An Empirical Study On College Englis Writing Teaching Under Computer-Aided Environment

The cultivation of learners’English writing ability is of great concern in the improvement of their comprehensive language proficiency. The present study aims to explore the influence of computer-assisted writing instruction on college students’writing level as well as on their capability of inquiry learning. The research entails63freshmen subjects from Sino-Canadian International College of Guangxi University. These participants fall into two parallel groups, namely experimental group (32subjects) and control group (31students). Data collected during the research are by means of the pretest and posttest, pre-study and post-study questionnaires and interviews, and students’writing drafts. Among which the results from tests, questionnaires and writing drafts are processed through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences17.0on a quantitative basis. Whereas the interview record is analyzed by qualitative means as to gain insight and to complement the findings of quantitative analysis.Findings of the current study suggest that:1. Students from experimental group have enhanced their English writing proficiency after a period of computer-aided writing instruction.2. Compared with the mean increase of subjects in control group in terms of writing capacity, students in experimental group have gained greater improvement in writing ability.3. Computer-aided writing instruction proves to be effective in promoting participants’ writing in the aspects of content and language, while it attests to assert insignificant effect on the facilitation of the participants’organization of writing.4. Generally speaking, students of experimental group hold positive attitudes towards computer-aided writing instruction, claiming that such teaching mode is not only beneficial for their English writing improvement, but also helps to reinforce their awareness and capability of inquiry learning.Based on the above results from the empirical study, it is expected that teachers and researchers concerned would integrate computer technology into college English writing teaching. In addition, some pedagogical suggestions for future research are also put forward.