A Probe Into Academic Writing Ability Of Full-time M.Ed In English

With the deepening of higher education reforms, the cultivation of M.Ed transforms the relatively single practical ability into the combination of practice and theory. For the cultivation of academic ability of M.Ed, it is different from the cultivation of academic postgraduates. The academic research ability of M.Ed is to solve some practical problems with the guidance of modern education theory and it focuses on the applicability and practicality in order to further improve the quality of education teaching. Full-time M.Ed in English is a new degree in China, which was set up in 2009. The previous researches mainly paid attention to practical ability of M.Ed, but the single practical ability cannot satisfy the integrated development for full-time M.Ed. So their academic scientific research ability needs to be paid more attention to. Academic writing carries the achievement of scientific research ability, and in order to study the academic writing ability of M.Ed in English, the author takes the theses of full-time M.Ed in English as a key point and studies the current situation of thesis writing. This study can gain a better understanding of the current situation of writing ability, find the existing problems and give some corresponding suggestions. And it is useful to optimize the training program and promote the integrated development of M.Ed in English.The academic writing model put forward by Paltridge et al. and the provisions of the standard about M.Ed professional degree theses are the theoretical cores of this study to explore the current situation of their thesis writing so as to address the following questions:(1) What are the problems existing in the process of academic writing for M.Ed in English?(2) What are the factors influencing academic writing for M.Ed in English?(3) How to improve academic writing ability for M.Ed in English? And this research mainly applied the questionnaire survey, the interview and the text analysis to investigate the academic writing ability of M.Ed in English in a university of Chongqing. The questionnaires were distributed to 46 full-time M.Ed in English of Grade 2013 in this university after their thesis defense, which has 45 valid ones. In order to have a better understanding of thesis writing of M.Ed in English, three supervisors and three M.Ed in English were invited to have interviews. In addition, 20 pieces of theses of Grade 2011, 2012, and 2013 M.Ed in English respectively were collected and this research mainly analyzed the topics, research methods, literature review, the structure, and references based on the general writing process to find their problems..The results of the research present that the current situation of thesis writing for full-time M.Ed in English is not satisfying. By analyzing the theses, there exist some problems in the selection of topics, collection of materials, implementation of the research and writing process. According to the questionnaires and interviews, the causes of problems can be summarized into two aspects: internal factors and external factors. The internal factors mainly include the deficiency of self-abilities of M.Ed in English and inadequate devotion to thesis writing. Insufficient basic theory knowledge, non-proficiency on searching and sorting out literature and inappropriate writing strategies all belong to the deficiencies of self-abilities. The external factors focus on the aspects of the college and the supervisors. Lacking specific provisions, more systematic guidance and adequate authoritative materials can hamper the completion of theses for M.E d in English.In view of the existing problems, some suggestions are put forward. For M.Ed in English, firstly, accumulating adequate theoretical knowledge can help students find a proper topic and cultivate the problematic consciousness. Then, it’s necessary to improve their abilities of searching materials and processing data. Building the awareness of research methods can improve academic research ability. At last, they observe the academic writing norms strictly and arrange the time of thesis writing reasonably. For their colleges and supervisors, it’s essential to optimize their training program and add writing guidance courses or thesis appreciation courses. Then, the university updates the database in time and buys more original relative foreign books or journals so as to provide convenience for M.Ed in English. And supervisors provide the full-scale guidance and supervision in the process of academic writing.