A Study On Effects Of Prewriting Discussion On EFL Writing

It is generally accepted that prewriting plays an indispensable role in the process ofwriting. As one of the major forms of prewriting activities, prewriting discussions areconsidered to be excellent mediums for transforming spoken communication to writtencomposition. They have received growing popularity in writing classes. There are plenty ofstudies concerning effects of prewriting discussion on writing, however, the bulk of thestudies have been conducted abroad and there are no clear findings about how prewritingdiscussion actually helps learners write.Based on the above concerns, the present study endeavors to investigate the effectsof prewriting discussions on students’ writings in terms of content development. Besides,students’ attitudes towards the approach are also unfolded. The approach is different fromthe previous studies in that prewriting discussions in the study are an integration ofprocess-based approach and content-based approach. They are conducted in forms ofbrainstorming, free discussion and debate for the sake of helping students handle the keylink of writing skillfully. The study lasts for eight weeks in total. All the participants arejunior Japanese majors and all their compositions before, during and after the treatment arecollected and analyzed by the writer. In addition, a questionnaire and an interview arecarried out after the experiment in order to elicit specific information about students’perceptions of the approach. In accordance with the analyses of the aforementioned data, itis finally found that the approach of prewriting discussion is effective in improvingstudents’ writing performance in terms of content development. Their compositions havebecome more substantial and focused. Meanwhile, students hold favorable attitudestowards prewriting discussions. Their interests, motivation, confidence in English writinghave been profoundly enhanced.This study contributes to clarifying the detailed procedures of the approach ofprewriting discussions and extending it to classroom teaching in China. In spite of theunavoidable limitations, the present study still provides pedagogic implications for the implementation of prewriting discussions in teaching English writing and it is hoped thatits results offer critical insights to future studies in this domain.