英语硕士论文范文精选篇一
Chapter One Introduction
1.1ResearchBackground
Among the five basic skills in language learning, writing is the most important anddifficult, for it demonstrates a person’s comprehensive ability in using a language andexpressing ideas. Writing can be challenging either in one’s native language or in the secondlanguage (Peyton, 1993). So writing has been attracting considerable attention from researchersbothat homeand abroad.For learners, especially college students, writing is an indispensable skill to acquire insecond language learning. College students are exposed to a variety of examinations, in most ofwhich writing task is a necessary and integral part, such as in CET4, CET6. According toCollege English Curriculum Requirements (2007)2, the basic requirements for writing are “towrite within 30 minutes a short composition of no less than 120 words on a general topic, or anoutline. The composition should be basically complete in content, clear in main idea,appropriate in diction and coherent in discourse. Students are expected to have a command ofnecessarywriting skills.”In CET4, the writing takes up 15% of the total score. However, the result of the writingscore is far from satisfactory. In June 1993, the average score throughout the nation is 6.8, whilein June 2001, the average score in the whole nation is 7.7; until now the average score is stillratherlow. For theprivatecolleges likeNingbo DahongyingCollege, theaverage scoreis lower;thepassing ratio ofCET4 forGrade2010 non-Englishmajoris about40%.
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1.2ResearchMotivation
College English writing teaching has been appealing to many researchers and variousteaching methods have been used which intend to teach English writing more effectively.However, no satisfying method has been found so far. Since the 1970s, the research focus of L2teaching and learning has shifted from teachers’ teaching to learners’ learning. The learners’individual characteristics and their impacts on the process of L2 acquisition have been valuedhighly. Many researchers have realized that researching the teaching methods alone cannotincludeall the elements concerned (Stern, 1983). Great importance has been attached to learnersthemselveswhentheresearchofL2 acquisition isconducted.In recent years, researchers both at home and abroad have conducted various studies toanalyze the learners’ individual differences and their influences on L2 acquisition. Scholars athome have done the research of Chinese English learners’ individual differences on theirprocess of L2 acquisition, and have made the conclusion that individual differences such asgender, learning ability, thinking style will have an impact on learner’s L2 acquisition (Guo,2007; Su, 2011; Yan, 2010; Zhou & Zhang, 1996). Scholars abroad have testified that thelearners’ intelligence and language aptitude will influence the effect of L2 acquisition (Ellis,1994;Hulstijn, 2005;Skehan, 1998).
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1ESLWriting
According to Neufeld (1985), writing is a kind of activity that the thought is transformedinto a visual form. In other words, writing is a visual expression of ideas. Writing is the processof taking an idea from the inside of one person’s brain and putting it into a code so that it can beshared by others. Peyton (1993) defined writing as a continuous process of discovering how tofind the most effective language to commute one’s feelings and thoughts. Sperling (1996)viewed writing as a meaning-making activity that is culturally and socially shaped andindividuallyand sociallypurposeful.Similar to the definition of writing, though different researchers pay attention to the writingskills, the topic of whether the writing skill is a single unitary ability or it consists of distinctcomponent traits has seldom been discussed clearly. Writing skill is one of the mostc
