An Empirical Study On Model-imitation Practice Employed In English Majors' Writing Skill

Research and investigation in second language (L2) field indicate that writing skill of college English major is still at an undesirable low level. It is obvious that a sharp contrast exists between students'English writing level and the time they spend in learning English; College English writing teaching seriously lags behind. How to improve writing skill of college English major requires foreign language teachers and researchers to do further exploration and research. Based on lots of literature about English writing at home and abroad, the present study, taking Input Hypothesis, Output Hypothesis, Balanced Activities Approach and Scaffolding Theory as its theoretical bases, attempts to test whether the model-imitation practice can effectively improve writing skill of college English major by means of empirical study. Three questions are stated in this study as follows: (1) Can the model-imitation practice improve writing skill of Chinese college English major? (2) Can the model-imitation practice solve the difficulties Chinese college students meet with when writing L2 composition and the problems that exist in their L2 writing? (3) What are the students'opinions about the model-imitation practice?Accordingly, three hypotheses are put forward: (1) The model-imitation practice can improve writing skill of Chinese college English major effectively. (2) The model-imitation practice can solve the difficulties Chinese college students meet with when writing L2 composition and the problems existing in their L2 writing. (3) The students in the experimental class (EC) hold positive attitudes toward the model-imitation practice.Research methods employed in the present study include literature reviewing, questionnaire and experiment. 88 subjects (two classes) involved in the study are third-year English majors from Longnan Teachers College. One class is established to be the EC and the model-imitation practice is adopted to carry out writing teaching; while the other is established as the control class (CC) and the traditional approach is adopted to conduct writing teaching. The experiment lasts 16 weeks. All the students are required to take a pretest and a posttest. Afterwards, both a questionnaire of needs analysis and another questionnaire of the students'opinions about the model-imitation practice are conducted. All the data are analyzed by the computer software SPSS. The results show that the two approaches can improve writing skill of college English major, but the model-imitation practice produces a better effect, which proves the feasibility of applying the model-imitation practice in English majors'writing teaching.The thesis consists of seven parts. The first part mainly introduces the research background, purpose, hypotheses, significance and method. The second presents a general survey of current situation of English writing at home and abroad. The third provides the theoretical background for the study by elaborating the Input hypothesis, the Output Hypothesis, the Balanced Activities Approach and Scaffolding Theory and verifying their relevant to the present study. The fourth expounds on the experiment in the study, including the hypothesis, the subjects, the material, the procedures, the experimental instrument and the collection of the data. The fifth reports the results of the study in detail. The sixth offers the findings and implications of the study. The last part briefly points out the limitations and puts forward the recommendation for future research.