Bridging The Gap Between What Students Intend To Write And What They Actually Write

This thesis presents an empirical study on the writing construction of college students from the perspective of constructivism. Based on the observation of the gap between what students intend to express and what they actually write, we design the empirical study to probe into the interactive process between external writing behaviors and internal knowledge construction and put forward measures to bridge the gap between what the students intended to express and what they actually write.Hinged upon the theories mentioned above, the researcher of this thesis investigated EFL learners' process of English narrative writing using multiple sources of data. The empirical study indicate that students with different levels of L2 proficiency have experienced a common process in writing in terms of transferring from what they intend to express in L1 to what they actually write in L2, and that the numbers of expression-related errors in this process are not necessarily inversely proportional to their L2 proficiency. Through the retrospective method after they have finished their writing and the combination between the retrospective accounts and the analysis of the expression-related errors in their text, it is concluded that interaction between internal knowledge frameworks and external writing construction is the essence of composing process from the perspective of constructivism.In the meantime, the results of the study suggest that the aim to teach L2 writing is not only to instruct learners with writing skills, but also help students tap their potentials to the full and broaden their minds with the improved L2 proficiency, bridge the gap between what they intend to express and what they actually write, and eventually engage themselves actively at the level of written communication and self-expression. In the practical teaching of EFL writing, the teacher should focus more on the correct and effective expression and help students establish their checklists of expression-related errors, and hopefully encourage them to conduct peer assessment and self assessment.