Study On English Writing Strategies From The Perspective Of Ambiguity Tolerance

The objective of College English Teaching is to develop students'ability of using both oral and written English to exchange information effectively in their future work or daily life. Confronted with the great differences between the target language and their mother tongue, learners are caught in a highly uncertain mental state frequently. Ambiguity is one of the main characteristics of a second language learning situation. Many second language learning theoreticians and applied linguists claimed that successful language learning necessitates a degree of tolerance of ambiguity (TOA).The present study is designed to investigate the influence of TOA on the adoption of English writing strategies in the processes of pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing process.12 non-English major sophomores were the participants for this study, who were divided into three groups based on the three different levels, of TOA with English proficiency being controlled. Multiple data sources were used in this study, including:questionnaire and interview, stimulated recall protocols, videotaped writing processes and written compositions. According to Flower and Hayes'process writing theory, Oxford's six groups of strategies were further classified into stage strategies groups. With SPSS, the author conducted analyses of comparison of means, t-tests as well as correlations. As is shown in the conclusion:the three participant groups used almost the same frequency of writing strategies in total, but the distribution and the specific use differed greatly. From the characteristics of each group, it is suggested that teachers should make students aware of their ambiguity tolerance degree and help the learners with very high or very low TOA degrees become more efficient in writing strategies application. More studies with a larger sample and different types of writng over time are needed to deepen the study of L2 writing development.