转换英语写作教学与研究的关注点——“技巧鼓励型”VS“错误发现型”

Focus-Switch on Teaching and Research of English Writing—— "Strategy-Promoting" VS "Problem-Pondering"

本文将我国英语写作教学研究中的几项实证分析与美国的ESL写作教学研究中的多维度语篇分析法及笔者运用此法对学生作文进行的研究作比较，发现我国英语写作教学多为“发现错误”、“探究问题”，而美国ESL写作教学则注重作者的遣词造句特点，研究修辞技巧之“运用频率”与作文质量的关系。笔者认为，“多维度语篇分析”鼓励使用多样化的遣词造句手法来提高作文的质量，可谓“技巧鼓励型”教学法，比传统的“发现错误、探究问题”更具积极意义。本文因而建议我们的英语写作教学与研究转换关注点——变“错误发现”和“问题探究”为“技巧运用”。

This paper compares some major experimental researches by Chinese scholars in the teaching of English writing with a more multidimentional approach advocated by American ESL experts, pointing out that the former focus mostly on ＂mistake-finding and problem-pondering＂ while the latter, which seems a more effective approach to written discourse, considers writers＇ rhetorical and lexical choices in addition to their syntactic ones, works on the relation between the frequency of rhetorical devices and the quality of the text, and thus promotes a variety of the lexical and syntactic strategies. The paper then suggests that our focus on the teaching and research of English writing be switched, from ＂mistake-finding and problem-pondering＂ to ＂strategy-promoting＂.