InvestigationofEnglishWritingStrategiesofEnglishMajorStudentsatJi

龚萌

【Abstract】With the development and growth of the English teaching methodology，more and more researchers and experts have started to focus on English writing，and more and more people concentrate on English writing and how to improve English writing ability.

【Keywords】Normal school students； English writing； Writing strategy； Investigation

Why did I choose the theme for my study？

Writing course is the subject which I taught since I came to Jian Normal School .I am interested in writing.The students got tired of English writing and show little or even no interest in it .The teaching model and methods adopted by quite a lot of teachers are comparatively traditional and less effective.Researches on listening and reading strategies are abundant，but many areas still remain open to further investigation，for example，writing strategies.Problems existing in English writing teaching in Normal School： 1.Paying little attention to English writing.2.The product put first，the process put second.3.Teacher-centered approach neglecting students factual need.4.One- way of correcting model with a single interactive model.5.One- way of teaching writing and tedious teaching approach.

Purpose and Significance of the Study

The purposes of the current study are to explore the use of writing strategies by normal school students in their composing process； to help the normal school students improve their writing ability in a limited time .

Theoretically Significance： this study may make a little contribution to the theory of writing strategies.Practically Significance： this study may provide implication for teachers on how to train their students with the theory of writing strategies in English writing classroom.

Classification of writing strategies

Writing strategies are divided into five strategies ：Metacognitive strategies； Cognitive strategies； Social/Emotional strategies ；Idea organization strategies ；Linguistic device.

Research Questions

Q1： What are the writing strategies and how frequently do the student writers employ these strategies in their writing practice？

Q2： How do the differences show in strategy use between male and female student writers？

Q3： Can the differences be shown in strategy use between grade one and grade two students？ If it can be shown，what are they？

Q4： Is there any difference between high achievers and low achievers in the use of writing strategies？ If there is，what is it and why？

Research subjects

105 students who major in English from Jian Normal School

Data collection

A questionnaire was distributed to 105 students who major in English from Jian Normal School .Its designed to check out students' beliefs about English writing and their employment of writing strategies.

A writing test was designed to measure students' writing proficiency or achievement.The topic of the writing test was “The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Internet”.

Finally，an interview was designed to use in the part of comparison between the high achiever and the low achiever

Research procedure

Pilot study

In order to make the investigation more reliable，the pilot study was done before the real investigation on May 8，2012.Ten students who major in primary education participate in it.

Data collection procedures

All data were collected from two classes at Jian Normal School the second week of the new semester，on May 15，2012，under the supervision of their head masters and the researcher who is their English teacher.Subjects were told that the questionnaire contained questions about English writing strategies and they were asked to fill out the questionnaire and finish a composition carefully.The students were asked to finish the writing strategy questionnaire and the writing test in the regular class time within 30 minutes.The author will analyze the results by using SPSS 13.0 software and Excel to do the statistic analysis.

Conclusion

Firstly，cognitive strategy is employed most while social/emotional strategy is employed least among the English major students at Ji'an Normal School；

Secondly，the frequency of writing strategy employment by male is lower than females；

Thirdly，the frequency of writing strategy employment by grade two students is higher than that of grade one students on three strategies： metacognitive strategy，cognitive strategy，linguistic device；

Fourthly，the frequency of writing strategy employment by high achievers in writing is higher than low achievers in general，especially on metacognitive strategy，social/emotional strategy，and linguistic device.

Reference：

[1]Arthur Brooks & Peter Grundy.Beginning to write.Cambridge： Cambridge University Press.2000.11.