An Experimental Study of Teaching English Writing with OBE in Chinese Senior High School

Writing is a distinctly important language output skill. Students can organize and process the learned language knowledge through writing to realize the re-creation of knowledge. Writing is the best performance of students’ comprehensive use of language ability and it plays an essential role in language instruction. The Outcome-Based Education originated in the United States in the 20th century. It is represented by Spicer, based on the four basic principles of clear objectives, expanded opportunities, high expectations and reverse design. In order to solve the unfavorable tendency of the separation of learning and use in instruction in China, this study attempts to apply the instruction model based on OBE to a unit teaching referring to an eight-week experiment for eight teaching hours. The research subjects are senior students of two classes in Grade 2 of a middle school in Henan Province. After collecting data, the qualitative and quantitative analysis have been carried out with SPSS 17.0. Meanwhile, students and teachers are surveyed and interviewed before and after the experiment to show their psychological feedback and actual changes during the teaching experiment with OBE. Through research and experiments, the following findings are obtained: First, in view of current conditions of English writing instruction in Chinese high schools, the English writing instruction model with OBE can help students improve their abilities of language production. Second, compared with the traditional English writing teaching mode, it can stimulate students’ interest in learning and applying language, and reduce their negative emotions such as anxiety, passiveness and helplessness.