Theory Of GSP And Its Application In College English Writing

In the past two decades, English writing reform in Chinese universities experienced a shift from a product-oriented approach to a process-oriented approach. Students focused their English writing practice on the organization of the entire writing process and improved their English writing from the perspective of productive skills. However, the teaching practice shows that the process-oriented approach is not efficient enough for communicative purposes. Students being taught by the process-oriented approach are found to be capable of writing out logical passages but fail to write effectively for the given tasks (Fang, 2005). This deficiency calls for a further reform in college English writing teaching. In the early 1980s, researchers tried to apply the GSP (Generic Structure Potential) theory into the teaching of English writing, known as the aim-oriented or content-oriented approach. According to this approach, English teachers should put the emphasis of the writing teaching on students' language application ability, and students are supposed to learn as many genres in English-speaking countries as possible and develop their awareness of social context. By combining context of situation with writing practice, this approach claims that students should learn writings of different genres and consequently improve the efficiency of writing (Halliday & Hasan, 1985). In recent years, the increasing international exchanges challenge the Chinese university students for a better writing communicative competence. Fang Yan, Professor of English in Tsinghua University, a pioneer in applying this approach to the writing teaching in Tsinghua University has conducted a number of experiments in Tsinghua University and produced enlightening discoveries. With the purpose of doing a better job in the English writing teaching, this thesis intends to further study the function of the GSP theory in college English practical writing through an empirical study with the research results home and abroad as references. The author puts forward two hypotheses which are: 1. What kind of effects does the GSP theory have on the college English practical writing, positive or negative? In other words, does the new approach based on the GSP theory play a better role in facilitating the students' writing communicative competence than the traditional writing approaches? 2. Does it work effectively in the teaching of English writing in China's provincial universities? The current study experiments with 167 students of non-English majors in Guangxi University and Shenyang University. By comparing the control group with the experiment group, the author combines quantitative research method with qualitative one and employs instruments like writing tests, questionnaires, thinking aloud, interviews and classroom observations to collect data. Through comparisons before and after the experiments, it is found that the effects of the GSP theory in college English practical writing are positive.