A Study Of The Influence Of Affective Factors On Engsish Writing Of Non-English Major Students In Military Academies

Among the four basic skills, which are requested by the College English TeachingSyllabus, English writing is the item that has been embarrassing both the English teachers,who teach it, and the students, who study it, since College English Test Band Four and BandSix were first conducted in1987. In order to change this embarrassing situation of Englishwriting, either in civilian universities or in military academies, a lot of people carried out a lotof researches and studies about what to do and how to do. From different angles, theresearchers provided us with many possible solutions to this question, which are of great helpto the teaching and learning of English writing. However, most of these researches and studiesonly focus on improving the teaching and learning of English writing in civilian universitiesand colleges.Considering the unique features of the military academies and focusing on the affectivefactors, the author conducted a research in the form of questionnaire and interview in fourmilitary academies with the aim of finding out the actuality of English writing in militaryacademies, defining the influential affective factors that contribute to the students’ poorability in English writing, and trying to find some possible solutions in accordance with thedefined influential affective factors.These affective factors, which may contribute to the students’ poor ability in Englishwriting, are included in the questionnaire, which is responded by519subjects of three levels:the junior college students, the undergraduates, and the postgraduates.Among these categories---attitude (attitude toward English, attitude toward writing, andattitude toward errors in writing), motivation, need, interest, anxiety, five affective factors inthese aspects are defined as the influential affective factors that contribute to the students’poor ability in English writing. They are students’ attitude toward English writing, students’attitude toward errors in writing, students’ motivation of the learning of writing, students’interest in writing, students’ test anxiety in writing.In accordance with these influential affective factors, possible suggestions are providedto students---fostering the interests in English writing, and conquering the anxiety in Englishwriting; to teachers---paying more attention to English writing and enhancing the students’motivation in the learning of writing. All these comparatively practical solutions are expectedto be of some help to the English teachers as well as the non-English major students to changethe embarrassing situation of English writing in military academies, and serve as a referenceto the civilian colleges and universities.