Constructivism And College English Writing

In the world of the twenty-first century, College English writing is still indispensable to college students in English learning, though emphasis is laid on listening and speaking based on College English Curriculum Requirements (2004). Both teachers and students have been aware of the importance of improving students' writing proficiency. However, it seems hard for the students to satisfy the educational requirements.Since 1980s, constructivism has been exerting profound influence on China's education. This thesis first introduces the development of constructivism as well as the features of the constructivist theory. Some theories on L2 acquisition and English writing are also mentioned. Then it analyzes the status quo of present college students' English writing and discusses the possible causes of the writing problems.The major part is the writing experiment carried out at DHU, the author's university. Both the experimental class and control class were compared in terms of the scores on the final exam, especially the scores on the writing part. The data were collected and analyzed through the T-test by the computer software SPSS12.0. A hypothesis was formulated and tested in this study to find out whether there was significant effect on students' writing ability by emphasizing the writing process and whether the results would show that the writing achievement of the experimental class would improve significantly and whether the writing motivation of the experimental class would be improved.Finally, the conclusion is reached that with constructivism as the guiding theory, by creating authentic writing environment for students, the process of writing adopted in this experiment turned out to be helpful and positive to students' writing. The limitations of the writing experiment are also pointed out since the students at both experimental and control classes only have limited time for writing in class, and the suggestions are put forward in the end.