| The 21st century is an Information Age as well as a Knowledge Economy Age. The rapid development and wide application of computer offers both great challenges and opportunities for education. As a communicational media, Internet is becoming more and more important in our life and study. Undoubtedly, the advent of the Internet and the wide spread of technology in our life create new opportunities for language learning and expand possibilities for using it to support English writing instruction.Internet now is becoming the most important tool hi teaching English not only that it as a new carrier of language has transformed communication mode around the world, but also that it makes us to share language material resources worldwide and conduct cultural communication on line. Internet use in class also facilitates the teacher-as-mentor mode of composition instruction, rather than reinforcing the teacher-as-dispenser of knowledge mode. Internet supports this paradigm of the student-centered, communicative and collaborative classroom. It can add to and improve upon what English teachers have been doing for years now梩eaching writing hi a student-centered, communicative and collaborative classroom environment. Whether learning takes place completely online orin a traditional setting in combination with the Internet, students can extend their learning beyond what the traditional classroom offers for the improvement of their ability and confidence in writing and communicating in English (Handa, 1990; Forrest, 1993).Research shows that by using Internet, students can become better problem solvers and better communicators (Ellsworth, 1994). Over Internet, by using e-mail, WWW, and MOO, students have the chance to collaborate and work together with other classmates, peers, and teachers. It can help learners create, analyze, and produce information and ideas more easily and efficiently. Internet frees them from the limitations of traditional writing tools that often inhibit and restrict writing processes. Writing is then transformed from a traditional passive-writing exercise to an experience of communication, exploration, and excitement. Students can realize their full potential when they are empowered to contribute and collaborate as a team to accomplish their writing tasks more effectively.Though the use of Internet hi English teaching is gaining popularity in universities across China, there has been no one unified method of instruction that has gained a wide following. Though it is being used increasingly in educational contexts, little research on using Internet to assisted writing instruction. It is natural to require constant investigation and experimentation. Foreign language instructors, most often, experimenting in various approaches and methods, are seeking to integrate the new technology into their present curriculum.This dissertation discusses the research and its applications for writing classroom practice and tries to explore the issue of the use of Internet as a teaching aid, or as a teaching medium, through which students are taught how to write effectively. Through the study of Internet-assisted English composition course, the dissertation quantitatively explores the potential impacts of the application of Internet on university-level English composition students. Based on the findings, conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made for maximizing the educational benefits and minimizing the limitations of using the Internet in the English writing classroom to develop the confidence and writing ability of students.The dissertation consists of six chapters.The first chapter introduces the significance, purpose, feasibility and organization ofthis dissertation.Chapter Two is a critical review of foreign language writing research on pedagogical approaches. It reviews and sums up the development of the research on the writing instruction comprehensively, especially their advantages and disadvantages.Chapter Three elaborates the history and current research on Intern...
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