An Explorative Study On The Effect Of Chinese Reading On English Writing Ability At The Textual Level

As is well acknowledged, writing is of great importance in English teaching and learning. Although much effort has been made by teachers and learners, the present situation of Chinese EFL learners' writing proficiency does not seem to be satisfactory. Many of the students' compositions are regarded as incoherent and poorly organized in a native English speaker's eyes. To a large extent, this is because the students lack the ability to organize their composition appropriately and effectively although they have learned English for several years, namely, their text competence is poor. This phenomenon is partly due to the distinct textual features of English writing. Many Chinese EFL students tend to translate their Chinese language words and phrases, or transform Chinese organizations into English ones when they write. The phenomenon of the direct translation from the mother tongue into the foreign language is common in the non-English majors' compositions. Many EFL learners rarely take different textual features into consideration so that the negative transfer of their mother tongue occurs. For example, Chinglish refers that Chinese EFL learners rigidly apply Chinese language rules or conventions to their English writing so that Chinese English unsuitable for English rules or conventions occurs. Therefore, how can we overcome the negative influence of textual transfer from Chinese to English and reduce it to the minimum? Since we can not avoid the influence of Chinese language, how can we make good use of Chinese knowledge to improve our English writing? Some ways have been adopted in the EFL writing teaching and learning, such as repeatedly emphasizing the requirements for English writing and explicitly telling EFL learners about typical English textual features. Although these methods have played some a role in improving English writing performance, the author of this thesis tries to find a new way to deal with the above problems: if Chinese essays with typical textual features are directly involved in English writing instruction, can it strengthen, or better strengthen EFL learners' awareness of textual features to improve their English writing ability?Hereby, the present study aims at finding out the effect of Chinese reading on English writing ability. The following two research questions will be specifically addressed in the present experiment.(1) Can the training program based on Chinese essay reading strengthen EFL learners' awareness of Language Distance to improve students' EFL writing performance?(2) Compared with the conventional teaching, can the training program, based on exercises for transformation of typical Chinese textual features to English ones, better help college English students strengthen their awareness of Language Distance between English and Chinese and improve their EFL writing performance?To testify the effect of applying Chinese essay reading to English writing course, a 15-week teaching experiment was designed and conducted. The students in the experiment group were instructed and trained to improve their English writing at the textual level in the light of Chinese essay reading. The statistical analyses were conducted concerning the variations of the overall scores, the t-units on English writing done by the experiment group, on the differences in English writing achievements between the two groups in the pre-test and the post-test, and the students' responses to the two questionnaires produced by both groups shortly before and after the experiment. Besides, the qualitative analysis was also conducted in the interview.According to the quantitative and qualitative analyses, the results are acquired:(1) The Chinese-reading-based EFL writing instruction can help non-English majors to improve their EFL writing proficiency significantly at the textual level.(2) Compared with the conventional teaching, the Chinese-reading-based training and exercises for transformation of typical Chinese textual features to English ones can better improve EFL learners' writing performance.(3) EFL learners' awareness of Language Distance between English and Chinese text can be better increased and strengthened. Strong awareness can make their mother tongue serve their English learning better, especially in English writing. Of course, exercises for transformation of typical Chinese textual features to English ones are essential. With it students are better conscious about how to conduct textual contrasts in EFL learning and how to apply it to different EFL learning tasks by themselves. Otherwise, students may have weak awareness of Language Distance.(4) English language proficiency constrains the effect of Chinese reading on English writing. For the EFL learners with low English proficiency, the effect of Chinese reading on English writing is weakened, even if learners have some little knowledge of textual differences between Chinese and English. For the EFL learners with high English proficiency, the effect of Chinese reading on English writing can be enhanced.Besides the discussions of the experimental results, pedagogical implications as well as limitations of the present study are also dwelt on. There are several pedagogical implications: (1) content-based Chinese reading approach to English writing; (2) Language-Distance awareness raising; (3) critical Chinese reading with contrastive consciousness; (4) practicing a combination of outline Chinese reading and outline English writing; (5) combining textual analysis with Chinese reading and English writing.In a word, the conclusion drawn from the present study is: the application of Chinese essay reading to English writing can be beneficial for Chinese non-English majors.