to develop the sentence into a short passage according to his or her preferences and improvisation. This is a writing activity that is especially useful during a lesson sequence and also can be used as a prelude to a discussion, or a debate. In this interesting process, students are asked to change the sentence to reflect their own points of view around the topic sentence. Through topic discussion, students can develop freely their own thoughts and their writing ability will gradually be enhanced.
2. Abbreviation, Summary, Comment
In this activity, the teacher will give the students a long passage that is not difficult for average students, and then students are asked to give a brief statement about the main idea and the important details. The teachers often pick up the passage for abbreviation materials from the text learnt before, because on one hand, students tend to be familiar to these articles and it is relatively easy for them to catch the main idea in short time, on the other hand, it is an effective way to improve students’ writing ability. In the process, the students will be given enough time to read the materials intensively in order to first catch the main idea, and then get the information in details. In the end, the summary should be accomplished briefly and concisely. Sometimes, the teachers will give an article about the hot controversial issue; students can make a comment on it.