The Integration of the Know-Want-Learn(KWL) Strategy into English Language Teaching for Non-English Majors

Abstract

The Know-Want-Learn(KWL) strategy,advanced in the 1980s,is an instructional reading strategy widely used in reading classes in the USA.The KWL process reflects the cognitive process in language acquisition,and it is currently used in the writing classes on Minnesota State Colleges and Universities(MnSCU) campuses as an instructional writing strategy.Relevant studies on this strategy have been reported by some overseas educators.Though such lead-in activities as warm-up or pre-reading derive from similar instructional schemes,KWL has not so far drawn academic attention from the foreign language teaching community in China.This paper,taking a lesson plan as an example,attempts to illustrate a manageable way to integrate the KWL reading strategy and writing strategy in English language teaching for non-English majors(hereafter referred to as for non-majors).The learners' response to the KWL instructional scheme will be included in this research.It is hoped that this strategy can be brought into full play in ELT for non-majors.