A Practical Research on Reading-based Writing in Senior High School English Teaching

房春侠 袁英

According to Krashens Input Hypothesis， language is acquired through the exposure of a series of comprehensive input. That is to say， through a certain amount of listening and reading， learners language fluency can be guaranteed， but the learners language accuracy cannot be satisfyingly guaranteed. Therefore， Swain put forward “Comprehensible Output Hypothesis”. From these two popular hypotheses， its easy to find the close relationship between reading and writing in English learning and teaching. Whats more， the confusing conditions of some senior students in writing should be concerned about. Consequently， there is an urgent necessity to take some measures to solve the problem.

1. Analysis of the Present situation of Senior High School English writing teaching

Nowadays， its not amazing to find that great efforts have been made to improve students writing， but the gain doesnt seem to be equal to what has been given. More surprisingly， the reading materials students have learned appear to be of little benefit to improving students written English. The two main problems existing in writing are： the writing clue is not clear， and the language that is used is quite ordinary， which seems to be lacking in attraction. As for English teaching， teachers may pay great attention to the structure and language of a certain passage， but while teaching English writing， it may become difficult to combine reading teaching and writing teaching organically. There are a lot of difficulties to account for the failure. Firstly， the time used to teach students is quite limited， which makes teachers stress on the grammatical mistakes instead of finding the relationship between reading and writing. Secondly， students seem to have not enough interest in writing.

2. Things can be obtained from reading

The close relationship between reading and writing has been well known and there is no doubt that a lot of things can be gained from comprehensive reading， such as ideas， opinions， the clue of writing an article， the structure of composing an article， the writing techniques that have been used in the text， and so on. The following reading materials are taken from STUDENTS BOOK I & STUDENTS BOOK II （NEW SENIOR ENGLISH FOR CHINA， published by Peoples Education Press， 2007）.

2.1 Opinions or facts

Take Unit 4 Earthquakes from BOOK I for example. From this passage， many facts can be found out， which clearly shows what was going on when an earthquake happened.

（1） Strange things were happening in the countryside of northeast Hebei.

（2） It seemed as if the world was at an end.

（3） Everywhere they looked nearly everything was destroyed.

（4） Slowly， the city began to breathe again.

2.2 Framework

“A Night the Earth didnt Sleep” is composed according to two different frameworks， namely， the order of time and the main aspects of an earthquake. Which can be seen from the following picture.

However， there are some different frameworks. “An Interview” is composed by the dialogues between Pausanias and Li Yan， and there are some questions to show the differences and similarities between Ancient Olympics and Modern Olympics. “How Daisy Learned to Help Wildlife” is integrated with an imaginary flying carpet， which flies to three different places， where three different kinds of animals are mentioned to show the importance of wildlife protection. “The Band that Wasnt” is organized in a quite different way. The passage follows the order like this： How do ordinary singers and musician form a band？ And then it explains the different way the band Monkees is formed.

2.3 Language

Take Unit 4 Earthquakes for example once again; there are many sentence patterns that can be imitated in writing.

（1） It seemed as if the world was at an end.

In this sentence， subjunctive mood is used to describe the seriousness of the terrible earthquake， at that time， its logical to think that way because of the technology and science which were not so well developed as today.

（2） All hope was not lost.

Partial negation is used here to show that although the earthquake was frightening， people were hopeful， for the government took immediate measures to help rebuild the city.

（3） The army organized teams to dig out those who were trapped and to bury the dead.

Restrictive attributive clause is used here to exactly describe the people the army would like to rescue.

（4） Slowly， the city began to breathe again.

Personification is used here to guide people to feel the authentic atmosphere.

3. Procedure to carry out reading-based writing

Nowadays， the Covid-19 is spreading quickly throughout the world. Therefore， the following writing is based on the epidemic.

假定你是李華，你的英国朋友Tom 来信询问有关武汉传染性肺炎的情况。请你给Tom 回信， 内容包括：

1. 肺炎简况

2. 应对措施

3. 有信心战胜疫情。

注意： 1. 词数100 左右;

2. 可以适当增加细节，使行文连贯。

3.1 Identify the type

According to the requirements of writing， there are some different writing styles， such as rewriting， imitative writing， and condensed writing and so on.

Earthquakes belong to disaster， so is Covid-19， therefore， the above writing is a kind of imitative writing. What differ are the specific requirements. The rescue work can be replaced by the measures to fight against the virus.

3.2 Construct the framework

3.3 Enrich the main body

Since the beginning and ending of a passage is not so changeable， more attention should be paid to the main body. The above sentences from “A Night the Earth didnt Sleep” can be used in this passage.

After the outbreak of Covid-19， especially when Wuhan was closed down， it seemed as if the whole city was paused suddenly. Everywhere people used to stop was quiet. However， not all hope was lost. The government has taken a series of measures except closing down the city... The city began to breathe again.

3.4 Polish the draft

As having been mentioned in the above， the focus still ought to be on the main body. Clauses and passive voice are greatly encouraged. The following is one possible version of the main body.

After the outbreak of Covid-19， especially when Wuhan was closed down， it seemed as if the whole city was paused suddenly. Everywhere people used to stop was quiet. However， not all hope was lost. The government has taken a series of measures except closing down the city. More medical substances have been sent to the city， and a large number of scientists， doctors and nurses have been arranged to cure the infected. Whats more， people are educated to take basic actions to prevent the epidemic from spreading.

With the united efforts from all walks of life， lots of diagnosed cases have been decreased rapidly. Its certain that Wuhan can withstand this challenge and begin to breathe again.

4. Conclusion

From the above， its easy to find that reading-based writing do have a lot of benefits both for students to improve their writing skills. However， there are some limitations which need to be developed. For example， it takes quite a large amount of time for students to study the textbook heart and soul. Besides， it is no easy work to figure out the similarity between the reading materials （from textbooks） and the writing （exams）. Therefore， more research is needed to eliminate the limitations.

參考文献

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（作者单位：陕西省咸阳市渭城中学）