An Action Research Of How College Students Improve English Writing By "Input-Output"

In the college English for non-English majors, writing is a more difficult skill than listening, speaking and reading, which is also the weakest link in English teaching. The proficiency of one’s English writing directly reflects the level of his/her level of English learning. How to develop English Writing has been a hot and difficult topic in the current researches. This study has done much to investigate the main difficulties in college students’English composition. Lots of literature, related theories, and experiments about English writing have also been studied thoroughly. This thesis is an experimental study of the effect of the "recitation-imitation" method on the college non-English major learners’ writing based on the theories of the second language acquisition and psycholinguistics. This research tried to deal with the following three questions:1) Can recitation-imitation writing method improve students’writing ability?2) Can three-month writing practice improve students’interest and confidence in English?3) Can teachers realize their own professional development by the action research?In this study, priority was given to qualitative study as the main approach to get information through the means of online interviews, teacher’s log and students’ composition analysis. Meanwhile, to ensure the objectivity of the final results, quantitative study of two questionnaires were also adopted.The results of the research showed that the recitation-imitation approach can improve the writing competence and confidence of students. Moreover, students’comprehensive English proficiency and interest in English learning were also improved. Meanwhile, by reflecting on the research process, conclusion can be drawn that teachers can get professional improvement by doing action research. So long as the college English teachers concern their teaching context and explore in their practice, the most suitable way is sure to be found.