Practice and evaluation on the teaching model of English-journal-based autonomic writing

Abstract

Objective To explore the form and effect of an after-class autonomic model aiming at improving English writing competence. Methods Objects were chosen through pre-experimental test and were divided into three groups： control class（n=44）,experimental class one （n=47）and ex-perimental class two（n=48）. Objects from the control class did not keep journals while those from the two experimental classes kept journals for twelve weeks. Teacher comments,student＇s mutual com-ments and exhibitions of excellent journals were conducted in experimental class one. All the objects took a post-experimental test at the end of the experiment and a survey was conducted among the ob-jects from the two experimental classes. SPSS16.0 was used for data-processing. T-tests were adopted to compare the pre-experimental and the post-experimental test scores of all classes（P〈0.05 indicates significant difference）. Variance analyses were conducted to compare the post-experimental tests （P〈0.05 indicates significant difference）. Results The T-test results of the control class,experimental class one and experimental class two were respectively as follows：t=1.59,P=0.12;t=13.42,P =0.00;t=11.68,P=0.00. The results of the variance analyses were：F=48.87, P=0.00. The T-value of the SNK comparison between experimental class one and the control class was 9.12（P=0.00）,that between ex-perimental class two and the control class was 7.99 （P=0.00） while that between experimental class one and experimental class two was 1.19（P=0.23）. Results of the survey：98.94%of the objects agreed that keeping English journals could help to improve the fluency and accuracy of English writing;85.11%regarded keeping English journals as an effective way to improve English writing competence;80.85% believed than keeping English journals could help to put the newly-learnt vocabulary to use. 50% of the objects deemed that keeping English journals could improve writing interest and 69.15%thought that it could enhance writing confidence. 70.21% believed that exhibiting excellent journals could create good writing atmosphere and inspire writing motivation. Conclusions Keeping English journals could improve English writing competence significantly through after-class autonomic writing, and it can improve writing interest and confidence. However,the impacts of teacher comments,stu-dent＇s mutual comments and the exhibition of excellent journals on writing competence are not signifi-cant. Key words: English journals; Autonomic writing; Writing competence