A Study On The Application Of Cognitive Load Theory To English Writing Teaching Of Non-English Majors

Based on the achievements of cognitive psychology, Cognitive Load Theory(CLT) was firstly proposed by Sweller (1998), who made a systematic study from theaspect of the allocation of resources. CLT suggests that complex learning could beoptimized if it is in accordance with human cognitive resource architecture. Therefore,this thesis tries to explore how to improve EFL writing instruction with the guidanceof CLT and its influence on non-English majors’ writing proficiency.In China, the writing proficiency of non-English majors is relatively low, so it isurgent to find better teaching methods for English writing. Although some linguistshave obtained productive findings, few studies are devoted to EFL writing instructionin a cognitive load perspective. When allocating studying resources, CLT makes greatcontribution to optimizing and solving learning problems. Hence, an empirical studyis conducted to figure out whether it can provide new views for English writinginstruction. Based on the purpose of this study, the research questions are presented asfollow:1. Can writing instruction with the application of cognitive load theory improvestudents’ writing proficiency?2. In terms of organization, content and vocabulary, in which linguistic aspectdoes students make the most obvious improvement based on CLT-oriented writinginstruction?3. What are students’ perceptions on CLT-oriented writing instruction?42international logistics major students are selected as the subjects who havejust finished the first year of English study in Shenyang Normal University. Then test,questionnaire and interview are selected as instruments. The experiment lasted for13 weeks. Quantitative analysis of two tests and the questionnaire, together withqualitative analysis of the interview are employed. Collected data is analyzed throughSPSS18.0(Statistical Package for the Social Science). Through data analysis andinterview results, the major findings are presented as follows:1. CLT-oriented writing instruction has great influence on improving students’writing proficiency.2. Through comparing three aspects of compositions, the author made theconclusion that the improvement from the aspects of organization and content aremore obvious than that in vocabulary aspect.3. On the strength of the questionnaire and interview results, students havepositive effects on CLT-oriented writing instruction. Besides, most of the students aremotivated by this kind of writing instruction and classroom activities, such as groupdiscussion, reading samples and peer evaluation.In the end, with the guidance of the major findings from the empirical study andthe author’s teaching practice, several pedagogical implications and suggestions areproposed for future writing instruction.