A Study Of The Efficacy Of Recitation For The Development Of College Students' English Writing

Based on the theories of linguistic scholars, such as Krashen and Bialystok, etc. on the study of English writing in the field of second language acquisition, this thesis aims to investigate whether recitation input is helpful in the improvement of college students' English writing ability.50 Bilingual students of Liaoyang Vocational College of Technology in Grade 2009 are employed in this research. The subjects'writing skills are systematically analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively through questionnaires, pre-tests of composition and post-tests of composition.In this research the author carries out an experiment for a year. Two parallel classes are chosen to be the subjects in the experiment. In the experiment, the students in the experimental class are requested to recite various articles. By analyzing the results of the experiment, the author found that the grades of the writing in the experimental class were significantly better than that of those students in the controlled class. It means that recitation input can improve the capacity of English writing in colleges. The study reveals that recitation input is helpful for college students to reinforce the understanding of the language and reduce the appearance of "Chinglish"expressions; it has the positive effects in vocabulary and language utilizing; it has the obvious effects in improving students'overall writing proficiency.The study provides important implication for the teaching of English writing in colleges in China, i.e., while teachers should attach much importance to the English writing teaching, for more and more vocational positions involve the employees having the ability of English writing. The teachers should not only try the new teaching methods, but insist on the traditional teaching methods positively and make full use of the recitation input in the teaching of English writing, in an effort to facilitate the improvement of the college students' English writing capacity, which will meet the requirement of occupation in the future.