A Study on the Teaching of Practical English Writing in Senior High School From the Perspective of Memetics

Jing SUN, Yuewu LIN

Abstract


Nowadays, foreign researches on memes mainly focus on linguistics and pragmatics, while China has gradually begun to explore the relationship between memetics and teaching, but it has not yet attracted too much attention. Therefore, this study will explore the internal relationship between memetics and English writing teaching. The main content of memetics is memes, which refers to “something to be imitated” (Dawkins, 1976). Its main feature is imitation and replication. In foreign language teaching and learning, imitation and reproduction are inevitable. In other words, language learning is to learn from imitation and to accumulate materials in order to gradually reach the level of innovation.
The study was carried out in senior high school in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. There are 106 students in it regraded as participants in this experiment sustaining four months. The research is designed to solve these two issues: (1) Can English practical writing based on memetics improve senior high school students’ writing performance? If so, to what extent? (2) Have students’ attitudes towards English writing changed before and after the memetics based on English practical writing experiment? What are the specific aspects?
On the basis of the collected data in this study, SPSS 22.0 will be applied to analyze the results of tests and questionnaires. In line with the results, some conclusions are reached as it follows: (1) By the analysis of the results of tests, English practical writing teaching with memetics can obviously improve students’ writing proficiency. (2) According to the answers of interview and the results of questionnaires, the conclusion can be drawn that after the four-month experiment, students’ attitudes changes a lot.

 


Keywords


English practical writing; Memetics; Meme

Full Text:

PDF

References


Blackmore, S. (1999). The meme machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Blackmore, S. (2011). The meme machine (2nd ed.) (S. C. Gao, Y. J. Wu, & B. Xu, Trans.). Changchun: Jilin People’s Publishing House.

Brodie, R. (1996). Viruses of the mind: The new science of the meme. Seattle: Integral Press.

Brown, H. D. (2001). Principles of language learning and teaching. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Chen L. X., & He, Z. R. (2006). The analyses of language memes phenomena. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, (2), 108-114．

Chen, C., & Xiao, H. (2012). The combination of listening, speaking and writing from memetics. Foreign Language World, (6), 66-68.

Chen, L. X. (2008). Memetics and English writing teaching in college. Foreign Language Research, (1).

Chesterman, A. (1997). Memes of translation: The spread of ideas in translation Theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Chesterman, A. (2000). Memetics and translation strategies. Synase, (5), 1-17.

Daly, J. A., & Miller, M. D. (1975). The empirical development of an instrument to measure writing apprehension. Research in Teaching of English, (9), 242-249.

Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dawkins, R. (2006). The selfish gene: 30th anniversary edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gu J. Z. (2008). On the theoretical framework of dynamic semiotics from the rise of memetics. Foreign Language Research, (1).

Heylighen, F. (1998). What makes a meme success? Selection criteria for cultural evolution (pp. 423-418). Proceedings of 16th International Congress on Cybernetics.

Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications in the second language classroom. London: Longman.

Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: A1fred A. Knopf.

The TED Conference. [EB/OL].(2010-11-12) http://www.wired.com/ techbiz /people news/ 2008 /02/ted walkup.

Wilkins, J. S. (1998). What’s in a Meme? Reflections from the perspective of the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology. Journal of Memetics, 12.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11914

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Jing SUN

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard

Please send your manuscripts to sll@cscanada.net，or  sll@cscanada.org  for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture