An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Web-Based Writing On English Majors' Writing Self-Efficacy

This thesis is an empirical study to investigate the effects of web-based writing on English majors' writing self-efficacy.In recent years,writing self-efficacy,as an important concept to second language writing teaching,has captured widespread attention of researchers at home and abroad.In addition,as an innovation in big data era,web-based writing has great pedagogical value.Great achievements have been made in previous studies on writing self-efficacy,which mainly involve high school students or non-English majors.Very limited research probes into English majors' writing self-efficacy.Domestic studies on writing self-efficacy mainly focus on the introduction of foreign research,and there are very few empirical studies.Therefore,the present study will adopt empirical method to investigate the effects of web-based English writing on English majors' writing self-efficacy.Based on social cognitive theory and constructivism theory,this study addresses the following questions:1.What is the overall level of English majors' writing self-efficacy?2.What effects does the web-based English writing have on English majors' writing self-efficacy?3.What effects does the web-based English writing have on writing self-efficacy of English majors at different writing levels?The participants of this study were 80 English majors,selected from sophomores in Foreign Language Institute,X University.The present study lasted eight weeks and the research instruments were two questionnaires(pre and post-questionnaire),and two writing tests(pre-test and post-test).The research data were analyzed by reliability analysis,factor analysis,independent samples T-test,paired samples T-test and Person correlation analysis.The major findings of this study are as follows.1)The overall English majors'writing self-efficacy(WSE)was a bit lower than the critical value.Additionally,English majors also developed lower efficacy belief for writing skill and writing task.But compared with the overall level of writing skill self-efficacy(WSSE),the overall level of writing task self-efficacy(WTSE)is a bit higher in the pre-questionnaire.2)Web-based English writing improved English majors' writing self-efficacy.More specifically,web-based English writing had positive effects on English majors' WSSE and WTSE.In addition,the research results demonstrate that English majors achieved greater progress in WSSE.3)The web-based English writing was beneficial especially for low achievers.High achievers still had stronger WSSE and WTSE than low achievers,but more remarkable,low achievers made greater progress than high achievers in these two factors.Due to time limit and other resource shortage,this study has its own limitations.For instance,considering the experimental duration and sample size,the findings of our study may not apply to a greater group of English majors;the items of English writing self-efficacy scale may not represent all the writing skills and writing tasks.However,the present study has deepened the research on writing self-efficacy;it can provide some guidance for writing teaching.