sufficient instruction on English writing; therefore, it is important to ask for their
perceptions of the usefulness of the instruction in English writing in high school in terms of preparing them for writing courses in American universities. It was found that except for the instruction on grammar, which was perceived by over half of the students as useful, other aspects were considered by most students useless, as shown in Table 8. It was commonly believed that the high school writing instruction did not prepare them well in terms of logic, vocabulary, length, and genres.
Table 8. Perceptions of high school English writing instruction
Useful Useless no. % no. % Grammar 106 56.7% 81 43.3% Sentence structures 75 40.1% 112 59.9% Organization 65 34.8% 122 65.2% Logic 56 29.9% 131 70.1% Vocabulary 49 26.2% 138 73.8% Length 38 20.3% 149 79.7% Genres 31 16.6% 156 83.4%
The interviews can provide deeper thoughts of students in terms of what, how, and why vis-à-vis the issue of high school instruction in English writing and students’ current studies.
Actually, English writing in university compared to high school writing is totally different. First, the genres can be a challenge. In high school, I didn’t even know what a literature review was. In addition, the word limit is another problem. Also, I cannot use accurate words to express my ideas. I wish I had got more writing practice in different genres in high school. (KC, personal communication, November 6, 2014)
This suggests that the different writing genres and word limits were two big challenges for students when they came to the university. Another student, FB (personal
communication, September 6, 2014), however, provided a different reason for the under- preparation:
I do not mean any offense or disrespect to my high school English teacher, but I’d like to say that she didn’t prepare me well for the English writing that I am doing now. In fact, the teaching of English writing in Chinese education system was the main reason for my under preparation. I did not get much help from the
translation-like writing assignment in my high school since I’m writing essays that require my own thoughts now. The logic, which is quite important right now, was not taught or emphasized.
From the comment above, it can be seen that the student blamed the Chinese education system for not preparing him well for the current studies, and he probably was not the only one, given the fact that many participants complained about the instruction in
English writing in Chinese high schools. Despite the widespread dissatisfaction, some students thought it prepared them well. For example, IB (personal communication, November 11, 2014) said,
My previous English instruction did prepare me for the current studies, especially like the grammar I had learned before. It offered me different options of sentence structures and fixed collocations leading to syntactic variety. Teachers also guided us to write in different genres and provided very detailed and comprehensive instruction on how to write in each genre.
Given that IB went to an international school and considering the detailed instruction on argumentative essay that he described earlier, it is not unexpected that the instruction in his high school should have prepared him well for his current studies. This again indicates that it is likely that students going to international schools are better prepared for their studies in U.S. universities compared with those who went to public schools.
Despite the negative attitude toward the usefulness of writing instruction, students’ perception of the usefulness of the feedback given by students was fairly positive. The majority of them considered most feedback, except for the general feedback like “good job” and grades without comment, were useful. The most useful ones included feedback on grammar, organization, sentence structures, and word choice. About half of the students thought of feedback on spelling as useless. Most students thought comments on content and logic were useful and wished to have received more.
4.6 Summary of the Chapter
The results regarding English writing instruction in high school from the aspects of teaching, assignments, grading, and students’ perceptions indicate that teaching to raise scores is a common practice for high school teachers, and most students receive fairly limited writing instruction in high schools, although those in international schools receive more comprehensive instruction compared to those in public schools. In fact, high schools teachers’, especially those in public schools, perceptions of the importance of writing, approach to teaching, time spent on writing, and genres they teach are all
influenced by the NMET. As Cheng and Qi (2006) pointed out, “The washback effect of testing on teaching and learning—referred to in China as ‘the influence of a traffic wand’17—is commonly accepted by the society” (p. 64).
Since contradictions in an activity system may become the driving force for subjects to expand and learn in other ways so that they can achieve their outcome, the contradictions between students’ perceptions of writing as the most difficult skill and less importance placed by schools and teachers on writing, the mismatch of the genres taught in schools and those required in overseas writing tests, the length of writing assignments in schools and in overseas tests, and the limited feedback received from high school teachers and the amount students need may have become driving forces that urged students to turn to other resources (private supplementary tutoring at cram schools and online resources) to prepare for English writing in order to achieve their goal of preparing themselves for undergraduate study in U.S. universities.
17
A traffic wand is used by policeman to lead the cars to different direction in China. Here it is a metaphor indicating that the NMET leads the direction of English teaching in China.
In the following two chapters, I will present the results regarding private
supplementary tutoring and online experience. The discussion of private supplementary tutoring will cover how many and why students engage in it, teaching quality and teacher training in cram schools, and teaching. The online experience will be discussed based on students’ writing experience online and how they used online materials. At the end of each chapter, I will report students’ perceptions of how these media helped them prepare for undergraduate studies in the U.S. in terms of English writing.
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS OF PRIVATE SUPPLEMENTARY TUTORING IN