Correlation Between English Writing Strategies And Writing Ability Of College Students

The findings of writing strategies have presented much enlightenment for College English writing instruction and provided much help in college students’writing practice. Nevertheless, the current writing instruction of College English is not very efficient, and the status quo of college students’writing ability is not satisfying. As a result, more researches needs to be carried out with regard to English writing strategies and writing ability. The training model of writing strategies in this study is adapted from the cognitive theory of writing process and the model of Strategy-Based Instruction for the purpose of enriching students’writing strategies and improving their writing ability. In this way, the correlation between English writing strategies and writing ability is explored in this study with the following research questions:First, what are the frequencies of writing strategies employed by the students in the study? Second, is there any correlation between English writing strategies and writing ability? If there is, what kind of correlation is it? Third, can the employment of writing strategies predict students’writing ability? If it can, to what extent does the employment of writing strategies predict students’ writing ability?The present study selected166students of non-English majors from Chengdu Medical College as subjects, carried out four-month writing training of different instruction models for them, and investigated the subjects’employment of writing strategies and their writing ability. The instruments of the investigation consist of two writing tests, a questionnaire and an interview. The questionnaire is carried out to investigate the frequency of writing strategies employed by the subjects. The writing strategies are classified into8categories including self-initiation strategies, planning strategies, strategies of monitoring and evaluating, strategies of acting on feedbacks from other people, revising strategies, strategies of generating text, resourcing strategies, and socio-affective strategies. With the Software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), the author conducted analyses of means comparison, correlation and multiple linear regressions. The major findings are as follows:Firstly, a deeper understanding about students’ employment of writing strategies is obtained in light of this study. Generally speaking, students’ knowledge of writing strategies is limited. For one thing, students have mastered a few categories of English writing strategies. For another, students have weak ability of employing writing strategies appropriately and effectively.Secondly, it is verified that there is a positive correlation between English writing strategies and writing ability. Students with more knowledge of writing strategies and better awareness of employing them would inevitably have better writing ability, and vice versa.Thirdly, it is found that the writing strategies as a whole have significant predictive force for students’ writing ability. All the categories of writing strategies contribute much to predicting students’ writing ability in English except self-initiation strategies.In the light of the findings mentioned above, some suggestions are put forward to improve the current writing instruction of College English:Firstly, the training model of writing strategies proposed in the present study provides a different way of writing instruction, and it may be improved and commonly applied in the future writing instruction.Secondly, students seldom take advantage of self-initiation strategies according to the survey. Teachers should shoulder the responsibility actively and take various measures to stimulate students’interest and motivation in English writing, cultivate their learning autonomy, and improve their ability of employing self-initiation strategies.Thirdly, it is found that low-proficiency learners employ writing strategies more randomly and less appropriately than high-proficiency learners. Therefore, College English writing instruction should make greater efforts to help low-proficiency learners enrich their knowledge of English writing strategies and enhance their awareness of employing writing strategies, so that low-proficiency learners would make greater improvement in their writing ability.