Writing: A Valid and Expressive Form to Reflect Language Ability 第2页
Learning style
Although he admits it is possible for a few students to be fairly quick at picking up language just by looking and listening, Harmer argues that for most of the college students of a foreign language, it may take a little longer. To be more exact and to show greater elegance in communication, they have to learn how to write.
Writing as an authentic means of communication
One of the most important reasons for teaching writing, in Harmer’s opinion, is that it is an authentic means of communication. College students of a foreign language need to know how to write letters, how to put written reports together, how to reply to advertisements and, increasingly, how to write using electronic media in the foreign language that they are learning. They need to know some of writing’s special conventions (punctuation, paragraph construction, etc.) just as they need to know how to pronounce spoken English appropriately. They also need to know what is proper, effective and idiomatic writing in order to fulfil their communicative tasks.
Writing as a good source of feedback information
The research of writing test experts also helps us to understand the purpose of EFL writing from a different angle. Fred Genesee and John A. Upshur, in their book Classroom-based Evaluation in Second Language Education, and J. B. Heaton, in his book Writing English Language Tests, all mention writing as a good source of feedback information of teaching and learning results. The teacher, for example, can learn from students’ compositions how well they have been progressing with their study of the foreign tongue by assigning them writing tasks in or after class. Whether spelling, vocabulary, structure, grammar, or even phonetics (since the correct choices of a or an before a noun, and /–s/ or / -z/ suffixed to a verb depend on the knowledge of speech sound), nearly every aspect of language ability can be checked through writing. By this almost all-around feedback information from actual writing, both teachers and students of a foreign language can get to learn how well teaching and learning have been going and what can be done accordingly in future instruction.
To sum up, the purpose of teaching writing in the EFL context is not only for students to reinforce and further develop their language ability and learn how to communicate by means of writing, but also for teachers and students to use as a good source of feedback information for the improvement of teaching and learning.
3.Requirements of EFL writing for Chinese students
Just as knowing the purposes of EFL writing instruction at college is essential to the understanding of the importance of EFL writing evaluation, learning the present English writing requirements for college students in China is also critical to the improvement of writing instruction and practice.
According to College English Curriculum Requirements (For Trial Implementation), which was put into effect in Chinese colleges and universities in June 2004, the writing requirements for undergraduate college English teaching are set at three levels: basic requirements, intermediate requirements and higher requirements. All non-English majors, according to their level of English upon entering college, are required to attain to one of the three levels of requirements after studying and practicing English at school. The writing parts of the requirements are quoted as follows:
For basic requirements
Students should be able to complete writing tasks for general purposes, e.g., describing personal experiences, impressions, feelings, or events, and to undertake practical writing. They should be able to write within 30 minutes a short composition of 120 words on a general topic or an outline. The composition should be basically complete in content, appropriate in diction and coherent in discourse. Students are expected to be able to have a command of basic writing strategies.
For intermediate requirements
Students should be able to express personal views on general topics, compose English abstracts of theses in their specialization, and write short English papers on topics of their specialty. They should be able to describe charts and graphs, and to complete within 30 minutes a short composition of 160 words. The composition should be basically complete in content, appropriate in diction and coherent in discourse.
For higher requirement:
Students should be able to express their opinions freely on general topics with clear structure, rich content and good logic. They should be able to write brief reports and papers of their areas of specialty, and to write within 30 minutes expository or argumentative essays of 200 words on a given topic. The text has complete content, logical thinking, and clear expression of ideas. (College English Curriculum Requirements:26-30)
These requirements should be taken into consideration in the design of any writing instruction process.
【References】
[1] China Ministry of Education (2004). College English Curriculum Requirements. Shanghai Foreign Language education Press.
[2] Harmer, J. (2000). How to Teach English. Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
[3] Neufeld, R. (1985) .A College English Writing Course: From Essay to Research Paper and Practical Writing. Henan University Press.
[4] Yang, Huizhong & C. Weir. (1998). Validation Study of the National College English Test .Shanghai Foreign Language education Press