Action Research.

To date writing has not received sufficient attention at the primary level in Hong Kong albeit numerous initiatives in the current curriculum reform launched in 2001. Typically writing is taught based on a prescribed textbook in Hong Kong primary schools. The traditional approach to teaching writing is mechanical and rigid. Learners are forced to follow a prescribed pattern to write. The content is standard and banal. Language-wise it is far from being rich because everybody uses the same vocabulary and sentence structure. In terms of teaching methodology it is not in line with the current approach of integrating various skills as advocated in Communicative Language Teaching. This chapter reports an action research conducted in a Primary 5 English classroom. The research question is how to make an English writing class interesting and stimulating. An entirely new method is adopted. Stories are used as the teaching materials, and integrated skills of listening, speaking and writing are adopted. Qualitative research methods are employed. The following methods are used to collect data: pre- and post- interviews with the students, pre- and post- interviews with the teacher, journals written by the teacher, class observation reports written by the researcher, the stories written by the students. The findings of this study affirm the belief that using an integrative-narrative method is an effective way to teach L2 writing in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]