不同写作水平学生在英语作文质量上的差异

Comparing the Quality of English Compositions by Students of Different Writing Abilities

写作是大学英语学习中一个不可缺少的部分,同时也是近年来大学英语教学中较为薄弱的一个环节。本文从作文的内容、组织、词汇、语法和写作规范这5个方面以及话语联系语的使用上比较了不同写作水平的学生所写的英语作文在质量上的差别。研究发现:1、成功的写作者所写的作文在5个单项分和总分上都显著优于不成功的写作者所写的作文。2、对好、中、差3 类学生作文中的话语联系语的使用情况的分析结果表明,好的写作者所使用的话语联系语无论在数量上、还是在种类上,都要多于较差的写作者。

Writing is an indispensable part of college English learning. However, the present situation of college English writing teaching in China is far from satisfactory. This study tries to answer the question: In what aspects are compositions of skilled writers better than those of less skilled writers? The study obtained the following major findings: (1) Good writers scored much higher than the average and poor in the five aspects of composition, namely: content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanisms. The result of independent samples T-test showed that the differences in the five sub-scores and the total score of the compositions between the good and poor writers all reached very high statistical significance. (2) A further exploration into the students’ use of discourse connectives in their compositions revealed that the successful writers outperformed the other two groups in both the quantity and the variety of conjunctions used. These findings provided much insight into college English writing teaching.