An Investigation Into The Composing Process Of College EFL Students In China

Nowadays, a high level of writing ability has been demanded by society. The teaching and research of writing has also been put more emphasis than before. They make us realize that many problems exist in writing and some strategies have to be taken to deal with these problems.The present study is designed to examine the composing processes of the Chinese college students of different language proficiency, their main difficulties in the writing process, and the role of second language factor and the first language influence in the writing. The data comprises 150 students' responses to a questionnaire on their writing behaviors and the main difficulty in their writing, and 20 students' responses to a post writing interview. An evaluation of 80 sample compositions on their language quality, content and organization, and an error analysis of these compositions are also carried out. The study reveals that:1. The composing process of ESL students is not a linear process, but a recursive, cyclical and generative process.2. There exist differences between the composing strategies exploited by students of different language proficiency.3. ESL students' main difficulty in writing is to express their ideas in English.4. ESL students' L2 language proficiency is not only one main factor that contributes to the quality of students' compositions but also one that influences the writing process of the students.5. The weak writers rely more heavily on first language while writing in English than the good writers. The weak writers tended to make more LI-traceable errors. However, the present study indicates that LI can also be exploited as an effective strategy of communication in the students' writing process.