Output Hypothesis And College English Writing

This thesis covers an experimental study concerning first year university non-English major students'English writing under the framework of Swain's"Output Hypothesis". Through close investigation into the unsatisfactory performance and defects in the teaching of both senior middle school and college English writing, this study seeks for effective strategies to remove the obstacles of English writing among first year university non-English major students.This thesis has investigated the main obstacles in students' English compositions, and the students'responses to their writings while meeting the obstacles, and their needs for teacher's help in such cases. In the experiment conducted in this study, 200 Grade 1 students at Shenyang Ligong University have been selected as subjects. According to their scores in the pre-test in the form of questionnaire of English Writing Obstacles, three types of obstacles rank the top three among the total of ten options. Among them, two classes with similar amount of students are selected as further experiment subjects. They are naturally divided into experiment group and control group according to their natural class divisions. After the pre-test the two classes are taught by the same English teacher from the beginning of March in Spring semester, 2007 till the end of this semester. The experiment group was given specific strategy training each week for 90 minutes. But time fixed for writing is the same in either group. Through weekly strategy training and writing assignment during a month, all their writings have been kept for further studies. Mid-term examination English writing grades were taken as the post-test. The grades of pre-test and post-test writings are compared to examine the effectiveness of specific strategy training based on the three functions of the Swain's"Output Hypothesis".At last, this experiment has got a consistent result, from which we can see a difference between the experimental group and the control group. Besides, it has been exposed that one of the major authentic obstacles in Chinese students' English writing is the accuracy of output. It is suggested that teachers should create more opportunities for students'output practice in the form of English writing. To make the students realize their obstacles in English writing and to make the students help themselves in the writing process are necessary to remove their obstacles in the output of a foreign language. With the specific strategy training the errors appeared in the pre-test are effectively lessened and consequently the accuracy of their writing are enhanced.Based on Swain's"Output Hypothesis"and its three functions, this thesis provides us with a significant pedagogical implication in the promotion of non-English major university students'English writing.