Application Of Cognitive Approach In English Process Writing

Originated in the 1950s, Cognitive science is a comprehensive study including intelligence, mind, cognition, thinking, information processing, concept, reasoning, language, etc. It is a new science to explain how the brain works which holds that all the human actions are controlled by cognitive process. Studying the cognitive activity and process is to reveal the nature of mind. Cognitive psychology, which studies sense, perception, consciousness, short-term memory, etc. is closely related to language learning and language teaching.Process approach that has been prevailing throughout the West in the past two decades attaches much importance to the process of writing. This approach views writing as a recursive mental cognitive process, creative thinking process and social interactive process, thereby lays great emphasis upon the autonomy and the interaction of the student writers in the process of writing. It is generally believed that process writing should includes inventing, planning, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading, which is a recursive process according to the cognitive approach.Process writing is widely used in the West and has been proved to be effective and helpful to improve the students'writing ability. While in China, college students'writing ability is found to be unsatisfactory and lack of logic and coherence in organization and insufficient ability in English way of thinking. To test the effect of cognitive factors in process writing, an experiment of application of cognitive approach in process writing is conducted. The result indicates the effectiveness of process writing in improving college students'writing abilities, validating the proposal to a large extent.This thesis also explores some problems related to the process writing in classroom teaching. What an English teacher is supposed to do is to make the best of its advantages and avoid its disadvantages in English process teaching.