The Application And Assessment Of College English Writing Measures

The study explores effective ways to improve the teacher's feedback in the College English writing.The latest reports from the Committee of National College English Test (CET-4 & CET-6) show that participants in the CET-4 & CET-6 repeatedly score lowest in the composition portion.It is an urgent task to greatly improve the teaching and learning of College English writing in China.In the International Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Writing fields,research into feedback did not really begin until the early 1990s.Many questions remain hotly debated.In the College English practice,some teachers only give a tick to the students' composition;some give a rough grade(e.g.A,B,C,D,F);teachers more responsible for their work will underline the major mistakes in the student's composition; but very few teachers will identify the student's mistakes one by one and provide detailed information for correction.Besides,most teachers pay attention only to grammar mistakes,and there is little reference to the problems of organization and content.Due to the serious situation,the study aims to make full use of the educational technology so as to reduce the heavy burden of the teacher's work but improve the teacher's feedback on students' composition.That is,by improving the qualities of their feedback,the teacher can help improve the students' abilities of basic English writing.In an experiment conducted in Shanghai Lixin University of Commerce,with the help of the Writer's Workbench 8.18(WWB),a writing assessment tool produced by AT & T Bell Laboratory,the teacher can provide the students with such information as Organization and Development,Diversity of Content,Vocabulary,Style Statistics,Transitions, Punctuation,Clarity,etc.They serve as guidelines for improvement of writing.The findings suggest that WWB can provide the teacher with analysis data,which can make better feedback and practical guide.Consequently,it helps improve the students' writing skills.The study is meaningful and significant for College English Instruction,including English Writing Instruction.