Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
One of the teaching objectives in new syllabus of junior middle school is “ to develop students’ writing skill, and cultivate their ability of initially employing English in oral and writing to communicate”. Based on this purpose, some educational experts design the junior middle school English textbooks with the orchestration of the plates: listening, speaking, reading and writing. It is known to all that the ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing are the four respects to evaluate English proficiency, among which listening and reading are the input of information, while speaking and writing are the output. Writing, as a main form of output, plays a vital role in both English teaching and English learning. It reflects not only students’ comprehensive knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, but also the ability of English thought. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to consciously carry out the writing in the routine instruction among the students. Students should be aware of following grading measurements in the entrance exams: key points of contents, the application of words and grammatical structure, and the accuracy, coherence, appropriateness of language. An excellent composition should be with enriching contents, comprehensive key points, accurate and appropriate language usage, as well as coherent writing. Among the comprehensive language application skills, writing has the highest demand on students. It requires that students should not only have sufficient language storage but also properly use the foreign language thinking mode to express ideas logically and creatively (Liu Jinming, Zeng Xiaopeng, 2010).
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1.2 Research Purpose and Significance
The present study aims at investigating the juniors’ recognition of formulaic language and its use in writing, exploring an effective teaching mode to integrate the formulaic language training into English instruction in junior middle school, thus enhancing the students’ writing performance. Writing, as a productive skill, plays an important role in language studying and high school entrance examination. The gap between the requirements of this examination and the present situation reflects that it is urgent for teachers to enhance students’ writing ability under the guidance of some useful approaches. Since traditional teaching approach on writing focuses on the final products of writing and the cultivation of writing skills are often ignored, some teachers as well as students themselves assume that writing proficiency forms naturally if they can smoothly express themselves, not due to some effective writing skills. Although most of the finding suggest a positive role formulaic language in second language development, a question remains about how these findings can be applied to junior high school students’ English development in a formal class setting. In order to advance the writi
