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【摘 要】 Writing is always the shortcoming of students in the College. By analyzing some original writings from the students, the teachers could discover the existing problems and difficulties of the students. In this way, the teachers could have effective evolution according to each specific one, i.e. to guide and help the student to construct their writing habits and writing processes of his own.
【关键词】Constructivism Writing habit Writing process
【中图分类号】G64 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1009-9646(2008)06-0080-02
1 Introduction
Writing is always the shortcoming of students in the College English Test Band 4. By analyzing some original writings from the students, it is really urgent and necessary for the teachers to discover the existing problems and difficulties of the students. In this way, the teachers could have effective evolution according to each specific one.
2 Basic Definition
2.1 Constructivism
Constructivism is a theory about knowledge and learning; it describes both what “knowledge” is and how one “comes to know”. Based on work in psychology, philosophy, and anthropology, the theory describes knowledge as temporary, developmental, nonobjective, internally constructed and socially and culturally mediated. Learning from this perspective is viewed as self-regulatory process of struggling with the conflict between existing personal models of the world and discrepant new insights, constructing new representations and models of reality as a human meaning-making venture with culturally developed tools and symbols, and further negotiating such meaning through cooperative social activity, discourse, and debate.
2.2 The Necessity of the Constructing
From the analysis of the students’ writings, we could find that there are lots of mistakes in the sentences like uncompleted sentences, short sentences group, collocation, decoration and so on. Though some of them are correct from the angle of the grammar, they do not meet the habit of native speaker’s common use, i.e. Chinglish. The reason is obvious that students have not constructed successfully the writing habit and writing process of the formal writing in English. To change thoroughly in the CET-4 writing, it is of great necessity to lead in the Constructivism in the habits and processes of English writing.
3 The Methodology, Teaching Process Reformation and the Application of the Constructivism in the Writing
3.1The Construction of the English Writing Habits
3.1.1Keeping Diary and the Imitation
Stepping into another language from the mother tongue, students should solve the problem "being glad to write" before "being capable of writing". What should be constructed beforehand is to help the students keep diaries everyday in English. In the beginning, teachers should ignore various kinds of mistakes and inaccuracy in the expression to arouse the enthusiasm of the students. The frequency and the content should vary according to the different people but it is significant to encourage the students to write and keep the record carefully, for the comparison and analysis in the future. Of course, keeping diary also has its direction and target, which relies on the Samples. It is the teacher's task to set up the Sample Storehouse to let students look up in, in which way the writing ability can be improved.
3.1.2Self-Revision (Correction, Revision and Decoration) and Mutual Revision
Another symbol of the writing habit construction is Self-Revision (Correction, Revision and Decoration) and Mutual Revision. Self-Revision is to revise the draft by the students themselves with the help of Samples: correcting the mistakes, making language native and using diverse decoration. Such ability and habit will benefit the students a great deal. While Mutual Revision is another side since other people's advice is of help. Using the brainstorm, students can have discussion on the same article in group and give different opinions which will deepen the comprehension to the English writing.
3.2The Construction of the Writing Processes
3.2.1On Topic Principle
According to the result of the dialogue analysis to the student's writing, the chief problem is the vague topic so the teacher should construct the "topic principle"--which is also called unity-- at first. In a unitive paragraph, there is only one general idea so that all the sentences, including the topic sentence and the supporting sentences, must follow it while the sentences that have nothing to do with it ought to be abandoned. In the same way, the unity in a paragraph relies on the obedience from the supporting sentences to the topic sentence. That is to say, the topic sentence expresses the general idea and the supporting sentences are the extension and natural development which is to visualize the general idea and make the readers believe it.
3.2.2On Material Organization
The next problem we meet is to construct the organization of the abundant resources and the sequence of the stating. Paragraph is the aggregate which is composed of sentences with relative meaning each other but support the same general idea. These sentences can be divided into several groups as following:
topic sentence: tell the general idea and restrict the developing direction of the paragraph.
supporting sentence: follow and support the topic sentence, used for the decoration and explanation, make the general idea which is expressed by the topic sentence more decisive.
transitional sentence: with the function of connection of different sentences and prompt the readers the change of the idea.
conclusive sentence: show the end of the paragraph, use sentences in different forms to deepen the general idea, sometimes the conclusive sentence is also a kind of transitional sentence.
According to the common-seen essays, the first sentence of each paragraph shows the general idea of it and several other sentences will do the statement next. The last sentence is the conclusion and responds to the first sentence at the same time, which can also strengthen its influence.
3.2.3On Language
The last construction lies in language which is also called the coherence and the word choosing. Coherence is the organization of the paragraph and the connection of the sentences. In a paragraph with a strong coherence, the relationship is clear-cut among the sentences and it is easy to find the distinct logic in the paragraph because the connection among the sentences is natural and fluent. Also the coherence is realized by arranging materials in a proper way and using different linking method. The disposal of the sentences can be done in the six types: development by time, development by space, from general to details, from details to general, development by classification, from problems to solution. The first and second are mostly used in narration and description while the other four are for exposition and argumentation.
The last but not least, the choosing of the words in the writing is worthwhile. Teacher should warn the students against using Baby English in the formal writing because of the large difference between Oral English and Written English. For the most part, few words can be used without their concrete Language Environment, nor could they just copy from the Chinese translation. It is urgent to make the students' writings get rid of Chinglish as soon as possible.
4 Conclusion
In order to make progress in the writings and make them answer to the modern teaching requirements of the College English. It is of great necessity to lead in the Constructivism in the teaching process of the writing. It is teacher’s task to guide and help the student to construct the writing habit and writing process of his own, which can make the students achieve good goals in the CET-4.
References
[1] Junsong, Zhu. (2003) The Analysis and the Tactics of CET-4. Nanjing:Nanjing University Press..
[2] Catherine, T.F. (1996) Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice.New York:Teachers College Press..
[3]Zhuanglin, Hu. (2001) Linguistics. A Course Book. Beijing:Beijing University Press..
[4] Ministry of Education. (2004) College English Curriculum Requirements. Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
【关键词】Constructivism Writing habit Writing process
【中图分类号】G64 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1009-9646(2008)06-0080-02
1 Introduction
Writing is always the shortcoming of students in the College English Test Band 4. By analyzing some original writings from the students, it is really urgent and necessary for the teachers to discover the existing problems and difficulties of the students. In this way, the teachers could have effective evolution according to each specific one.
2 Basic Definition
2.1 Constructivism
Constructivism is a theory about knowledge and learning; it describes both what “knowledge” is and how one “comes to know”. Based on work in psychology, philosophy, and anthropology, the theory describes knowledge as temporary, developmental, nonobjective, internally constructed and socially and culturally mediated. Learning from this perspective is viewed as self-regulatory process of struggling with the conflict between existing personal models of the world and discrepant new insights, constructing new representations and models of reality as a human meaning-making venture with culturally developed tools and symbols, and further negotiating such meaning through cooperative social activity, discourse, and debate.
2.2 The Necessity of the Constructing
From the analysis of the students’ writings, we could find that there are lots of mistakes in the sentences like uncompleted sentences, short sentences group, collocation, decoration and so on. Though some of them are correct from the angle of the grammar, they do not meet the habit of native speaker’s common use, i.e. Chinglish. The reason is obvious that students have not constructed successfully the writing habit and writing process of the formal writing in English. To change thoroughly in the CET-4 writing, it is of great necessity to lead in the Constructivism in the habits and processes of English writing.
3 The Methodology, Teaching Process Reformation and the Application of the Constructivism in the Writing
3.1The Construction of the English Writing Habits
3.1.1Keeping Diary and the Imitation
Stepping into another language from the mother tongue, students should solve the problem "being glad to write" before "being capable of writing". What should be constructed beforehand is to help the students keep diaries everyday in English. In the beginning, teachers should ignore various kinds of mistakes and inaccuracy in the expression to arouse the enthusiasm of the students. The frequency and the content should vary according to the different people but it is significant to encourage the students to write and keep the record carefully, for the comparison and analysis in the future. Of course, keeping diary also has its direction and target, which relies on the Samples. It is the teacher's task to set up the Sample Storehouse to let students look up in, in which way the writing ability can be improved.
3.1.2Self-Revision (Correction, Revision and Decoration) and Mutual Revision
Another symbol of the writing habit construction is Self-Revision (Correction, Revision and Decoration) and Mutual Revision. Self-Revision is to revise the draft by the students themselves with the help of Samples: correcting the mistakes, making language native and using diverse decoration. Such ability and habit will benefit the students a great deal. While Mutual Revision is another side since other people's advice is of help. Using the brainstorm, students can have discussion on the same article in group and give different opinions which will deepen the comprehension to the English writing.
3.2The Construction of the Writing Processes
3.2.1On Topic Principle
According to the result of the dialogue analysis to the student's writing, the chief problem is the vague topic so the teacher should construct the "topic principle"--which is also called unity-- at first. In a unitive paragraph, there is only one general idea so that all the sentences, including the topic sentence and the supporting sentences, must follow it while the sentences that have nothing to do with it ought to be abandoned. In the same way, the unity in a paragraph relies on the obedience from the supporting sentences to the topic sentence. That is to say, the topic sentence expresses the general idea and the supporting sentences are the extension and natural development which is to visualize the general idea and make the readers believe it.
3.2.2On Material Organization
The next problem we meet is to construct the organization of the abundant resources and the sequence of the stating. Paragraph is the aggregate which is composed of sentences with relative meaning each other but support the same general idea. These sentences can be divided into several groups as following:
topic sentence: tell the general idea and restrict the developing direction of the paragraph.
supporting sentence: follow and support the topic sentence, used for the decoration and explanation, make the general idea which is expressed by the topic sentence more decisive.
transitional sentence: with the function of connection of different sentences and prompt the readers the change of the idea.
conclusive sentence: show the end of the paragraph, use sentences in different forms to deepen the general idea, sometimes the conclusive sentence is also a kind of transitional sentence.
According to the common-seen essays, the first sentence of each paragraph shows the general idea of it and several other sentences will do the statement next. The last sentence is the conclusion and responds to the first sentence at the same time, which can also strengthen its influence.
3.2.3On Language
The last construction lies in language which is also called the coherence and the word choosing. Coherence is the organization of the paragraph and the connection of the sentences. In a paragraph with a strong coherence, the relationship is clear-cut among the sentences and it is easy to find the distinct logic in the paragraph because the connection among the sentences is natural and fluent. Also the coherence is realized by arranging materials in a proper way and using different linking method. The disposal of the sentences can be done in the six types: development by time, development by space, from general to details, from details to general, development by classification, from problems to solution. The first and second are mostly used in narration and description while the other four are for exposition and argumentation.
The last but not least, the choosing of the words in the writing is worthwhile. Teacher should warn the students against using Baby English in the formal writing because of the large difference between Oral English and Written English. For the most part, few words can be used without their concrete Language Environment, nor could they just copy from the Chinese translation. It is urgent to make the students' writings get rid of Chinglish as soon as possible.
4 Conclusion
In order to make progress in the writings and make them answer to the modern teaching requirements of the College English. It is of great necessity to lead in the Constructivism in the teaching process of the writing. It is teacher’s task to guide and help the student to construct the writing habit and writing process of his own, which can make the students achieve good goals in the CET-4.
References
[1] Junsong, Zhu. (2003) The Analysis and the Tactics of CET-4. Nanjing:Nanjing University Press..
[2] Catherine, T.F. (1996) Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice.New York:Teachers College Press..
[3]Zhuanglin, Hu. (2001) Linguistics. A Course Book. Beijing:Beijing University Press..
[4] Ministry of Education. (2004) College English Curriculum Requirements. Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.