“以读促写”写作教学模式与英语专业学生英语写作水平实证研究论文

1、“以读促写”写作教学模式与英语专业学生英语写作水平的实证研究研究生：钱建伟指导老师：李晓教授年级：2005 级学科专业：外国语言学及应用语言学研究方向：应用语言学中文摘要写作是一个如何寻找最有效的语言进行思想感情交流的连续过程。无论用母语还是用第二语言写作，都具有挑战性。学习语言离不开写作，写作不仅能巩固已学的语言知识，也是一种重要的交际手段。然后，学会写作不容易，因为它是一个迂回复杂、动态的过程，受到各种认知和社会因素的约束，用外语写作的修辞环境则更为复杂，涉及到跨社会、跨文化因素的制约和影响。在我国，英语写作一直是英语教学中最为薄弱的环节。尽管广大外语教师作出了不少努力，但收效甚微，学生的

2、写作能力始终未能达到预期的目标，离教学大纲的规定相距甚远(刘宽平等，2003)。2006 年蔡慧萍和方琰对英语专业学生所作的调查显示，47.1%的学生表示英语写作有相当的难度，而只有约 1/6 的学生喜欢英语写作课，学生参与英语写作课堂活动的积极性与主动性都不高，这反映出在我国的英语专业写作教学中仍然存在着诸多问题，需要广大外语教师与研究者进行深入的探索与研究。本文是以输入理论、输出理论以及图式理论为其理论基础，提出了以读促写的英语写作教学法，以期能对英语专业写作课的教学提供一些新思路。为了验证这一方法的效果，研究者开展了一项英语写作教学法的比较实验。该实验旨在通过教学实践比较“以读促写法”与

3、“传统法”对于提高我国英语专业学生英语写作水平的有效性。本实验共包含三个研究问题：(1)传统的以传授写作知识为基础的教学方法对英语专业学生写作水平产生什么影响？(2)“以读促写法”对英语专业学生写作水平产生什么影响？(3)“以读促写法”是否比“传统法”更能有效地提高英语专业学生的英语写作水平？受试者为广西师范大学漓江学院英语专业四年级(第一学期)的 76 名学生。在为期 10 周、每周 4 节、每节 40 分钟的教学实验中，进行了一次前测和一次后测，且后测结束后进行了一次访谈。所有采集到的数据均通过计算机 spss 软件进行了 t 检验，以分析与对比学生实验前后英语写作水平发生的变化。结果表明

4、，两种教学法都能提高英语专业学生的写作水平，但是“以读促写法”iv在本文的特定研究环境中产生了更好的教学效果，其能从更多的方面去提高学生的英语写作水平。这证明了“以读促写法”在英语专业写作教学中运用的可行性。它不仅能提高学生的英语写作水平，还能增强其学习的主动性，从而提高了学习英语写作的兴趣和自信心，帮助养成良好的英语写作方法。同时研究还发现，“以读促写法”对英语写作教师提出了更高的要求，教师要成为学生需求的分析者，教学大纲的撰写者，阅读材料的编写者以及学生疑难的咨询者。要胜任这份工作，教师要不断地在实践中寻求自我的发展，积累经验，又以此经验为基础去更好地进行实践。此外，一些其他因素确实影响了

5、教学的效果，比如：教师对学生的鼓励与关注、阅读材料的真实性及合作型课堂学习方式等，都有助于提高学生的学习兴趣与英语写作能力。受各种因素影响，本研究尚存在一些不足之处,如：样本含量不够大，实验时间不长，研究方法还不是很完善等，都有待后续研究。希望本文的研究能对英语专业学生的学习与写作教师的教学有所帮助。关键词：英语写作; 教学法; 以读促写; 写作能力van empirical study on reading-based writinginstruction and english majors writing competencepostgraduate: qian jianweisuper

6、visor: professor li xiaograde: 2005 orientation: applied linguisticsmajor: foreign linguistics & applied linguisticsabstract in englishwriting is a continuous process to search for the most effective language tocommunicate thoughts and emotions. no matter people write in l1 or l2, it ischallenging a

7、nd rewarding. writing cannot only consolidate the learned languageknowledge, but it is an important communicative tool as well. however, masteringwriting is not easy, because it is a complex and dynamic process which is restricted bycognitive and social factors. when people write in l2, the rhetoric

8、 environment, whichinvolves the restriction and influence of cross-society and cross-culture factors, is evenmore complicated. in china, english writing is always the weakest segment of englishteaching. although writing teachers make great efforts, it receives little effect.students writing ability

9、cannot reach the expected goal, and far from the requirementof the teaching syllabus (liu kuanping et al., 2003). according to cai huiping andfang yans survey in 2006, 47.1% of english majors express that english writing israther difficult, only about 1/6 of english majors like the english writing c

10、ourse, andtheir enthusiasm and motivation to participate in the writing class activities are not high.it shows that there are still many problems existing in the writing instruction forenglish majors in china, which requires foreign language teachers and researchers todo further exploration and rese

11、arch.the present thesis, whose theoretical bases are input-based studies, output-basedstudies and schema theory, puts forward the reading-based english writing instructiveapproach with the purpose of providing some new ideas for the writing instruction ofenglish majors. to verify the effect of this

12、approach, the researcher carries out anexperimental study to compare the effectiveness of reading-based writing instructionand traditional knowledge-based writing instruction on improving english majorswriting performance. three research questions are involved in the experiment: (1) whatis the influ

13、ence of traditional knowledge-based writing instruction on english majorswriting competence? (2) what is the influence of reading-based writing instruction onvienglish majors writing competence? (3) is reading-based writing instruction better atdeveloping english majors writing competence than knowl

14、edge-based writinginstruction? 76 english majors who are all seniors (in the first term of the school year)from lijiang college, guangxi normal university participate in the study as subjects.the experiment lasts 10 weeks and each week students take 4 classes (every class lasts40 minutes.). students

15、 are required to take a pretest and a posttest, and after the posttestan interview is conducted. all the data are collected and analyzed through the t-test bythe computer software spss to compare the changes of students writing performancebefore and after the experiment.the result shows that both ap

16、proaches can improve english majors writingperformance, but reading-based writing instruction produces a better teachingoutcome in the special research context, because it can better students writing abilityfrom more aspects. it proves the feasibility of applying the reading-based writinginstruction

17、 in english majors writing course. this approach cannot only improvestudents english writing ability, but it also strengthens the initiative to learn, thus itarouses students interest and self-confidence, helps to cultivate a good method to writein english. meanwhile the research shows that under re

18、ading-based writinginstruction, writing teaching is more challenging for the teacher. the teacher becomesstudents need analyzer, curriculum developer, materials editor and counselor. to bequalified in this job, the teacher needs to develop himself or herself and accumulateexperience through the teac

19、hing practice. basing on the experience, the teacher can dothe practice better. besides, some factors do influence the effectiveness of this approach,such as teachers encouragement and solicitude towards students, the authenticity of thereading materials, and a cooperative classroom environment, etc

20、. they can facilitatestudents interest to learn and writing ability.though the experiment has been finished as it is planned, the present study cannotavoid some limitations, such as the small sample number, a relatively shortexperimental time and imperfect research methods, etc. therefore, the resul

21、ts obtainedin the present study leave much to be improved and is hoped that further research willlead to more comprehensive and accurate results.key words: english writing; instructive approach; reading-based writing; writingcompetenceviilist of tablestable 1 result of the pretest (a simplified form

22、).18table 2 model of the experiment.19table 3 result of cc in both the pretest and the posttest.23table 4 result of ec in both the pretest and the posttest.24table 5 result of cc and ec in the posttest.25table 6 fluency level of both cc and ec in the pretest and the posttest by means ofpaired sample

23、s test.25table 7 fluency level of both cc and ec in the pretest and the posttest by means ofindependent samples test.26table 8 t-unit complexity of both cc and ec in the pretest and the posttest by meansof paired samples test.27table 9 t-unit complexity of both cc and ec in the pretest and the postt

24、est by meansof independent samples test27table 10 use of conjunctions of both classes in the posttest.28table 11 percentage of errors of both cc and ec in the pretest and the posttest bymeans of paired samples test.29table 12 percentage of errors of both cc and ec in the pretest and the posttest bym

25、eans of independent samples test.29table 13 thinking of both cc and ec in the pretest and the posttest by means of pairedsample test.30table 14 thinking of both cc and ec in the pretest and the posttest by means ofindependent samples test.31viiiacknowledgementsi would like to take this opportunity t

26、o express my heartfelt gratitude to those whohave provided me with insightful and invaluable guidance and advice.first of all, i am greatly indebted to my supervisor, professor li xiao, who hasguided me not only in academic growth but also in personality development. she hasaroused my interest in la

27、nguage teaching and has been encouraging me to probe intothe present research. her enlightening guidance and thought-provoking suggestions areindispensable to the fulfillment of this thesis.secondly, i am grateful to all the professors in the college of foreign studies,guangxi normal university who

28、have addressed inspiring lectures. their excellentteaching has illuminated me from different perspectives and prepared me to write thisthesis. special thanks go to professor shen bin who gives me the chance to do theexperiment in lijiang college.thirdly, my appreciation should go to my students, who

29、se views, opinions,criticisms and suggestions have been valuable. their participation, cooperation andcontribution make the experiment not only possible but also rewarding.finally, i would like to thank my parents and friends for their continuous supports.their trust is always the motivation for my

30、study.iiichapter 1 introduction1.1 source of the studynowadays english bridges china with the world, for english is considered asone of the most important mediums by which information is exchanged in theinternational world. so in china english teaching and learning has been put in a moreimportant po

31、sition, especially after china entered wto. english writing, as anespecially important output skill, most directly reflects the three functions aboutlanguage output put forward by swain in 1995:1) to arouse students awarenesstowards the language form; 2) to provide students with a chance to test the

32、irhypothesis; 3) to encourage students to rethink about the use of target languageconsciously. thus it is a necessarily decisive index to reflect students ability in theintegrative use of english. but english writing is a complex integrative process ofdifferent skills, which is hard for both native

33、and foreign learners to master and applyin their long years study of english. in china, english writing is always the mostdifficult and boring subject for both teachers and students due to the long adoptedwriting instructive method. although writing teachers make great efforts, it receiveslittle eff

34、ect and writing has become the weakest segment of english teaching (liukuanping et al., 2003).in the traditional classroom of english majors, the teacher-centered or crammingmethodology is frequently used which aims at the development of studentsgrammatical competence and mechanically imitating abil

35、ity. the basic pattern is:teachers emphasize the learning and imitation of language knowledge; the teachingcontent focuses on the writing theory, rhetorical method, passage patterns, writingskills and grammatical rules; teachers provide a model and analyze it, then commenton students compositions an

36、d the comment is mainly around the structure, rhetoricmethod, the use of vocabulary and grammar, and at last assign a topic to ask studentsto write a composition. obviously the whole writing process is finished strictly underthe teachers control, and there is a lack of positive interaction and feedb

37、ack betweenteachers and students. as a result, english writing instruction for english majors hasbeen undergoing with low efficiency even though teachers always devote themselvesto bettering this situation.english writing ability is one of the core capacities that chinas english teachingemphasizes.

38、the teaching syllabus for english majors (2000) gives a clear regulation1about students writing ability. that is: students can write articles in different stylesand guarantee the article is informative in content, smooth and fluent in language,proper in the use of words and graceful in expression. t

39、o implement the new teachingsyllabus, the teaching steering committee of foreign languages designs new testingsyllabuses for tem4 and tem8 in 2004. both the teaching and testing syllabusesspecially stress the scope of the genre and the content of the article. they requirestudents to establish genre

40、awareness. however, the testing results of the writing partof tem4 and tem8 in 2004 and 2005 made people feel disappointed and were farfrom the requirement of the new teaching syllabus (cai huiping & fang yan, 2006).according to cai huiping and fangyans survey in 2006, about 1/3 of the englishmajors

41、 didnt like the english writing course, 1/2 of the students neither liked it orhated it and only 1/6 expressed their fondness for the course. it shows that there arestill many problems existing in the writing instruction for english majors in china,which requires further exploration and research.1.2

42、 general studies about esl/efl writing at home and abroadsince 1980s1.2.1 general studies in chinathe 165 papers selected from chinas 7 key journals of foreign languages revealthat the focus and findings of l2 writing research in china is fivefold:1) about the problems existing in english writing. s

43、tudents in china have littleinterest in english writing and their english writing ability always come to a standstill,thus there are serious problems in the content, structure and language of thecompositions written by them (yang xiaorong, 1993; lin xiaoyu, 1996; yinguangqin, 1999; deng zhiyong, 200

44、2); there is no unity between paragraphs, so thewhole composition lacks a center(teng chunhong, 1993; cai jigang, 1995; chenxiaoxiang, 1995; gao lianli, 1997; zou shen, 1999; wu yongzhi, 2000); thevocabulary used is dull and grammatical mistakes appear frequently(liu fagong,1994;jiang jiaping, 1995;

45、 huang xinwei, 1996; wang yuxiang, 1997).2) about the factors influencing english writing. these factors can becategorized into language factors and non-language factors. the most representativeresearch studying the language factors should be the one done by wen qiufang andma guanghui in 1999. the s

46、tudy shows that chinese students writing ability, oral2english ability, and the amount and use of english expressive lexicon directlyinfluence their english writing ability while reading and listening only play anindirect role. studies about non-language factors include: study about writingstrategie

47、s, such as constructive strategy(ruan zhoulin, 2001), and correctivestrategy(yang suxian, 2002); study about the transfer of l1, such as the functions ofl1 in different segments of english writing(guo chunjie& liu fang, 1997), and therelationship between the writing result and the amount of l1 think

48、ing when writing anenglish composition(wen qiufang & guo chunjie, 1998; wang wenyu & wenqiufang, 2002); study about different thinking patterns between chinese people andwestern people(li jin, 1993; yang li, 1996; zhang aiqing, 1998; gao fang, 2002;wu yueming, 2003); study about cognitive ability(li

49、 zhixue, 2003).3) about the reasons leading to the backward of english writing instruction. thefirst one is that traditional english writing teaching focuses on the vocabulary andgrammar without enough attention to the writing content (chen xiaoxiang, 1995;huang xinwen, 1996). the second is that mos

50、t of the language knowledge is receivedby students passively so that when students turn into the output stage, they feel hard todo the task(du jinbang2001). the third reason lies in that teachers mainly correctstudents compositions themselves and students are deprived of the chance to thinkactively

51、(wu yueming, 2003).4) about the english writing instructive approaches. some scholars discuss theapproaches to the teaching of english writing at the macro-level and they proposesome basic teaching principles on dealing with the relationship between teaching andlearning of english writing, such as p

52、roduct approach and process approach(wangzhigang, 1986; zhou ping, 2002; hu xinyin, 2003), and genre approach(qing xiubai,2000; zen xiangjuan, 2001; fang yanhua, 2002). other scholars suggest somespecific methods and techniques within different approaches(li fuxiang, 1997; dongyafen, 2003 ), which i

53、s a kind of study at the micro-level.5) about the assessment and evaluation in english writing. concerning commentand revision on students writing pieces, scholars bring in methods, such asself-correction, peer-correction, no correction, etc. to establish an active and effectivefeedback system (chen

54、 hai, 1994; yang jingqing, 1996; zuo niannian, 2004). thereare some other papers discussing about the criterion to evaluate the testingcompositions, and its validity and reliability (yang min& zuo shoujin, 1998; zoushen, 1999; xiu xudong, 2005).31.2.2 general studies abroadesl/efl writing instructio

55、n has long been influenced by the thoughts of fltand theories of l1 writing instruction. in 1980s process approach reform in l2writing instruction appeared in the international l2 writing teaching and research field.people begin to reconsider the nature of writing and it is seen as a cognitive activityand process to find meaning (zamel, 1982). besides, scholars studying the processapproach believe writers creativity, thinking, and reader awareness play the majorpart in the writing process. the typical procedures of process approach are: prewriting,composing/