作为语言的四种基本技能之一，写作有着很大的重要性。然而，无论是第一语言写作还是第二语言写作，对语言学习者来说，学习写作是他们所遇到的最困难的学习任务之一。在高中，英语写作一直是令教师与学生头疼的东西。对教师来说，批改学生的习作耗时费力，而很多学生却总是抱怨老师给的写作任务没有实用意义。他们认为以后在工作中，是用不着写那样的文章的。学生们对教师布置给他们的写作作业总是不够积极。因此，探索一个更有效的方法来改变当前高中写作教学的现状十分必要。第二语言习得的一些研究表明英语日志写作能有效的提高学习者的写作熟练度和学习动力。但这些研究大多是在英语为第二语言国家所做的。在以英语为外语的环境下，英语日志是否能提高高中生的写作熟练度和学习动力，这有着重大的理论意义和实用意义。基于以上所述，本人在广东省揭东县的揭东第一中学高一级的一个普通班里进行了长达一学期的实验，全班共六十三位同学都参与了这个英语日志写作的实验。以语言输出理论和学习动机的理论为主要的理论基础，本研究提出了两个研究的问题：1，英语日志写作对学生的基础写作（广东省高考的写作题之一）是否有影响？是哪些影响？2，英语日志写作对学生的英语写作和英语学习的动机有是否有影响？是哪些影响？实验开始于2010年3月初，结束于2010年6月底。参与的学生每一学周交两篇英语日志。作为反馈，本研究者以读者的身份对他们的日志给予反馈，对学生所写表示同意、赞赏或支持。教师通常不做语言批改，目的是使学生体验真实的语言交流。实验的工具有学生试卷上的基础写作，问卷调查，学生的日志，非正式课堂观察和访谈。通过对所收集到的数据的定量和定性的分析，本研究有如下的发现：1. 经过一学期的英语日志写作，学生在做英语基础写作题时，写作的流利度，正确度有一定提高，所写的句子的结构也较之前测复杂。这表明英语日志写作对学生的基础写作（广东高考写作题之一）有正面的影响。2. 通过写英语日志，学生增强了对英语的学习兴趣和信心，这表现在课堂上或课外学生对英语学习的态度明显积极了很多。他们的情感态度更加的健康，因为日志给他们提供了一个释放情感的安全的渠道。此外，通过在日志中的交流，师生关系更为密切。学生的写作创造力也得到了开发。这些表明了学生的英语写作和学习的动机明显地增强了。研究表明，在高中英语教学中鼓励学生写英语日志，教师做学生日志的读者并与学生进行真实交流，有利于提高学生英语语言使用的熟练程度以及增强英语写作和学习的动机。关键词：基础写作，英语日志写作，动机

As one of the four basic skills of language, writing is very important. However, learning to write in either a first or second language is one of the most difficult tasks a learner encounters and one that few people can be said fully master (Richards, 1990). In senior high schools, English writing has always been a headache to both the teachers and the students. While the teachers are complaining that grading students’ writing is time consuming, the students are complaining that the writing assignments their teachers give them are difficult. What’s more, students often think they do not need to write such kinds of passages as those their teachers ask them to write. Consequently, some students are often reluctant to finish their writing assignments. Finding an effective way to teach English writing in senior high schools has been in great need.According to some studies in second language acquisition, English journal writing is an effective way to improve students’ fluency in English writing and promote students’ learning motivation. But these studies are mostly done in the context in which English is the second language to the learners, most of whom are adults. Will English journal writing work in senior high schools in China, where the English learners are only teenagers? Based mainly on the output hypothesis and the theory of motivation, the researcher carried out an experiment of English journal writing in a class of 63 students in Jiedong No.1 Senior High School to find out the effects that English journal writing has on the participants.The experiment aimed to address two questions:1. Will English journal writing have effects on the participants’ Basic Writing proficiency as required for NMET (National Matriculation English Test) Guangdong? If yes, what are they? If not, why? 2. Will English journal writing have effects on the participants’ motivation for English writing and English learning as a whole? If yes, what are they? If not, why?The experiment lasted for a semester, during which the participants were required to write two English journals every week. The researcher read each journal carefully and made comments as a reader instead of correcting the mistakes in the journals as a teacher. The instruments used for the investigation are pre-test and post-test, interviews, questionnaire surveys before and after the experiment, informal classroom observation and participants’ English journals.Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed. Through careful analysis, the researcher found that after writing English journals for a semester, the participants’ writing fluency, accuracy and the complexity of sentence have been improved. What is more encouraging is that the participants’ motivation for English learning and writing has been notably improved because of journal writing. This is of significance for the students not only in the improvement of their proficiency of the Basic Writing of NMET, but also in promoting students’ motivation in English learning.KEY WORDS：Basic Writing, English journal writing, motivation