英语专业学生对英语写作中同伴互评的态度研究.docx

1、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

2、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 PracticeAbstract: The research investigates the attitudes towards peer proofreading in EFL writing practice. 45 sophomores from Zhejiang Gongshang University pa

3、rticipated 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, str

4、ucture, and language. Therefore, peer proofreading is an effective and acceptable way of feedback in English writing practice.Key words: English writing; peer feedback; attitude; feedbackAttitudes of English Majors Towards Peer Proofreading in English Writing Practice1 Introduction1.1 The importance

5、 of writing in English learningWriting 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 student

6、s 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

7、 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

8、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 hand, students have a focus to the score of their writing practice rather than the teachers

9、 modifications and suggestions, which contributes to the repeat mistakes in students writing(Bai, 2013).1.2 The current situation of teaching writing in Chinas universitiesEFL writing is the major source of output in language learning. And in China, students are trapped in various tests, such as CET

10、-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 writ

11、ing 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

12、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

13、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 ChinaLittlewood(1999, cited in Xu Ying ) pointed out that easterners are collectivists and emphasize reliance and interdependent self. Chinese tradition

14、lays emphasis on harmony and cooperation, which provides the possibilities for peer proofreading applying into writing classes.Students in China commonly have a poor command of English, especially in grammar, vocabulary and discourse and so on. Meanwhile, that students cannot think critically contri

15、butes to the shallow meanings in students writing. So to improve English writing must solve all these problems.Based on the characteristic of EFL in China, fully analyzing the situation of teaching writing in Chinas universities and after reading a bound of related papers, the research intends to in

16、vestigate the attitudes towards peer proofreading of English majors in English writing practice and confirm the efficiency and important in Englishwriting teaching class.2 Literature review2.1 Related theories2.1.1 Process approachProcess approach, based on communication theory, hold the view that w

17、riting process is a reciprocal process of cyclic psychological cognition and thinking creativity rather than the learners individual behavioral process. In process approach, students become the main body of class which fully encourages their initiative and thinking creativeness. In other words, stud

18、ents can learn from each other by modifying others writing and improve their writing ability.In writing teaching, process approach asks to modify more than once and a good proofreading of writings. To study proofreading is one of the most important parts in process approach.2.1.2 Learner-centered te

19、aching methodCompared to Teacher-centered teaching model, Learner-centered teaching model concerned the students reality and certain environment, which helps encourage the initiative of students in writing. And teachers play the role as a guide, whose tasks are providing a suitable and good language

20、 environment for students. So that students can express themselves freely. Learner-centered teaching model can not only improve the initiative of students self-learning and innovative learning. This theory adds more possibility to peer proofreading applying in writing teaching.2.1.3 Three types of f

21、eedbackIn teaching process, feedback is one of the most important way to improve learners learning ability and to reinforce learning. Nowadays, in writing teaching class in our country, teacher feedback is still the main feedback way and the practices of peer feedback and network feedback are fewer.

22、Teacher feedbackTeacher feedback is the teacher-to-student single way that teacher modifies students writing and then students get the feedback. The advantage of teacher feedback is that the teachers modifications are more authoritative while the main disadvantage is that it usually costs abundant o

23、f time in modifying students writings. And on the other hand, students often neglect teachers feedback. This unidirectional way of feedback and passive acceptance cannot inspire students interests towards writing(Zhou, 2013) .Peer feedback/proofreadingIn peer proofreading process, students can talk

24、over and discuss their writings. Every student can express their own opinion freely and students autonomous learning ability and team cooperation can be improved. However, although peer proofreading is a good way to teacher feedbacks drawback, it has some boundedness. For example, modification, fair

25、ness and effectiveness of peer proofreading cannot be made sure. Network feedbackIn recent years, with the development of Internet, network feedback becomes popular among students. Students put their writings on Internet and get feedback. This way is quicker and more effective. But students may lack

26、 of interchange with others and the modification of feedback is suspectable.2.1.4 Social and affective strategy in learning strategySocial-affective strategies refer to the interaction methods that learners use in learning languages(Liu, 2008). Social-affective strategy is used for adjusting learner

27、s emotion, motivation and attitude. At the same time, the strategy provides more opportunities of language learning and practicing in their learning process, including studying, clarifying questions and asking for help. Peer proofreading is a good reflection of this the strategy.2.2 Former researchO

28、verseas studies on the attitudes towards peer proofreading in writing in EFL writing practice focus on the effectiveness of comment remark and the students attitudes. Firstly, many overseas scholars have a wide studies on the writing modification effectiveness of peer proofreading. Some peer proofre

29、ading helps students improve the accuracy of the use of languages, the logical thinking and analyzing ability while some studies found that peer proofreading has little influence in writing.Zhang(1995) investigated 81 students from different backgrounds. The students were asked to choose between tea

30、chers proofreading and peer proofreading. The result showed that 94% preferred to teachers proofreading. Tsui and Ng(2000)got the same result after an investigation among a HK middle school.However, in these studies, students were only given two choice: teachers proofreading or peer proofreading and

31、 they must choice one of two. In such a situation, most students would choose the more authoritative answer-teachers proofreading. Therefore these studies are not so reasonable and cannot reflect the real value of peer proofreading.Berg(1999) had 46 students from 16 countries do peer proofreading in

32、 his class for two semesters and concluded that peer proofreading can not only improve the ability of writing, but also develop the students critical thinking. Saito and Fujita(2004) came to the conclusion that the performance of students mattered little in students attitudes towards peer proofreading and in their study, students approved of peer proofreading. And many other studies also got the similar result. All of these studies show that peer proofreading is a complicated process. Many factors take effects in peer proofreading, such as culture backgrounds and language level of