A Research On The Effect Of Analytic Scoring On Classroom English Writing For Non-English Majors

Of the four basic English skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), writing skills have been regarded as the hardest to be developed. In each period of English instruction, the development of writing abilities has been paid much attention. However, compared with students’listening, speaking and reading competence, their writing competence has not achieved corresponding improvement. Among the factors which influence the improvement of student writing competence, a teacher’s choice of scoring methods may also affect the improvement of student writing competence to some extent. Analytic scoring, as a highly-targeted scoring method covering several aspects of writing and having specific and scientific scoring criteria, is likely to improve the current situation of college English writing instruction and assessment. In analytic scoring, raters are required to score several significant aspects of writing including content, organization, coherence, diction, grammar and mechanics based on the detailed scoring scale.The present study mainly aims to explore the effect of the application of analytic scoring in classroom writing instruction on writing competence of non-English majors. In the thesis, the author puts forward three research questions.1) Can the application of analytic scoring in college English writing instruction enhance the writing interest of non-English majors?2) Can the application of analytic scoring in college English writing instruction improve the writing competence of non-English majors?3) If the application of analytic scoring in college English writing instruction can improve the writing competence of non-English majors? Then in the following six aspects (content, organization, coherence, diction, grammar and mechanics), which one has been improved most?The author launches a13-week research, the subjects of which are83sophomore non-English majors from two classes in Capital University of Economics and Business. First, the author designs an analytic scoring scale by referring to the writing scoring criteria of CET-4, Jacobs et al.’s (1981) writing profile and the IELTS writing band descriptors (public version). Before the experiment, the author carries out the pre-questionnaire, pre-test and pre-interview. During the experiment, the author assigns three same writing tasks to both classes. In the experimental group, the author and the other rater grade the student compositions with analytic scoring based on the scoring scale designed in this study while in the control group, the two raters use the scoring way teachers usually use:holistic scoring plus general comments. After scoring, the students are requested to rewrite on the basis of their teacher’s scoring and hand in again after they finish. Then the teacher scores the revised compositions again. After the experiment, the author conducts the post-questionnaire, post-test and post-interview to see the change of students’writing.Through analyzing the percentage, mean and standard deviation of the statistics collected from the questionnaires, interviews and tests by SPSS and EXCEL, the author draws the following conclusion:1) The application of analytic scoring in college English writing instruction can enhance the writing interest of non-English majors.2) The application of analytic scoring in college English writing instruction can improve the writing competence of non-English majors.3) In the following six aspects (content, organization, coherence, diction, grammar and mechanics), student performance in coherence has been improved most.