Research on sharpening object descriptive skills of Hong Kong junior secondary students : "detailed describing" and "portrait memorizing" writing strategies = ti sheng Xianggang chu zhong xue sheng de zhuang wu miao xie neng li yan jiu : "xi jie guan cha" ji "hua xiang ji yi" xie zuo ce lüe

Abstract

Writing is one of the most essential leaning elements in language education. Researches show that raising students’ observation and memorization ability (the ability of obtaining writing materials) can improve their writing performance. On the other hand, public examination results over the past years had shown that students were weak on composing, especially on descriptive writing. Under this hypothesis, this study attempts to explore the use of “Detailed Describing” and “Portrait Memorizing” strategies to improve the effectiveness of junior secondary students’ object descriptive writing composition. This study will employ the action and quasi-experimental research methodologies. By using “Detailed Describing” and “Portrait Memorizing” strategies in Chinese writing lessons of a S. 1 class with 29 students, the effect of the strategies on students’ writing composition is investigated. The research examines the outcomes by one set of pre and post wiring tests, post student questionnaires, class observations and interviews with individual students. The study findings support that teaching students “Detailed Describing” and “Portrait Memorizing” strategies is effective to improve students’ ability of obtaining writing materials, thus raising their object descriptive wiring ability. Among the four writing items, students have remarkable improvements in the “descriptive content” part. Different wiring ability group of students, especially the medium and lower groups get better performance in their object descriptive composition. Hence, it is practicable for Hong Kong students and teachers to understand the importance of “Detailed Describing” and “Portrait Memorizing” strategies, which in turn improves the object descriptive writing ability of students.

寫作是語文學習的一個重要元素，文獻顯示加強學生的記憶力及觀察力（取材能力）有助提升他們的寫作能力。然而，公開考試報告反映本港學生在寫作方面，尤其在描寫方面的能力較弱。是以本研究嘗試探討「細節觀察」及「畫像記憶」寫作策略對提升初中學生狀物描寫能力的成效。 研究者以一班中一學生作為研究對象，一共29人；結合行動研究和準實驗研究法進行教學實驗，再運用質性和量性的研究方法分析結果。 本研究發現，教授學生「細節觀察」及「畫像記憶」寫作策略，確實能有效提高學生的寫作取材能力，進而提升狀物描寫能力。針對四個描寫能力，即「選材」、「組織資料」「描寫層次—內容」及「描寫技巧—語言」，上述兩項寫作策略對改善學生「描寫層次—內容」的成效最顯著。不同寫作能力組別的學生，在寫作取材及狀物描寫方面皆有顯著的進步，其中尤以中、低能力的學生進步幅度較大。 由此可見，在香港日常中文教學中運用「細節觀察」及「畫像記憶」寫作策略，加強教師和學生對這兩項策略的了解和掌握，提升狀物能力是有效和切實可行的。