An Empirical Study Of Memetics And Input Hypothesis In College English Writing

Writing is not only a significant way to reflect the language learner’s linguistic competence, but also an effective way to develop the learner’s ability in language organization and logical thinking. For a long time, writing has been a core part in all kinds of English tests and a key criterion in measuring the comprehensive ability of college students. However, English writing teaching has always been the bottleneck for the whole English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching. The very crucial reason, by the researcher, lies in the process of input. One of the effective solutions is what present study intends to testify:the strengthened input of language by means of memes.Memetics is a new theory based on Darwin’s Evolution Theory to explain the rules of culture evolution. After Memetics was advanced in1976, it has been applied to many disciplinary areas, such as sociology, psychology, linguistics, etc., and many research results have been achieved. But empirical study of both Memetics and Input Hypothesis in college English writing course is an area that has not been involved by many researchers.With combination of Memetics and Input Hypothesis, this paper attempts to improve the learners’ writing competence by promoting their sensitive use of language and increasing the effective input of language memes in the experimental teaching. The teaching method is designed on the basis of Memetics and Input Hypothesis to enlarge the English language accumulation in the students’ knowledge-bank and enhance their English-language sensitivity by providing them large amount of high-quality input materials. The present paper involves both quantitative research methodology and qualitative research methodology. The analysis of questionnaire and the test results shows that at the end of the teaching experiment, the participant students gain better writing habit and method, their ideas are also expressed much clearer in better organization in the post-test compositions than they do in the beginning of the experiment, and fewer unnatural Chinglish expressions appear in their post-test compositions. In other words, Memetics and Input Hypothesis have positive effect on the improving of the students’ English writing proficiency, and it is useful in enlarging the English language accumulation in students’ knowledge-bank and making the output of the students more standardized.