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【Abstract】The English learners and teachers both have some difficulties in English writing learning and teaching despite continuous efforts are put by teachers and students to develop their competence in L2 writing,most students still score much lower in writing part than listening and reading parts in various English level tests.Three main sections are included in the paper: The first section surveys the students’ main problems in English writing learning with my analysis of its possible factors from the respects of students and teachers,such as students’ motivation,teacher’s education and approaches to teaching writing in L2 classes.The second section presents a review of how the relevant literature suggests on the students’ problems in writing.Accordingly,I put forward several possible solutions as the attempts to change the problematic situation in L2 writing.
【Key words】English writing; L2; learning motivation
Introduction
Writing has been a central topic in applied linguistics area for over fifty years and continues to be lively intellectually studied and debated.(Hyland,2002 p.1)The students I teach in Tongren University and I both have some difficulties in English writing learning and teaching.Even though I have paid continuous efforts to develop my students’competence in L2 writing,most students still score much lower in writing part than listening and reading parts in various English level tests,such as TEM and IELTS.My students always complain to me that they feel little hope in English writing after spending several times of time and energy on writing than other three English basic skills.I feel quite worried when I hear my students’puzzles like that.Therefore,I made up my mind to study the problems preventing my students from being efficient English writers and find out possible solutions to help my students thereby.Three main sections are included in the paper:The first section surveys my students’main problem in English writing learning with my analysis of its possible factors from the respects of students and teachers.The second section presents the relevant literature about my students’problem in L2 writing.Some possible solutions to help my students develop English writing level are put forward in the last section.
1.The problematic situation and its possible factors
1.1 The main problem in my students’English writing learning
I have taught Comprehensive English in English Department of Tongren University for nearly nine years.Comprehensive English is a compulsory course for English-major students ranging from Grade one to Grade four,including the teaching of listening,speaking,reading and writing with four classes each week in total.The textbook we use for this course is called Intensive Reading.After the intensive study of the text sentence by sentence,which is regarded as the most important section of each unit,a writing assignment based on the topic of the text is given to the students as the homework of the unit.Students are required to finish an article not less than 500 hundred words on the given topic.They are supposed to understand the steps to compose a good article because I always provide them with sufficient writing guidance before they begin to write.For example,I would hand out two or three excellent articles which are quite similar to the topic they need to write on to my students.I would help my students to underline the good expressions and sentences in these articles.I put emphasis on the explanation of the fixed structural models in accordance with the given topic and make lots of practice among my students on the frequently-used sentence patterns to guide the passage writing of my students before they can write a similar article on their own.However,much to my surprise,even though I have done so much to help them write,my students still have poorer competence in English writing comparing to the other three skills because I observe that they can easily understand what the native speaker say,speak fluently and comprehend long and complex articles well in English while the writing assignments they hand in are always with dozens of grammatical mistakes and ambiguous sentences.They tend to ignore grammatical rules,misuse synonyms,overuse complex sentences and write Chinglish expressions which can only be understood by Chinese teachers.Their poor writing competence causes the average passing rate of various kinds of English level tests,for example,TEM4,to be quite low in Tongren University.Worse still,more and more students lose heart in their English writing even copy others.writing assignments. 1.2 Its possible factors
1.2.1 Students.Tongren University is a young comprehensive university developed from a local teachers college with the purpose to educate teachers for middle schools.In English Department of Tongren University,over 90 percent graduates of the past five years are working as English teachers in the middle schools of Tongren District.(The figure is counted by English Department.I can only find the figures of the recent five years because the data of more previous years are not available).The graduates have become the career model for the students in university.Their strong desire to be a teacher after graduation makes my students pay more attention to English speaking and grammar learning than writing because they firmly believe a good teacher is a teacher who has enough grammar knowledge to answer students.grammatical questions with fluent oral English.Moreover,they take it for granted that writing is of little importance because as an English teacher in middle schools,what they need to do in writing class is to ask their student to write in English,not themselves to write any more.Therefore,for the majority of the students,the aim to learn English writing is only to help them pass TEM4 because TEM4 certificate can offer them more opportunities to get a position in urban or suburb middle schools.
1.2.2 Teacher.English Department is a young department in Tongren University because the average age of teachers in English Department is 35 years old with nearly half of the teachers below 30 years old.Due to the serious lack of lecturers in English Department and the rapid increase of the number of students,all the young teachers are required to teach independently after graduation without a practical period as Teaching Assistant.The lack of valuable teaching experience may make the young teachers unable to deal with the problems arising in students. learning process.Especially,as writing is a course which not only needs teachers.guidance of linguistic knowledge,but also teachers’ presentation of background knowledge to students,which need high teacher education.Unfortunately,normally young teachers in English Department are assigned to teach English writing because writing is being regarded as “simple” course in my context while the “advanced and complicated” courses,such as linguistics and English literature are always taught by teachers with advanced education and much experience.
2.Literature review
On account of my students. main problem on writing and the analysis of its possible factors,I looked through the relative literatures for the sake of finding out possible solutions to my students’ problems in writing.Firstly,I made a brief description of the process of writing to help me clearly understand what writing is,which is followed by the identification of the importance of students. motivation,and teacher education in the interest of providing L2 writing teachers,especially young teachers with a variety of methods in promoting students. L2 writing motivation.Secondly,I presented several influential classifications of L2 teaching approaches based on different focuses,including Hyland.s classification in 2002,Hyland.s classification in 2003 and Badger and White.s classification in 2000 with my comments on each of the classification in accordance with my teaching experience in order to help me testify which one or the integrate of some ones is the most appropriate and effective L2 writing teaching method in my context among product approaches,process approaches,genre approaches and process genre approaches. 2.1 What is the process of writing?
Before we start to consider how to teach L2 writing effectively,it is necessary first to explore what the process of writing is in L2 learning.Zamel defined“writing is the process of discovering meaning”(1982 p195)while Hyland identified a process view of writing in details: a.writing is a process of problem-solving b.writing is a process of generation c.writing is a process of recursion d.writing is a process of collaboration e.writing is a process of development(2002 p88).
2.2 Learners. motivation.Motivation is defined by Gardner as“the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language.”(Gardner,1985 p10).
3.Possible solutions
In view of my understanding of my students’ problem in L2 writing and review of the relevant literature,I propose to use the following solutions(which are divided into three parts)to overcome my students. problem in L2 writing and enhance their interest and competence in L2 writing.
3.1 Students. motivation.Based on the fact that the majority of my students are motivated to learn L2 writing is based on instrumental motivation and my understanding of Dornyei’s motivational strategies (refers to section 2.2),I decide to try the following ways to promote my students. motivation in L2 writing:The first step of Dornyei.s motivational strategies is to generate learners’ motivation(Dornyei,2005 p119).As Dornyei points out“most students do not really understand why they are involved in a learning activity”(Dornyei,2005 p125)and Hadfield expressed“it is fundamental to the successful working of a group to have a sense of direction and a common purpose”(Hadfield,1992 p134)Whereas,it is obvious that the first task in my context is to promote students’ motivation in English writing besides test-based writing motivation which has been set up among students and causes students to be reluctant to writing in English as one guarantee to pass TEM4.Therefore,making my students realize the importance of writing in English not only for tests also for their future career development is quite essential to explore their motivation to write in English.For example,we may ask students to discuss the importance of English writing in groups,including various questions asked among group members,such as“why do you write in English?”or“what.s the purpose for you to write in English?”After group discussion,a list would be hand out to each student to fill in the answers to “why I write in English” in different periods: Table one:Why I write in English.The last 5 years I wrote in English for.At present.I write in English for.The next 5 years.I will write in English for.n future.Writing in English will be important or unimportant for.After careful reading,teachers may choose some novel and encouraging answers to read them out in class for the sake of helping other students be aware of learning to write in English is helpful both to their career choice and career development.Secondly,David Little views one learner’s intrinsic motivation can be nourished by autonomy and takes autonomy as one solution to the problem of learner’s motivation.(Little,2003)He also puts forward three basic pedagogical principles to govern the development of one’s autonomy and takes learner involvement as the first step.With reference to his suggestions,teachers may motivate learners more involved in sharing the responsibility for the L2 writing learning process and choosing their own learning activities. 3.2 Teacher education.Richards
【Key words】English writing; L2; learning motivation
Introduction
Writing has been a central topic in applied linguistics area for over fifty years and continues to be lively intellectually studied and debated.(Hyland,2002 p.1)The students I teach in Tongren University and I both have some difficulties in English writing learning and teaching.Even though I have paid continuous efforts to develop my students’competence in L2 writing,most students still score much lower in writing part than listening and reading parts in various English level tests,such as TEM and IELTS.My students always complain to me that they feel little hope in English writing after spending several times of time and energy on writing than other three English basic skills.I feel quite worried when I hear my students’puzzles like that.Therefore,I made up my mind to study the problems preventing my students from being efficient English writers and find out possible solutions to help my students thereby.Three main sections are included in the paper:The first section surveys my students’main problem in English writing learning with my analysis of its possible factors from the respects of students and teachers.The second section presents the relevant literature about my students’problem in L2 writing.Some possible solutions to help my students develop English writing level are put forward in the last section.
1.The problematic situation and its possible factors
1.1 The main problem in my students’English writing learning
I have taught Comprehensive English in English Department of Tongren University for nearly nine years.Comprehensive English is a compulsory course for English-major students ranging from Grade one to Grade four,including the teaching of listening,speaking,reading and writing with four classes each week in total.The textbook we use for this course is called Intensive Reading.After the intensive study of the text sentence by sentence,which is regarded as the most important section of each unit,a writing assignment based on the topic of the text is given to the students as the homework of the unit.Students are required to finish an article not less than 500 hundred words on the given topic.They are supposed to understand the steps to compose a good article because I always provide them with sufficient writing guidance before they begin to write.For example,I would hand out two or three excellent articles which are quite similar to the topic they need to write on to my students.I would help my students to underline the good expressions and sentences in these articles.I put emphasis on the explanation of the fixed structural models in accordance with the given topic and make lots of practice among my students on the frequently-used sentence patterns to guide the passage writing of my students before they can write a similar article on their own.However,much to my surprise,even though I have done so much to help them write,my students still have poorer competence in English writing comparing to the other three skills because I observe that they can easily understand what the native speaker say,speak fluently and comprehend long and complex articles well in English while the writing assignments they hand in are always with dozens of grammatical mistakes and ambiguous sentences.They tend to ignore grammatical rules,misuse synonyms,overuse complex sentences and write Chinglish expressions which can only be understood by Chinese teachers.Their poor writing competence causes the average passing rate of various kinds of English level tests,for example,TEM4,to be quite low in Tongren University.Worse still,more and more students lose heart in their English writing even copy others.writing assignments. 1.2 Its possible factors
1.2.1 Students.Tongren University is a young comprehensive university developed from a local teachers college with the purpose to educate teachers for middle schools.In English Department of Tongren University,over 90 percent graduates of the past five years are working as English teachers in the middle schools of Tongren District.(The figure is counted by English Department.I can only find the figures of the recent five years because the data of more previous years are not available).The graduates have become the career model for the students in university.Their strong desire to be a teacher after graduation makes my students pay more attention to English speaking and grammar learning than writing because they firmly believe a good teacher is a teacher who has enough grammar knowledge to answer students.grammatical questions with fluent oral English.Moreover,they take it for granted that writing is of little importance because as an English teacher in middle schools,what they need to do in writing class is to ask their student to write in English,not themselves to write any more.Therefore,for the majority of the students,the aim to learn English writing is only to help them pass TEM4 because TEM4 certificate can offer them more opportunities to get a position in urban or suburb middle schools.
1.2.2 Teacher.English Department is a young department in Tongren University because the average age of teachers in English Department is 35 years old with nearly half of the teachers below 30 years old.Due to the serious lack of lecturers in English Department and the rapid increase of the number of students,all the young teachers are required to teach independently after graduation without a practical period as Teaching Assistant.The lack of valuable teaching experience may make the young teachers unable to deal with the problems arising in students. learning process.Especially,as writing is a course which not only needs teachers.guidance of linguistic knowledge,but also teachers’ presentation of background knowledge to students,which need high teacher education.Unfortunately,normally young teachers in English Department are assigned to teach English writing because writing is being regarded as “simple” course in my context while the “advanced and complicated” courses,such as linguistics and English literature are always taught by teachers with advanced education and much experience.
2.Literature review
On account of my students. main problem on writing and the analysis of its possible factors,I looked through the relative literatures for the sake of finding out possible solutions to my students’ problems in writing.Firstly,I made a brief description of the process of writing to help me clearly understand what writing is,which is followed by the identification of the importance of students. motivation,and teacher education in the interest of providing L2 writing teachers,especially young teachers with a variety of methods in promoting students. L2 writing motivation.Secondly,I presented several influential classifications of L2 teaching approaches based on different focuses,including Hyland.s classification in 2002,Hyland.s classification in 2003 and Badger and White.s classification in 2000 with my comments on each of the classification in accordance with my teaching experience in order to help me testify which one or the integrate of some ones is the most appropriate and effective L2 writing teaching method in my context among product approaches,process approaches,genre approaches and process genre approaches. 2.1 What is the process of writing?
Before we start to consider how to teach L2 writing effectively,it is necessary first to explore what the process of writing is in L2 learning.Zamel defined“writing is the process of discovering meaning”(1982 p195)while Hyland identified a process view of writing in details: a.writing is a process of problem-solving b.writing is a process of generation c.writing is a process of recursion d.writing is a process of collaboration e.writing is a process of development(2002 p88).
2.2 Learners. motivation.Motivation is defined by Gardner as“the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language.”(Gardner,1985 p10).
3.Possible solutions
In view of my understanding of my students’ problem in L2 writing and review of the relevant literature,I propose to use the following solutions(which are divided into three parts)to overcome my students. problem in L2 writing and enhance their interest and competence in L2 writing.
3.1 Students. motivation.Based on the fact that the majority of my students are motivated to learn L2 writing is based on instrumental motivation and my understanding of Dornyei’s motivational strategies (refers to section 2.2),I decide to try the following ways to promote my students. motivation in L2 writing:The first step of Dornyei.s motivational strategies is to generate learners’ motivation(Dornyei,2005 p119).As Dornyei points out“most students do not really understand why they are involved in a learning activity”(Dornyei,2005 p125)and Hadfield expressed“it is fundamental to the successful working of a group to have a sense of direction and a common purpose”(Hadfield,1992 p134)Whereas,it is obvious that the first task in my context is to promote students’ motivation in English writing besides test-based writing motivation which has been set up among students and causes students to be reluctant to writing in English as one guarantee to pass TEM4.Therefore,making my students realize the importance of writing in English not only for tests also for their future career development is quite essential to explore their motivation to write in English.For example,we may ask students to discuss the importance of English writing in groups,including various questions asked among group members,such as“why do you write in English?”or“what.s the purpose for you to write in English?”After group discussion,a list would be hand out to each student to fill in the answers to “why I write in English” in different periods: Table one:Why I write in English.The last 5 years I wrote in English for.At present.I write in English for.The next 5 years.I will write in English for.n future.Writing in English will be important or unimportant for.After careful reading,teachers may choose some novel and encouraging answers to read them out in class for the sake of helping other students be aware of learning to write in English is helpful both to their career choice and career development.Secondly,David Little views one learner’s intrinsic motivation can be nourished by autonomy and takes autonomy as one solution to the problem of learner’s motivation.(Little,2003)He also puts forward three basic pedagogical principles to govern the development of one’s autonomy and takes learner involvement as the first step.With reference to his suggestions,teachers may motivate learners more involved in sharing the responsibility for the L2 writing learning process and choosing their own learning activities. 3.2 Teacher education.Richards