The Application of Visualized Tools in English Writing Teaching from Perspective of Key Competence: A Survey Study

Abstract

Writing, as one of the expressive language skills, plays a significant role in learning and teaching of English. In the new round of teaching reform oriented to "key competence", thinking visualization tools have been widely welcomed by teachers and students. What’s more, they are becoming an important tool for teaching transformation. Questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were implemented to analyze the current situation of writing tasks in high school English classrooms, to reveal its actual use in classroom teaching, to analyze teachers' understanding of thinking visualization tools and key competence, as well as to know about different levels of students' perceptions of using thinking visualization tools in writing, based on schema theory, visualization theory and constructivist theory. It is found that teachers were lack of the understanding of thinking visualization tools and key competence. Different thinking visualization tools were implemented in different learning stages. In addition, a part of thinking visualization tools is used by teachers as auxiliary teaching means, such as mind-map and concept-map. This study sheds light on the understanding and application of thinking visualization tools and key competence.