A Study Of The Effects Of The Self-regulated Strategy Development Instruction Upon Non-English Majors’ English Writing

English writing, one of the four basic language skills, has been highlighted as a core skill in foreignlanguage learning and teaching. College English writing can serve as a significant indicator of college students’English proficiency and application ability, also a focus of various kinds of English proficiency tests (Wang,2005). However, it is undoubtedly an enormous challenge for EFL learners in China to enhance writing ability,especially for those non-English majors who lack of systematic writing training (Tan,2006).A large number of investigations show that students with poor writing proficiency usually have a commoncharacteristic: they fail to realize that certain strategies are supposed to be used in writing. When in writingprocess, they can not make self-regulation or seek the most suitable strategies to study effectively. Therefore,since1990s, writing strategy research has been a new focus among English teachers and researchers (Yang,2006), while Harris&Graham (1996,1999) proposed the Self-regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model,which is a kind of typical strategy-based model on writing instruction. It is comprehensive and flexible. In thewest, a great number of studies have proved that application of SRSD model can help students master theirwriting process and improve their writing proficiency. So, it is quite helpful for non-English majors’ writingproficiency to bring SRSD model into writing instruction.This thesis is an empirical study grounded with Zimmerman’s (1989,1990a, b,1998,2000a) socialcognitive model of self-regulation based on Bandura’s (1986a, b) social cognitive learning theory, and Harris andGraham’s (1996,1999) SRSD model. An instruction program was implemented to study non-English majors’English writing ability, in an attempt to investigate how to integrate SRSD model with college English writinginstruction in natural environment, so as to help learners to self-regulate their writing processes effectively, andfinally enhance their writing proficiency.The study was conducted during the first semester2013in Zhixing College of Northwest NormalUniversity, where94sophomores (actually80in analysis) majoring in Law from two intact classes participatedin this study. Class one was used as the experimental class (EC) while class two was used as the controlled class(CC). Before the implementation of the instruction program, both classes completed a self-regulated writingstrategy questionnaire, a public interview and a writing proficiency test, and the results showed that there was nosignificant difference between the two classes. While instruction, EC received an intervention program based onSRSD model. Meanwhile, CC only received traditional writing instruction. After instruction, all studentscompleted the same questionnaire, a face-to-face interview and another writing proficiency test. Besides, after stopping the instruction program about four weeks, EC received a delayed-writing test.The results show that students’ self-regulated awareness in writing can be improved during the SRSDinstruction process. More specifically, students can apply the strategies consciously and autonomously to theirwriting practice. What’s more, the SRSD instruction does contribute to the improvement of students’ writingproficiency. The writing score of the EC is significantly better than that of the CC after instruction, and evenmaintained over time. Therefore, it is urgent and significant for teachers to integrate SRSD instruction withwriting instruction to help students enhance students’ writing proficiency.