A Study of Optimizing Non-English Majors’ English Writing Teaching Approach Through Micro-Writing

Abstract

As an important output activity, English writing is a full show of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ English proficiency, for it is associated with vocabulary, grammar, sentences, culture and English thinking pattern. However, as for non-English majors, English writing is the part that they easily fail to gain marks, though they have been learning English for years. Four traditional writing teaching approaches which are product approach, process approach, genre approach and task-based approach don’t help students too much and students still hold negative attitudes towards their writing and have no passion for writing. Such writing problems as oversimplified vocabulary and sentences, unrelated contents, incoherent and illogical discourse and negative transfer of the mother tongue are easy to be found in students’ compositions. The more their writing problems are found, the more painful they feel when they write. As for teachers, although they spend a large amount of time teaching words and sentences and employing kinds of approaches in their teaching, the results are still rather disappointing. Therefore, this study analyzes four traditional English writing teaching approaches and proposes that micro-writing can be used to facilitate and optimize English writing learning and teaching. Different from traditional writing teaching approaches, micro-writing asks for concise and comprehensive writing. In addition, micro-writing is applicable for non- English majors’ psychological features and advocates the integration of reading and writing. Therefore, micro-writing can inspire Chinese English majors’ desire for English writing, thereby improving their writing proficiency.