The Application Of Brainstorming Method In College English Writing Course

English writing is a basic method of using the language. It is also an important way of testing the language proficiency. However, English writing is a weak part in the college English teaching, which is one of the difficulties that have disturbed English teachers and students for a long time. Most of the students will feel nervous while they are writing. They do not know what to say and how to say. The direct reason of causing students’ negative mental condition and mental obstacle is the inappropriate teaching method that teachers have used for a long time. Traditional teaching method only stresses linguistic knowledge, such as grammar and text structure. It pays attention to the final product of writing, namely the composition itself. This kind of teaching method makes the writing class boring’ ignores students’ subjective initiative and makes students lack the interest in writing. Teachers also argue that they are often disturbed by these problems.This study tries to apply brainstorming method to the college English writing teaching and to study whether brainstorming method is useful for improving learners’ writing proficiency, to testify whether brainstorming method could have positive influence on learners’ interest, attitude and self-confidence in English writing. In this study,82 students from Anhui Sanlian College were chosen as the subjects.82 students are divided into two classes, the experimental class was chosen from one of them. The experiment is conducted through two questionnaires, seven writing assignments and an interview. The test before the study reveals that there is no great difference in the two classes’ writing proficiency. During the semester, the experimental class adopted brainstorming method, and the teacher introduced the procedure and the function of brainstorming and used relevant exercises to improve learners’ writing proficiency; the controlled class adopted traditional teaching method which focused on grammatical rules and text patterns. The post test was conducted to both of the two classes at the end of the semester and SPSS15.0 was used to give the statistical analysis. Before and after the experiment, the author adopted two questionnaires to understand students’ attitude to brainstorming method and English writing.The results of the study show that the writing scores in the experimental class is much higher than the scores in the controlled class, which reveals that brainstorming method is beneficial for improving learners’ writing proficiency; meanwhile, brainstorming method makes learners have more chance to discuss, which is useful for developing learners’ minds and stimulating their passion and writing inspiration. Brainstorming method has the positive effect on students’ interest, attitude and self-confidence in English writing. It is hoped that this study could shed light on the application of brainstorming method in college English writing.