Application Of The Weblog-assisted Collaborative Writing Model To College English Teaching

The research focuses on the blog-assisted collaborative College English writing model. It explores 1) whether the students in the weblog-assisted collaborative writing model make greater progress in writing competence than those in the individual pen-and-paper writing model, 2) how the students perform in the weblog-assisted collaborative writing model, 3) what roles teachers and technology play in the weblog-assisted collaborative writing model, and 4) what are the basic features of the weblog-assisted collaborative writing model. Under the theoretical guidance of individual writing and collaborative writing, and with the support of weblog technology, the author attempts to create a weblog-assisted collaborative College English writing platform for the writing model. The author employs an empirical research with the intention to test the hypothesis that the weblog-assisted collaborative writing model is more efficient in promoting the development of writing ability than the traditional individual pen-and-paper writing model is.This research was conducted in Yancheng Teachers College. 97 sophomores from Chinese Department were chosen as subjects. Among them, 49 students were from Class 2 and 48 from Class 3. This research was carried on in the fourth semester and lasted 15 weeks. Class 3, the experiment group, learnt to write in the blog-assisted collaborative writing model. Class 2, the control group, learnt to write in the traditional individual pen-and-paper writing model. The experimental research included quantitative and qualitative researches. In quantitative research, the pre- and-post writing tests and two questionnaires were conducted. In qualitative research, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results show that the blog-assisted collaborative writing model significantly promotes the improvement of non-English majors'writing competence. The students take a positive attitude towards the weblog-assisted collaborative writing model. Therefore, it can be supported that the blog-assisted collaborative writing model is efficient in College English teaching. It is also found that students take up more diverse activities and that teachers play more roles in the weblog-assisted collaborative writing model than in the traditional individual pen-and-paper writing model.This experiment has some theoretical and practical significance. In theory, it investigates the feasibility of the blog-assisted collaborative writing model, the roles of teachers and technology in the model, and the basic features of the successful weblog-assisted collaborative writing model. In practice, it promotes the development of collaborative writing ability of non-English majors. It strengthens the awareness of collaboration among students. And it provides first-hand experience for writing teachers to establish a collaborative writing platform and reference for other researchers. Yet, this research is inadequate for persuasive findings to a certain degree. The author selects her own students as the subjects in order to control the variable, but the experiment group have lower initial writing ability according to the pre-test. Therefore, greater progress made by the experiment group may be due to the blog-assisted collaborative writing model. It may be because the students with low-level writing competence are more likely to achieve greater progress.