A Study Of The Effects Of Length Approach On The Use Of Cohesive Devices By Students In English Writing

Foreign language writing considered as the most difficult skill in language learning is a productive skill in language acquisition, which reflects learners’ability to use a language. So far, domestic experts and scholars have conducted considerable studies on English writing. Among their studies, they find that the biggest problem about students’writing is that writing practices taken and textual skills mastered by them are not enough, which makes it hard for students to improve students’writing ability through language use (cf. Wang,2008; Song&Xia,2002). Although students are able to write compositions with reasonable sentence structures and grammars, expressions lack of organic connections in a discourse, which makes it incoherent in semantic meaning. In early21st century, Wang Churning (2000;2004) initiated the Length Approach based on Affect Theory and the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis. This approach offers more opportunities for students to practice their writing and boost their confidence in writing. Furthermore, through the ’write-to-learn’ process, it transforms language knowledge effectively into ability of language application, which has achieved satisfactory results in the teaching of foreign language writing.On account of the problems that students are deficient in writing practices and lack of use of cohesion devices in discourse, the present study, with the guidance of the Length Approach and with the support of Cohesion Theory and Affect Factors Theory attempts to adopt the Length Approach in teaching of English writing for English majors at the fundamental stage to stimulate their writing output and increase the opportunities in the use of cohesion devices with an expectation to promote correct use of cohesion and strengthen cohesion consciousness in English writing so as to improve students’writing ability. This study conducts a grouping experiment in first-grade English majors from two classes with some experimental research methods, such as experimental teaching, questionnaire and interview, etc. to explore the following three questions:1) What are the features of cohesive devices used by students in their compositions before the experiment?2) After introducing of cohesion theory and applying the Length Approach in teaching, what are the changes of cohesive devices usage in students’compositions?3) What are the causes that the Length Approach facilitates the changes of cohesive devices used by students?From the results and discussion of the experiment, it reveals that1) students affected by the English writing teaching model in high school that is emphasizing on correct use of sentence structure and grammatical rules in the process of writing, neglect discourse cohesion and meaning expression, which results in overuse repetition ties and reference while insufficient in the use of collocation in writing; compositions written by participating students are characterized in highest frequent use of lexical cohesion, followed by reference and conjunction;2) The Length Approach ensures students’ writing output. Under the guidance of cohesion theory, they begin to pay attention to use diverse types of lexical cohesion means, and the use of collocation as well as the use of extension conjunction and enhancement conjunction by them increases significantly, while demonstrative reference usage decrease greatly. According to the above findings, it can be seen that students’ cohesion ability has been strengthen obviously.3) The Length Approach encourages students to write longer compositions and its assessment method gives priority to appreciation boosts their writing confidence greatly, which sets up a platform characterized by appreciation for students to practice the use of cohesion.