Writing To Learn: Ideologies Of The Length Approach

The Length Approach, initiated by Professor Wang Churning from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, is a brand-new approach to the FL teaching of writing. In a broad sense, it is a reform on China's FL teaching. At present, there still exist major issues to be solved in our FL education, exam-oriented teaching tendency, stereotyped teaching model, for example. It is high time that our FL teaching made a "paradigm shift". It is high time that our traditional view of FL teaching was re-examined. Hence, in the context, with the Length Approach as a paradigmatic case, it is of great significance to conduct an analysis of the ideology of the Approach. On the one hand, it will help the audience acquire a more comprehensive understanding of the Approach. On the other hand, it is conducive to the construction of a more systematic FL pedagogical framework in China. The thesis draws on two perspectives: one is to examine the Approach from the perspective of the western L2 writing theory, the other to explore its underlying assumption, the notion of "writing to learn". The thesis concludes by identifying its implications for our FL education and the directions for further study in this area.