A Study Of An E-Comment Generating System: Development & Application

This thesis concerns itself with an interdisciplinary study of issues related to how to provide effective feedback or response on student writings in an EFL context. Over the past decades, the importance of effective feedback input to the development of language learners'skills in writing has attracted due attention both from the L1 field and from the L2 or FL enterprise. Theorists and practitioners of these fields try to work hard to look for optimal ways to improve student writers'competence by means of providing more effective feedback on their work. When it comes to a Chinese context of teaching, additional difficulties prop up. Heavy working load and big class management are two problems that writing instructors have to face in Chinese universities today.This study attempted to look for optimal ways to attenuate the situation. Consequently, three research focuses were put forward in this thesis:1. It attempted to develop an initial computer-based device to comparatively facilitate the feedback work on language instructors'part when engaged in the teaching of English writing;2. It wanted to look at possible teaching and learning effects this software device may produce both on writing instructors and on student writers.3. It managed to improve this device by relying on the information of its teaching and learning functions and by seeking possibilities for future improvements.To deal with the first issue, we developed a comment generating device to see to which content it could help writing instructors provide quick and effective feedback on student compositions. To fulfill the second task, we conducted a questionnaire survey to see how well these feedback comments generated by the device worked with university student writers. To highlight the third focus, we designed and developed a new version to improve its applicability.There are eight parts in this thesis. In the opening part, we first take two perspectives, a global one and a local one, to look at the issues related to the teaching of English writing, and then introduce a new approach in the teaching of English writing—electronic writing practice—as the focus of this study. With this information given, some research questions concerning a theoretic and applicable treatment of this new practice are put forward in a more feasible and informative way. In the next part, we try to provide a literature review type of discussion regarding the issues examined so that a complete picture can be obtained. In part three, we identify some major problems both facing language instructors and student writers in a Chinese context of teaching and learning, while an ecological approach is taken to attenuate conflicts widely existing between an electronic consideration of the issues and a traditional consideration of the issues. An attempt is then taken in part four to design and develop an initial version of this device to answer the call coming from the writing training during the session of Summer Camp. To guarantee the feasibility of this improvement practice, we conduct a questionnaire survey and report its results in part five. Encouraged by the initial success of the device in the Summer Camp, we introduce a theoretic and technical discussion in part six, to explore the possibilities to further improve its functions. In part seven, we rely on the information obtained both from the questionnaire survey and from theoretic plus technical discussion to design an improved version of this software to enhance its applicability. In the closing part, we discuss merits and flaws of this software system, advance a research plan for the further modification, predict some implicational possibilities of this electronic gadget, and make tentative conclusions in relation to the focuses of this study.