The Application Of Memetics-based Recitation And Imitation Method In Vocational College English Writing Teaching

Writing, one of the required important language skills, is an effective means to check the students’ comprehensive English knowledge and skills. Writing teaching in vocational college emphasizes laying the solid language foundation and developing the language proficiency, focusing more on the students’ language skills in practice and the ability to use English to deal with the daily issues and foreign business issues. So writing teaching is an important and difficult part in vocational college English teaching. Many experts and scholars in China have constantly studied and introduced the foreign teaching methods such as the process approach to guide English writing teaching, so some traditional teaching methods such as recitation have been denied and abandoned. However, the proposal and development of memetics provide strong theoretical supports for the traditional recitation and imitation method, which has drawn more and more attention and has been applied in language teaching.Meme is an information unit, which is replicated and transmitted by imitating the models. The transmission process is closely related to the second language acquisition theory. The successfully replicated memes have experienced the stages of assimilation, retention, expression and transmission, which are in accordance with the process of input, internalization, output and interaction in language acquisition. Memetics provides new ideas for English writing teaching to form a new writing teaching mode of model comprehension, recitation, imitation writing and peer correction.Based on the achievements and shortcomings in the researches of writing teaching under the guidance of memetics, this empirical study is intended to answer the following questions:1. Do reciting and imitating writing memes have influence on vocational college students’ English writing proficiency?(1) Can reciting and imitating writing memes improve students’ overall English writing proficiency?(2) To what extent do reciting and imitating writing memes influence the different aspects of students’ writing proficiency?① Can this method improve students’ writing proficiency in content?② Can this method improve students’ writing proficiency in passage organization?③ Can this method improve students’ writing proficiency in language form?2. Can recitation and imitation method help students have proper attitudes towards English writing and form good learning and writing habits?(1) Can this method change students’ attitudes towards English writing?(2) Can this method change students’ learning and writing habits?(3) Can this method be readily accepted by students and be used as a long-term writing practice method?An experiment was carried out on two parallel classes of non-English major freshmen in Anhui Technical College of Industry and Economy.83 students participated in the experiment, including 43 students in the experiment class (EC) and 40 students in the control class (CC). The experiment class was instructed by recitation and imitation method under the guidance of memetics, while the control class was instructed by the common writing teaching method. This experiment lasted for one term, during which the students in the EC have finished three recitation and imitation writing tasks. Instruments used in this experiment are test, questionnaire and interview.The results are as follows:1. Memetics-based recitation and imitation method can effectively improve the students’ English writing proficiency. The students have made improvements in all the three aspects of English writing. Their passage organization in writing has become more coherent and their language expression has become more accurate and fluent.2. The students’ fears for English writing are released, and they are more confident in finishing English compositions. Although there are no obvious changes in their learning and writing habits, and they still have not got the good habits of reciting and imitating in daily learning, the great majority of the students affirm and support this writing method and are willing to continue to have this writing practice.This research testifies the positive effects of memetics-based recitation and imitation method on improving vocational college students’ English writing proficiency by the combination of the quantitative and qualitative means. The findings in this research provides meaningful guidance to English writing teaching in vocational colleges, which helps make this traditional teaching method play a bigger role in improving the students’ writing proficiency.