The Strategies of Improving the Teaching Efficiency in English Writing

【Abstract】English writing ability is an important yardstick to measure the learning proficiency of English learners. However， unclear central idea and incoherent structure are still the main problems of English learners writing. This paper will demonstrate the importance of thematic meaning， discourse structure and context in English writing and tries to put forward some strategies of improving teaching efficiencies of English writing.

【Key words】English writing; consistency; strategy

【作者簡介】齊舒揚，魯東大學外國語學院，研究方向：學科教學英語。

1. Introduction

In recent years， as an important language skill， writing in English teaching has attracted much attention from experts and teachers. However， the writing ability of students has not been improved as expected. The most knotty problem is the structure of their article is loose and the meaning they want to express is incoherent. Therefore， it is very meaning to help students realize the consistency of themantic meaning with structure and context in English writing.

2. The Importance of three elements in English Writing

The influence of thematic meaning on English writing is mainly reflected in two aspects： on the one hand， the thematic meaning determines the arrangement of sentences because it determines the division of old and new information; on the other hand， the thematic meaning has influence on the coherence and consistency of the passage. And the discourse structure is composed of macro-structure and micro-structure. The macrostructure refers to the overall framework of a text， while the microstructure is characterized by grammar， vocabulary and cohesion between sentences. In writing， the role of cultural context is mainly reflected in that the author should give full consideration to the history and culture background. Linguistic context， in particular， requires the selected words must match the language environment of the sentence. Therefore， in order to compose a passage with high quality， English learners should put cultural context and linguistic context into consideration. From the above discussion， a conclusion can be drawn that thematic meaning， structure and context all contribute to the smooth sentences， strong coherence， and clear organization of the passage; accordingly， only by achieving the consistency of these three elements， can a beautiful passage be composed.

3. The Strategies of Improving Teaching Efficiencies of English Writing （4H）

3.1 Help students form correct thinking mode of English language

The mode of thinking plays an important role in the cohesion and structure of a passage. Parataxis is the most distinguished feature of Chinese language; however， English language lays much stress on hypotaxis. Therefore， teachers should consciously cultivate students thinking awareness of hypotaxis and eliminate the negative influence of Chinese thinking mode on English writing. Summarizing the outline of our text is a good method to help students form correct thinking mode.

3.2 Help students be familiar with different genres

Literary works are the use of language for real communicative purposes in real social contexts. Through acquiring the stylistic features and structures of passages in different genres， students can summarize the structural rules and realize the leap from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge.

3.3 Help students master a certain amount of transitional devices

English teachers should not only teach students the theory of cohesion and coherence but also instill a large number of transitional devices into them. By analyzing the text， students can understand how the author achieves semantic coherence through effective cohesive devices so that they can have a preliminary understanding of the text. After that， students can strengthen their grasp of the overall framework of the article through paragraph ordering and retelling.

3.4 Help students build up their interest of writing

Students interest and familiarity with the topic will directly influence that quality of their compositions. The more familiar and interested students are with the topic， the more fluent their composition will be. In order to improve the interest of students writing， the topic， selected by English teachers， should be close to the students life.

In one word， teachers should guide students not only pay attention to the word selection but also the cohesion between different paragraphs， the framework and central idea of the whole passage so that they can write a beautiful composition.