A Project of Developing Pratical Writing Skill Among Senior English Majors

Abstract:Senior English majors at our university were lack of motivation in the normal classroom study after they had passed the national TEM 4 test. They felt that they were competent in their English writing ability and had little need of improvement. A project for the writing class, based on discussion with the students, was carried out with an intention of putting what they had known into real English writing practice. The result was quite encouraging for both the teacher and the students.

Key words: Senior English majors;Practical writing;Project-based language teaching

中图分类号:H319 文献标识码: A文章编号:1672-1578(2009)11-0019-02

1 Introduction

English teaching to meet students need and maintain

their interest of learning concerns many English teachers. This had taken me a considerable time to think over before I taught writing for the fourth year English majors at the department of English, Huizhou University,Guangdong, China.

The students at our niversity acted differently at different stages of learning. In the first and second year, they were very interested in everything they learnt.They would like to ask you a lot of questions about how to improve their English in and out of class. They took every opportunity to practise their English skills everywhere on the school campus. It is very nice to hear English conversations between students along the university lake, as some teachers would like to say so. However, by the fourth year, students demonstrated signs of reluctance to learn. Although they compulsively came to class every week day, often they sat in class expecting to be told rather than to learn actively through interaction between teacher and students.

2 The problem raising

I was assigned to teach writing for the fourth year English majors this semester, two periods a week.I was comparatively free to choose what I liked to teach because these students had already passed the national TEM 4 test (test for English majors, grade 4). And as a teacher for the course I had the right to decide students grade according to their performances in their classroom activities. But I confronted the following problems:

(1) Most of the students felt that they were competent in

their ability of writing in English, because they had reached the TEM 4 standards.

(2) They felt that they had little chance to use their

English writing skills after graduation.

(3)They were writing their graduation thesis, and were busy looking for necessary information.

(4)They were preparing for the educational practice, and were busy looking for organizations which might accept them.

3 The lesson in need is the lesson indeed

Accepting the task of teaching writing for these students, I organized group discussion in the first period of my class. I asked the students to discuss in group any problems and specific areas of difficulty in their writing in English, and to identify any possible area in which they might use English writing skills in the future. After discussion, I reached the following conclusions:

(1) The students are often aware of their mistakes in style and register when they use English to communicate with other people.

(2) They have strong desire to show their ability of

English in real life context.

In order to find ways of using English in real life context, we had a brainstorming session to identify English language resources away from the university. Foreign companies in Huizhou City featured our discussion, and CNOOC and Shell Petrochemical Company (CSPC) in Daya Bay was mentioned as it boasted to be the largest capital investment for a Sino- foreign joint venture ever established in China. The students had no previous experience of visiting CSPC, and were so enthusiastic to visit the company for a change of the routine classroom study. They suggested that an official letter should be sent to the CSPC office in Daya Bay, requesting that a visit to be arranged. The problem was that they were lack of the ability to write an official letter themselves.

4 Learning to write an official letter

General requirements for writing an official letter were introduced in class. The layout and format were projected on the screen for discussion. The students, a group of six, were asked to compare similarities and differences between the Chinese letter and the English one. Through heated discussion, students pointed out that the main differences are the way of writing address and the position of date. The English speaking people write address from small area to the big (from part to whole) while the Chinese is just the opposite (from whole to part).The position of date in English letter is in the upper part while it is at the end in the Chinese letter. This discussion enriched students cultural awareness of the East and the West.

Paragraph and content of the letter were then discussed within the context of a model letter.I drew students attention to the techniques of paragragh development as well as the four Cs - clear, concise, courteous and correct (Liu Lijin 1996. pp114-115) Useful phrases were studied, such as ‘I would be grateful if …, I am looking forward to hearing from you, and if any other particulars are required, I shall be pleased to give them to you…

I advised the students that ‘Dear Mr.… could be used, if the surname was known, along with the ending ‘yours sincerely. We then compared the use of ‘Dear Sir, Ms, to whom it may concern… and the appropriate ending with accepted forms.

Finally, I suggested that they use the semi-block style of layout which is similar to the style of the Chinese letter. Some students rightly pointed out that there were other forms could be used. I followed their thought and introduced the intended (or semi-block) style, full-block style and modified style, but advised them to learnt one style by heart.

In composing the letter, students worked in group of six. They presented their drafts to each other for discussion. The value of this was that the activity was student-centered which reflected the present trend of language learning and teaching. In a relaxed friendly learning environment, students enjoyed expressing their own ideas. Through discussion, there were some different points of view. This gave rise to the final version of letter being written on the blackboard, and the students and I worked together to compose it.

In a written reply, CNOOC and Shell Petrochemical Company welcame our students for a visit, and requested a date, time, and programme to be sent to their office. We then had a discussion in class and came to the following conclusions:

(1) the duration of visit should be an hour and a half.

(2) The activities should include an introductory talk, the

question and answer hour, and the visit to their cultural corridor.

In helping students write a reply, I introduced further useful phrases, such as ‘We are glad to receive your letter of…, we are writing this letter in the hope that… The students composed written replies in group and the final reply was again written on the blackboard for correction before being typed.

5 A visit to CSPC in Daya Bay

Before the visit, I contacted CSPC office to confirm the visit. I was so glad to learn that CSPC Newsletter might report our visit, and articles written by our students might also be considered for publication in the Newsletter. When I conveyed this message to my students, the whole class burst into joy.

In group, we discussed what articles could possibly be submitted to CSPC Newsletter as a result of our visit. The following were suggested:

(1) a summary of the introductory talk.

(2) a report on the question and answer hour.

(3) a report on some events concerning the company

culture.

Students took home copies of CSPC Newsletter to study the contents and styles of articles printed. This would help them to avoid that “the style of writing would certainly not my style of writing, but it is something that the governor of Shandong province is going to appreciate and understand.” (McClenahen 1996: p41)

After the visit, the students discussed how to write articles to CSPC Newsletter, one of the previously suggested topics listed above was revised:

(1) a summary of the introductory talk. unchanged.

(2) a report on the question and answer hour: unchanged

(3) a report on some events concerning the company

culture: changed to a report on CSPC English training for the local people.

The articles were written outside class hour, and then brought to class for discussion so that mistakes could be corrected. This was achieved by students regrouping and exchanging their pieces of writing. When feeling satisfactory, they handed in their articles to me.

Here are extracts from the students writing

Extract one: from a summary of the introductory talk

CONNC and Sell Petrochemicals Company (CSPC) is one of the largest Sino – foreign joint ventures in China. It is situated in Daya Bay Economic and Technical Development Zone, Huizhou City, Guangdong, about 80 km north – east of Hong Kong .The company mainly produces petrochemical products, including ethylene and propylene derivatives, of which 11 percent go overseas while 89 percent go to domestic markets, primarily to the high consumption areas of Chinas coastal economic areas.

Extract two: from a report on the question and answer hour

Student Zhang Xiao Ying: What measures has the

company taken for sustainable development?

Director Mr. Du Yu Jie: Since 2006 CSPC has taken a number of mitigation measures to minimize the environmental impact of its construction activities. These measures include: using specialized dredging methods to limit disturbance to the underwater environment;implementing strict procedures and controls on the disposal of waste; maximizing the amount of waste that is recycled. In a word, sustainable development is a core value at Shell, and CSPC represents a major commitment by Shell in Asia

Extract three: from a report on CSPC English training for the local people

Last year, fifty resettled villagers in Daya Bay attended a 100 – hour English training programme. Of which 21 found immediate employment with their English skills. CSPC also sponsored English training progromme for employees of Daya Bay Hospital, Huizhou Central Hospital and Daya Bay government.

6 Conclusion

The aims and objectives of learning and teaching should be based on an appreciations of the needs of learners and of society on the tasks, activities and processes of the learners need to carry out in order to satisfy those needs and on the competence and strategies they need to develop in order to do so ( Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment 2001). The project, inspired by CEF and the present trend of task based language teaching in the Chinese environment, was designed to meet a particular group of students need and to maintain their interest of learning while developing their writing skills. It involved several tasks at the level appropriate to the senior English majors, and were successfully accomplished through the guidance of the teacher, group work activities and co-operative learning techniques. I hope the success of the project will be meaningful for teachers who are going to practise the task based or project based approach in language learning and teaching.

References:

[1]Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning[M]. Teaching, AssessmentCambridge: University Press, 2001.

[2]Dialang Writing Advice[M]. www.dialang.org/ Council of Europe, 2001.

[3]CNOOC and Shell Petrochemical Company Limited[M].CSPC Newsletter, Issue No. 11-12,2005.

[4]John S. McClenahen. How can you possibly say that in World Executive Digest[M].pp40-41,1996.

[5]Liu Lijin (ed).Practical English Writing[M].Zhongshan University Press, 1996.

[6]Barbara Ago & Chen Lin (eds). Integrating EFL standards into Chinese classroom settings. [M].Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2007.

作者简介:唐大举,职称:副教授,研究方向:英语教学,语言测试。