Abstract：As English major students in applied college, the practicality can be reflected on the appliance of English writing. Meanwhile，the improvement of English writing relys on the implementation of teaching of English writing. This study, based on the writing standards in College English Curriculum Requirements, which was enacted by the Ministry of Education in 2007, aims to find out the present situation, main problems and causes in English writing class among English major students in Xuzhou Institute of Technology. And it will help to improve the current situation and promote the reform of English writing teaching, so as to refine the whole quality of teaching and raise the students’ enthusiasm.
The English major students of freshmen and sophomores from Foreign Language Department in Xuzhou Institute of Technology were the main research subject, and the questionnaires were done among them. The study explored the students’ opinions and ideas toward English writing, teachers’ attitudes, teaching strategies and writing feedbacks in English writing class .
Research results show that there is a gap between the students’ real level and the demands of College English Curriculum Requirements. The main findings are as follows: (1) The English curriculum of English major in Xuzhou Institute of Technology tends to the listening, reading and speaking class, while neglecting the training of writing skills.(2) The students did not show enough enthusiasm in English writing class, and had not mastered sufficient writing skills.(3) The teaching contents were not sufficient. And, during the class, the teachers did not empathize on the writing skills and cooperative learning.(4)The teaching feedbacks were quite simple, which lead to the slow development of students’ writing ability.
Though questionnaires, the study also finds out the main causes for those problems :(1) The English writing class was not paid enough attention in the English curriculum in our college, which led to the failure of achievement of teaching objectives. (2) The teachers focused more on the results of writing, while ignoring the process of writing and training of writing skills, so that the students wrote just for the writing’s sake. (3) Due to the limited teaching time, the leading role of students in learning was ignored. What’s more, cooperative learning and communications were also neglected, which may not effective to improve students’ writing abilities. (4)The teachers’ feedback and evaluation of student writing were single, and they paid more attention to spelling problems, grammar problems than English way of thinking in writing.
At last, the thesis also gives several suggestions to promote the reform of English writing teaching in Xuzhou Institute of Technology.
Key words: English writing English teaching writing strategies
