Problems and Solutions in English Writing

英语写作问题及对策Problems and Solutions in English WritingContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. The Definitions of Writing.2III. Three Traditional Writing Approaches.31. Product approach.32. Process approach.33. Genre approach.4IV. The Significance and Necessity of English Writing.4V. The Key Problems in English Writing and Teaching.51. Chinese as the medium of thought52. Vocabulary and grammar.53. Chinglish.64. Poor practice and input.6VI. The Solutions in English Writing.61. Imitation.72. Write to learn.73. Reading.84. Be aware of your purpose before you start writing.85. Figures of speech in English writing.86. Practice.11VII. Develop the Whole English Ability by Writing.11VIII. Conclusion.12References.12Problems and Solutions in English WritingAbstract: Writing is one of five basic skills in English language learning and teaching, it plays the most important part in showing students language ability. In fact, most of students and teachers pay more attention to the English marks and less attention to the real competence of English writing. So we have to focus on this popular problem in language teaching. Therefore this paper discusses the problems of English writing. At the same time, the author also gave some kinds of solutions in writing. At last, the authors purpose is to discuss how to develop the students whole English abilities through writing which is crucial in our later English learning and teaching.Key words: key problems; English writing; writing methods; solutions摘 要：写作作为英语教学和学习中五项基本技能中的一种，它在显示学生语言能力方面起着重要作用。事实上，大部分老师和学生过分注重考试分数而忽视了真正的英语写作能力。这让我们不得不关注这一英语教学中出现的普遍问题。因此本文提出了写作中出现的问题并指出了具体解决办法和措施。最后，作者意在通过写作来提高学生的整体英语水平，那对我们以后的学习和教学将至关重要。关键词：英语写作问题，英语写作，写作方法，对策I. IntroductionWriting is one of five basic skills in English learning. Writing skills have been neglected in EFT in China for a long time. However, since China opened its door to the outside world in 1978, English writing play the most important roles in English teaching and communication. Students who want to study in some Englishspeaking countries have to take an English proficiency test which has a writing component. English majors want to become journalists who must write in English for new agencies, newspapers, or magazines. So writing is crucial in English learning and teaching. Frankly speaking, on the one hand, most of students have some problems of English writing. Of course, when learning a foreign language, we must learn how to write it in your own words. On the other hand, the present teaching methods pay more attention to the form of language itself and less attention to the real writing competence. The students memorize words, do more exercises and tests all the time under that learning formula, and teachers emphasize the scores of test. Therefore, this paper is designed to deal with this problem of English learning and how to solute this key problems in English writing. Anyway, this paper discusses how to develop the students writing competence. So the author introduces some writing methods in this paper which is important and useful in later English learning.First, the author gives reader the definitions of English writing. Second, the author lists some key problems in English teaching and learning, including Chinglish, poor vocabulary and grammar, lack of audience awareness, Chinese as the medium of thought, poor input and practice. Third, face these problems in English writing and learning, the author introduces four effective writing ways, including writing to learn, imitation, practicing more and more, enlarging your inputs by more reading. Meanwhile, you will find instinctively it will enhance the learners whole English competence by good writing, including listening, reading, translation, speaking. At last, the author wants more and more people to focus on this problem and cope with this situation. Especially for some teachers, it is very useful and necessary for their English teaching and learning.II. The Definitions of WritingCurrent research in composing (Murray, 1980) shows that writing is an extremely complex intellectual-linguistic process. This process involves the recursive application of a wide range of thinking skills and language abilities. According to Murray (1980) there are three stages: rehearsing, drafting and revising.The rehearsing stage is one of discovery and recall. During this stage, the writer gets warmed up, chooses a point, collects something and prepares something for writing in mind.The second stage drafting is the central stage of the writing process (Murray, 1980). At this stage, writers need to write their first-draft shape as easily and quickly as possible.The third stage is revising. At this stage the writer need to find out their errors and then correct it. In our country, writing is listed as one of the five basic skills, the other four, as we all know, reading, speaking, listening comprehension and translation. What is more important, writing helps to develop ones mind. It stimulates thinking, as it enables one to concentrate and organize ones ideas, and helps to cultivate ones ability to summarize, analyze, and criticize. And that is indeed an important part of education.III. Three Traditional Writing Approaches1. Product approachIn our country, for a long time, this approach has dominated most of schools in English teaching. One of the most explicit descriptions of product approaches is provided by Pincas (1982). She sees writing as being primarily about linguistic knowledge, with attention focused on the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive devices. In this approach, it has four stages: familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing.This approach mainly emphasizes the students vocabulary and structure and under some circumstances it is very useful for some students and it suits the teaching situations generally in China. But this approach has some disadvantages. So it is not an ideal way for English language teaching. 2. Process approachBecause of the weakness of product approach, EFL scholars and teachers are more concerned about the process approach. In this approach, the focus of attention has shifted from the finished product to the whole process of writing: experience and question, prewriting preparation, draft writing, editing and rewriting, publication or sharing, and response and feedback from readers. Among different process approach schools, Tribbles (1996) four stage model is rather typical. These four stages go as following: prewriting; composing/drafting; revising and editing.The advantages of the process approach pay attention to the teachers role in English teaching. Meanwhile, it gives more time to students to think and write. It is also beneficial for the students independent mind. So it is a student-centered approach. But it regards all writing as the same set of processes, and it often offers students insufficient input, less attention to the linguistic knowledge. And in most of classes, there are nearly fifty students, the teacher can not look after every student, therefore this process approach is not very suitable for every school.3. Genre approachSince our country opened its door to the outside in 1978, recent years this approach plays an important role in our life. To some extent, in this approach, there are many similarities to product approach in some ways; it can be regarded as an extension of product approach. First of all, in this approach, the author must be aware of the formal patterns. And teachers must let students know the different genres concerned with the different genres. It is helpful to develop the students confidence.And yet this approach is prescriptive rather than descriptive, many students will feel very boring, it will be found stereotyped, frankly speaking, it is a text-centered approach rather than a student-centered approach. In fact, teacher can not provide all kinds of genres in language teaching. So it has its limitation in language teaching.As above mentioned, we have introduced three approaches to English writing: the product approach, the process approach, the genre approach. These three approaches are not exclusive to each other. So we emphasize that the learning of English writing should focus on the English writing skills rather than the one of these traditional writing approaches.IV. The Significance and Necessity of English Writing As we all know, English, as an international language in modern society, is very important and necessary for most people in our global society. Of course, as one of five basic skills in language learning, writing is also crucial for English language learners. But most of students have some problems in English writing. When learning a foreign language, we must learn how to write it in your own words. In our country, the teaching of writing in English as a second language in china has been neglected by some teachers. They are always paying more attention to the high marks in English teaching and less attention to the real English writing competence. And yet, English writing should show ones English proficiency obviously but in most of schools it is given a cold shoulder. In English teaching, most of teachers only encourage students to write something in the form of the regular three paragraphs, and do not allow writing with new and unusual words in order to get high marks in all kinds of examinations. So there are plenty of articles similar to one another and some stereotyped writings, and more are only formulas and short of imagination and creativity. If it continues in this way, the students would always be timid and little by little they should lose the ability of command of vocabulary. So it is a high time to focus on this key problem in English teaching and doing the research on how to make students writing perfect. V. The Key Problems in English Writing and Teaching1. Chinese as the medium of thoughtMost of students reported in the interview that they used Chinese as a medium of thought when writing in English. According to a psycholinguistic point of view, learners at the early stage of L2 acquisition tend to attach L2 words to L1 equivalents through whatever form of translation (Kroll, 1977), in fact, they first conceptualize in the L1 and then translate ideas into L2, rather than going directly from the concepts to their L2 representation.2. Vocabulary and grammarThe use of vocabulary is most important component of English writing. Generally speaking, normal vocabulary including the 2000 high frequency word families, summed up by Michael West in 1953 is quite necessary because it enables the author to write something in there own words and thoughts. So the adequate vocabulary is necessary for every student. But some students think it is a boring thing, when they memorize some new words. Frankly speaking, they have a lot of ideas but can not express it in beautiful language. In a word, they can not precisely make correct sentences because of the lack of large vocabulary.As we know, basic grammatical rules are necessary for every student. A good command of grammar will help students present their ideas in most effective ways. So it is not easy for them to express clearly what they think in their mind because they are not familiar with sentence structures. Meanwhile, when they write something in English, they are very nervous because they fear to make grammatical errors. For a long time, they translate Chinese into English word by word because they are often confused by the order of the arrangement of words. 3. ChinglishIn China, the quality of translation of Chinese into English is so notoriously bad that it is in danger of being accepted as a new language standard called “chiglish, of course, is the misshapen, hybrid language that is neither English nor Chinese and that is described as English with Chinese characteristics.” (John Pinkham, 2000). For example, this year will produce more grain than last year (Chiglish). More grain will be produced this year than last year (Idiomatic English). This year, as an adverb phrase, can not be the subject of this sentence. In other words, because of different culture, most of Chinese students write a composition using Chinese pattern rather than English pattern. In a word, with the cultural and linguistic barriers between Chinese and English, they have difficulty organizing all the ideas in English composition.4. Poor practice and inputFor most of students, they have a lot of difficulties in writing. And for most of time they just can not find anything to say and write. Of course, they can not make their writing rich in idea and beautiful in language. Why? First, most of students are over dependant on their teachers, they get used to accepting the formula of passive learning. The students dislike reading books and writing some summaries, notes and so on. Thirdly, the text books are about some small stories, pictures, dialogues, some teachers pay more attention to English scores so that they neglect the students writing abilities. This is harmful for later English learning and teaching. As a result, the students writing competence is not always very satisfing in most of schools.VI. The Solutions in English WritingAs above mentioned, when we face these key problems in this research and later English writing teaching, there are few teachers dealing with the key problems completely. So it is necessary to discuss the frequent problems in our daily English learning and teaching. What should we do about the problems? Because every factor is difficult and popular in our daily life, of course, I will do my research about this key issue which is also not simple and easy. At last, according to my four years study in Shihezhi University, I have a clear understanding about how to write and how to make it rich in ideas and beautiful in language. These are two very different questions. As we all know, every student can write, but not everyones paper is perfect. So the author gives some writing skills, such as, imitation and how to imitate, learning to write and how to write, how to improve your grammar, how to enlarge your vocabulary and input, how to practice more and more effectively. In a word, it is very useful and helpful for our later English learning and teaching. For younger generation in future, we only spare no effort time to deal with this problem.1. ImitationUnder these traditional approaches in English language teaching we emphasize that imitation is one of the effective ways for students to learn to write. In fact, imitation is not a bad habit. Language is acquired mainly through imitation. In this process of imitation, EFL learners can learn useful and important accepted expressions, such as idioms, phrases. This is precisely what the traditional Chinese writing method requires students to do. In practical teaching, the imitation is combined with reading course, that is to say, the teacher selects typical sentences and paragraphs from texts as some examples, then guides students to imitate creatively. The students can not only acquire typical sentences and paragraphs from typical texts, but also get the authors elegant style and inspiration. So, to some extent, imitation is such an effective form for practice that students can follow certain samples to avoid chinglish expressions.2. Write to learnIn writing class, students are always aware that their writing will be evaluated by teachers; therefore they concentrate more on forms rather than an context. Focusing too early on the form, the students tend to lose the flow of ideas, thus the practice will not help very much in improving their writing ability.Face his key problem in English learning, Wangchuming(1999) did a follow-up research in a special approach to the teaching of writing, they had designed called the length Approach in Guangdong Province. It reports on a one-semester-long experiment on improving Chinese speaking EFL learners English by means of writing long compositions. These students consisted of 201 English majors in their first year of study at Guangdong foreign studies university. Their compositions were scored against four criteria: length, organization, ideas and language, with length receiving the heaviest weighting. Only good points related to the four criteria were marked with a view to boosting the students confidence in their ability to learn English. Responses to a questionnaire show that the students welcomed the new method and consequently felt more confident in their own writing ability and in their use of English. Therefore, it is a best way to solve this situation. Learners writing skills can be enhanced entirely so as to boost their overall English proficiency.3. Reading As we all know, the more you read, the better you will write. Reading can enlarge your vocabulary and improve your grammar. Meanwhile, you will have a sense of language which is vital in your English learning. You will know instinctively when you say in a certain context. And you will get a wide knowledge so that you won not say something wrong.4. Be aware of your purpose before you start writingBecause with different purpose, you can write different essays, take letter writing as an example, if it is just a greeting letter between two good friends, it can be written casually. But if it is a business letter, you must write it in a formal style. To write an expository essay, you need not pay special attention to the beauty of language. Instead, you may try your best to describe things exactly and clearly. So we must find the purpose first. It is crucial in your English writing.5. Figures of speech in English writingHow to make your writing beautiful in language? So the author introduces some writing skills to readers. In other word, they are figures of speech in language learning which make your writing perfect.1) SimileSimile is a figure of speech in which two quite different things are compared because they appear to be similar in at least one characteristic. Similes are as a rule introduced by “like” or “as”.According to their functions, similes can be classified into three kinds, namely, the Descriptive, the Illustrative, and the Illuminative. Here are one example: Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt and can not last(Illustrative) Francis BaconI know it helped put me at ease when I felt like the new kid at school at my first economic summit in Ottawa in 1981. (Descriptive) Ronald ReaganWilly Loman is a myth. And his brother returns, as it were, almost from the dead. He is another myth. Willy can barely remember his mother. It is as though he were dropped onto the earth from an eagles wing. (Illuminative) Arthur Miller2) MetaphorMetaphor is the most important and most frequently figure in using English language. It is a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. It is the basic figure in poetry. In a metaphor a comp