A Study Of English Writing Achievement And Writing Strategies Of College Students Based On Different Writing Conditions

Two training forms are generally used in English writing teaching practice,they are in-class time-limited writing and out-of-class time-unlimited writing.The current thesis focuses on the relationships among writing condition,writing achievement and writing strategy usage.The key to this issue has great significance to the study field of writing strategy and English writing teaching practice.This thesis conducts qualitative and quantitative studies on college learners' writing achievement and writing strategy usage and their relationships with writing condition.Writing strategy theory is combed through literature at home and abroad,then three subcategories of writing strategy(metacognitive strategy,social-affective strategy and cognitive strategy which includes check-revise strategy,plan-outline strategy and word-related strategy)are established.Based on this,writing strategy usage questionnaire is designed.154 freshmen from the Chinese University of Mining and Technology participated in the two writing tasks and answered relevant questionnaires through which data are collected.The differences of writing achievement and writing strategy usage are examined through paired sample t-test and independent sample t-test;the differences of relationships of English writing achievement and writing strategy usage are explored by building and comparing two SEMs of different writing conditions.Major findings are listed here on.Firstly,writing condition exerts significant influences on writing achievement,learners' writing achievements of out-of-class time-unlimited writing are higher than those of in-class time-limited writing.Secondly,both writing condition and level of language proficiency lead significant differences to learners' writing strategy usage.Check-revise strategy is applied more in in-class time-limited writing while plan-outline strategy is applied more in out-of-class time-unlimited writing.No significant differences exist in other writing strategies' usage.In addition,there are significant differences between usage of three types of cognitive strategy applied by learners of different language proficiency,and learners of high level of language proficiency employed cognitive strategies more frequently;no significant differences exist in metacognitive strategy usage and social-affective strategy usage.Lastly,the relationships among writing condition,writing achievement and writing strategy usage are revealed by modeling two SEMs.Results show that a)in in-class time-limited writing,there are significant positive relations betweencognitive strategy usage,metacognitive strategy usage and writing achievement;no significant relations exist between social-affective strategy usage and writing achievement;b)in out-of-class time-unlimited writing,there is significant positive relation between cognitive strategy usage and writing achievement;no significant relations exist between metacognitive strategy usage,social-affective strategy usage and writing achievement;The current study presents the following pedagogical implications:(1)teachers are expected to train learners by combining forms of in-class time-limited writing and out-of-class time-unlimited writing;and it is also necessary to assign different writing tasks according to the specifications of writing teaching and key points for writing strategy training;(2)it is important for teachers to adopt corresponding teaching methods to facilitate learners' strategy usage more efficiently;and teachers are also hoped to give students opportunities to practice applying writing strategies in accordance of their aptitude.