A Study On Relationship Between Senior High School Students' Tolerance Of Ambiguity And English Writing Strategies

English writing proficiency is a comprehensive reflection of English learners'English ability.It is also an important symbol reflecting their cultural knowledge and communicative competence.In the four basic aspects of listening,speaking,reading and writing in English learning,writing is often considered to be the most difficult part.Language learners are usually apt at listening and reading,but their writing ability is stagnant.Many studies have shown that writing strategy is an important factor in influencing learners' writing skills in English writing.In the field of second language acquisition,an increasing number of experts and scholars have noticed the important influence of tolerance of ambiguity on it,but the research on relation between tolerance of ambiguity and writing strategy is still at early stage.In addition,most of the research has been targeted at college students,while senior high school students with their characteristics in foreign language learning are certainly worthy of investigating in the practice of second language teaching.After reviewing the relevant literature on tolerance of ambiguity and writing strategies,the author of this paper conducted a survey among 144 high school students in Law Ting Pang Secondary School.The research instruments mainly include Ely's(1995)English Writing Tolerance of Ambiguity Questionnaire,Petric and Czarl's(2003)English Writing Strategy Questionnaire,Composition Test and Semi-Structure Interview.This study aimed at exploring the current situations and relation between tolerance of ambiguity and English writing strategies.Based on the findings,productive suggestions and implications were given for future second language teaching,especially for writing teaching.The following three questions have been answered in this study:(1)What is the current situation of tolerance of ambiguity of senior high school students?And are there any differences in senior high school students'tolerance of ambiguity in terms of different writing proficiency?(2)What is the current situation of senior high school students'English writing strategy use?And are there any differences in senior high school students'writing strategy use in terms of different writing proficiency?(3)What is the relation between tolerance of ambiguity and writing strategies in senior high school students?By analyzing the research results,the following three findings are drawn:(1)At present,most high school students have a medium level of English writing tolerance of ambiguity,with a few having an extremely high or very low level of tolerance of ambiguity.Differences in tolerance of ambiguity do exist among high school students with different level of writing proficiency.Students with high writing proficiency have the highest level of tolerance of ambiguity,followed by the medium-proficiency group and the low-proficiency group being the lowest.(2)In the use of English writing strategies,high school students tend to employ compensation strategies,metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies,and they rarely use socio-affective strategies.High school students with different level of writing proficiency also have differences in the use of writing strategies.Students in high-proficiency group use writing strategies more frequently than the medium and low-proficiency group.(3)There is a significant correlation between high school students'tolerance of ambiguity and English writing strategies.There is a positive correlation between high school students' tolerance of ambiguity and metacognitive strategies,and negative correlations are between cognitive strategies,compensation strategies,and socio-affective strategies.There are evident differences in the use of writing strategies among students with different levels of tolerance of ambiguity.Students with high tolerance of ambiguity tend to employ metacognitive strategies.Students with low tolerance of ambiguity frequently adopt cognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies,while students with medium tolerance of ambiguity prefer to use compensation strategies.Based on the above research results,the following suggestions in English writing teaching are offered:(1)Teachers should study theoretical basis of tolerance of ambiguity and guide students to establish a moderate level of tolerance of ambiguity.(2)Teachers should design a series of writing strategy training activities in teaching to guide students to apply writing strategies and cultivate students'awareness of using writing strategies.(3)Teachers should fully recognize the differences among students,train and guide different writing strategies in accordance to their levels of tolerance of ambiguity.