英语专业学生对英语写作中同伴互评的态度研究
英语专业学生对英语写作中同伴互评的态度研究
摘要:在写作教学中,合理地运用反馈能够有效地帮助学习者更清楚、更准确地表达自己的思想,能够有效地提高学习者的英语综合能力。而同伴反馈可以培养学习者对错误的敏感性,学习者也会对优点进行一定的模仿,有利于提高学习者的写作水平和英语综合能力。尽管在中国已经有很多关于同伴反馈的相关研究,这一领域仍然具有很大探索空间。本研究基于一项对英语专业学生对英语写作中同伴互评的态度的调查,对英语专业学生对同伴互评这一反馈方式的态度,以及在进行一学期的实践后对同伴互评的态度以及对写作的态度的调查。本研究的结果表明,大多数学生对同伴互评持积极的态度,对他们的写作提高有所帮助。本研究的结果将提供一些同伴互评运用于写作教学的启示和建议。
关键词:写作;同伴互评;态度;反馈
Attitudes of English Majors Towards Peer Proofreading in English Writing Practice
Abstract: The research investigates the attitudes towards peer proofreading in EFL writing practice. 45 sophomores from Zhejiang Gongshang University participated in the investigation of questionnaire and 10 of them did the interview. Results show that learners hold positive attitudes towards peer proofreading in general. And after one-semester practice of peer proofreading, learners hold a positive attitude towards English writing in contents, structure, and language. Therefore, peer proofreading is an effective and acceptable way of feedback in English writing practice.
Key words: English writing; peer feedback; attitude; feedback
Attitudes of English Majors Towards Peer Proofreading in English Writing Practice
1 Introduction
1.1 The importance of writing in English learning
Writing is an important skill which English majors are required to master. And English Writing is a required course of English majors, which is to improve the ability of writing. Writing practice is an effective approach to expand students’ thinking and exercise students’ expression ability. The syllabus of English Courses for College
English majors (revised in 2000) states explicit requests in English writing for undergraduates. However, compared to listening, speaking and reading, writing gets the very little attention and writing ability remains the weakest link in communication.(Li, 2007)
English teaching in China pays more attention to input practices, such as speaking and reading. But lacking of class hours, short of exercise, short of feedback and weakness of pertinence and so on are the most urgent issues in writing teaching in China.(Zhang, 2008) .In the past, teachers tended to adopt the product approach in writing teaching which has many disadvantages in feedback. On one hand, modifying students’ writings causes a heavy pressure on teachers. On the other han d, students have a focus to the score of their writing practice rather than the teacher’s modifications and suggestions, which contributes to the repeat mistakes in students’ writing(Bai, 2013).
1.2 The current situation of teaching writing in China’s universities
EFL writing is the major source of output in language learning. And in China, students are trapped in various tests, such as CET-4, CET-6 and TEM-4 and so on. So exam-oriented writing education becomes an important focus in writing teaching, which reduces the creativity and activity of students. In the recent years, even though students’ total scores in TEM -4 are on an increase on the whole, their ability of thinking and writing show little progress. The college English writing classroom is bound to be influenced by exams. As a result, exam-oriented writing instruction becomes dominating. To students, only if they can master exam skills, can they achieve high marks in those exams, which has reduced the writing class to mechanical skill training. And this has a detrimental effect on students’ creativity and participation (Lu & Chen, 2012).
In China, students are trapped in various tests, such as CET-4, CET-6 and TEM-4 and so on. So exam-oriented writing education becomes an important focus in writing teaching, which reduces the creativity and activity of students.
Above all, it is necessary to improve writing in English learning.
1.3 The characteristic of EFL in China