A Study Of College English Writing Based On Constructivist Learning Theory

Writing is one of the subjects which are studied continuously, and the teaching of writing is one problem that troubles the teacher and students. As English performance is improving all the time, the society requires more on English learning. Thus there are more and more scholars’ researches on college English, particularly in English writing.College English Curriculum Requirements was issued in the year of2007. It demands more on listening, speaking, reading and writing. As for writing performance, it requires that students are capable of accomplishing the writing tasks and mastering the basic writing skills. In view of the curriculum requirements, writing is emphasized to a considerable degree. Thereafter, researches of the various approaches and models are gradually coming into being. The constructivist learning theory is one of the new teaching approaches, particularly the teaching models in writing, is finally established and employed in practical use.The constructivist learning theory originates from the constructivism. The constructivism is developed and enriched through the theories of John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner. The theory of constructivism emphasizes student-centered study, and teachers act as facilitator, not just playing the roles in the traditional approaches. The theory lays stress on the four factors: context, collaboration, conversation and construction of the meaning in the process of teaching.This thesis, firstly, summarizes the status quo of college English writing, believing that constructivist learning theory is one teaching approach which can be applied into actual writing performance. Secondly, it underlines and analyzes the practical use of the theory in actual writing performance, which highlights the academic initiatives, the cooperation among teachers and students, and the peer assessment on the compositions, the reflection of the students and the evaluation from the teacher, and then provokes the interest and motivations. Thirdly the previous empirical researches mostly based on the three models of constructivism, while in this thesis it is chiefly relying on the basic views, factors and the designing principles in the process of teaching, making comparison with previous studies. And finally the thesis goes deep into analysis of college English writing performance.In terms of the arrangement, this thesis adopts the literature review method, qualitative method and quantitative method. The literature review method is to collect the materials from the library, internet and other sources. The qualitative research involves in the interview and class observation while the quantitative research is related to the questionnaire survey and tests. The author takes the sophomores who are non-English majors in one university as the subjects, and carries out the research for16weeks. The two classes are divided into the control group and experimental group, who are required to finish the questionnaire, pre-test, post-test. There are interviews and class observations simultaneously, and the data of the control group is compared with that of the experimental group via the analysis of SPSS. Before the experiment, the questionnaire is done, and with the guidance of the constructivist learning theory in this experiment, the procedure in this class is from pre-drafting, first drafting, peer assessment, teacher’s evaluation, and revision to final drafting. And the control group with the traditional approaches is compared with that of the experimental group, with the purpose of understanding the efficiency between the teaching of English writing under the guidance of constructivist learning theory and that in the traditional approaches. Finally attempts are made to analyze the directive function in the English writing teaching, from which the conclusion as following is drawn.The result shows that the cooperation, interaction and meaning construction of the constructivist learning theory have some guidance and impacts on the teaching of college English writing, and they can arouse the enthusiasm in students for English learning and enhance their motivation to learn. And self-evaluation and practice for the competence of English writing as well as writing proficiency for the students can be increased, and their writing skills can be gradually mastered as well. From the interview and the results of the post-test, most of the students have accepted this kind of teaching approach under the guidance of constructivist learning theory.The thesis has presented comprehensive analyses from the literature review, the theoretical basis to the research conducted. The conclusion is drawn, embodying the implications and limitations in the college English writing. And finally there are some suggestions from the author for further study.