型学术英语写作课堂对英语专业本科生学术能力的影响

【Abstract】Advanced English Writing （AEW） class is a major English course. But in the training of advanced English intellects,most of the Chinese educational institutes lay less emphasis on cultivation of students’ academic research ability. As a result,a new and feasible teaching method―research-based model was introduced. This study focused on the investigation of the impacts of the research-based approach applied in academic English writing curriculum on the academic research ability of English undergraduates.

【Key Words】Impact； Research-Based AEW Class；Academic Research Ability

【摘 要 】高级英语写作课是一门非常重要的英语专业主干课,但当下在英语专业高级人才培养过程中,多数中国学校忽略了对学生学术研究能力的培养.这就要求引入一种新型的教学方法-- 研究型教学法.本研究旨在调查学术英语写作课中应用研究型教学方法对英语专业本科生学术研究能力的影响.

【关 键 词 】影响 研究型学术英语写作课堂 学术研究能力

I. Introduction

AEW （Academic English Writing） class is a crucial approach in cultivating students’ logical and creative thinking,especially in pleting graduation thesis. But nowadays researches he been done to investigate the problems existing in AEW class in China. The lack of research capacity prevents English majors from keeping up with the requirement for high-quality talents in the advancement of the society （Wen 38）. As can be indicated,the training of students’ research ability is necessary in universities. Researched-based teaching in AEW class changes the traditional English teaching model and establish a “learning-based,teach-led” （Sun 13）. Between the February to September in 2014,the research-based approach was applied in the AEW class in School of English Studies,Dalian University of Foreign Languages. This study was conducted to investigate the impacts of the research-based AEW class’s impact on the research petence of English majors in Dalian University of Foreign Languages.

In terms of the concept of academic ability,researchers abroad he not reached consensuses on its definition. Tikunoff （Richards & Nunan 2000） supposed the academic ability is the ability to acquire new skills,assimilate new information and to construct new concepts. For most Chinese researchers,the academic ability was blended with the research ability. Specifically,it includes the ability to raise questiones,collect and gather information,create academic thesis and design the study process. Based on the characteristics of English subject and the cognitive affection of graduate students in English major,Wang Xuemei （2013） considers the academic ability for English major students consist of language ability,knowledge ability and research ability,among which,the academic research ability is divided into two parts―general research ability and innovative research ability. Ⅱ.Research Methodology and results

This research employed a bination of qualitative and quantitative research method. Questionnaires with both closed-ended and open-ended questions and thesis analysis were adopted in bination in this study.

According to the results,the research-based AEW class contributed much to students’ academic research ability. Under the research-based approach,students in the AEW class were encouraged to work on their own and e up with topics that they were interested in,after which the professor ge feedbacks and suggestions to help students with feasible and innovative research topics. Consequently,when asked about their opinions on the statement that “the research-based AEW class helped to improve the capability of finding and raising questions”,students who agreed occupied 70%. Meanwhile statistics showed that 62% of the students considered research-based study as of great help to broaden their minds,train them to think divergently and stimulate creativity. What’s more,students’ thinking ability was trained in research-based AEW class. There were altogether 70% of the informants who were satiied with the impact of research-based AEW class as it improved their ability of analytical thinking so that they could e up with insightful opinions and suggestions. In addition,through the analysis towards the graduation thesis,it can be found that students who were conducted by the research-based AEW class had more creative selections on the thesis topic. Students were closely related to the research frontier and more inclined to further their research in interdisciplinary fields. Besides,seeing from students’ responses,the research-based approach serves as a feasible teaching method to equip students with methodology to search for literature,carry out research,and solve problems in thesis writing. 85% of the students were capable of obtaining useful literature through Inter and in the library. Students’ ability of reading and prehending academic literature was improved in the project study. 75% of the students approved that they he deepened their understanding of both Chinese and English literature,academic journals and monographs. In addition,90% of the students aggreed that the research-based AEW class played an important role in promoting my ability of collecting data and they were able to collect useful data by collecting corpus,employing questionnaires and carrying out interviews. This can be also reflected in the thesis analysis. The authority and effectiveness of the work cited enhanced much pared to the thesis without guidelines in the AEW class and the research methodology was more logical through the AEW class. Ⅲ. Conclusion

Even though the research-based AEW class is newly adopted,it displayed its strengths and achievements in improving English undergraduates’ academic research ability and preparing them for future academic research. In a nutshell,the research-based AEW class provides a fresh angle to conduct English teaching and cultivate academic research ability of the English majors. Although not widely adopted,it still has some references meanings.

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