Current Situation and Need for Improving English Writing of Art College Students

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Art students are a special group of college students.Because of the particularity of their major and many social activities，art college students should deal with the contradiction between learning and social contacts.Otherwise it will cause a lot of stress，which eventually lead to negative psychological effects and influence their common cognition lesson.Art students have a unique personality characteristics and professional learning characteristics，such as “appreciation of aesthetic beauty”，“high awareness of their environment”，“originality” （to make what has never been made before； to say something differently； to shed light on an unseen angle.），“need for space and freedom”，“lively”，“full of passion”，“imagination” and so on.They have a unique characteristic of thinking，the pursuit of personality development.Most of them are in love with their major so they are willing to spend most of the time and effort on studying their major.This is one reason for their weak foundation for common cognition lesson，especially weak for English study.According to the score statistics of their 2010 college entrance examination，the scores of environment art design students，who are taught by the author，mostly range from 30 to 75.The highest score is 90 and the lowest is 20.The average scores of their English examination is 52 and the passing rate is just 1.8%.So from the above statistics，we can see art college students English foundation is generally poor.In the following，I will investigate the current situation of college English writing and provide some pedagogical implication in improving students' writing ability.

1.Current Situation of English Writing of Art Students

College students at present are facing a large amount of problems in English writing，especially for the art college students who have a weak English foundation.Thus after graduation and going to work，this phenomenon leads to the difficulties that students are unable to meet the English writing requirement of the post.Now lets see the current situation of the English writing skills of art college students and the main problems with them.

1.1 For a long time，students lack interest in their English writing and some even fear.So their writing ability and writing achievements are always in a state of stagnation or wandering.

1.2 There are problems in transformation of thinking pattern.Due to the inertia of thinking by the impact of Chinese way of thinking，Chinese college students are easily to tap on the content write in a Chinese thinking pattern.

1.3 There are problems with students in lacking of vocabulary.According to the requirement College English Teaching Syllabus （revised edition），after participating the College English Test，their vocabulary must be around 3000--3500.Among these words，the active vocabulary of college students should be above 2，300.However，a considerable number of students cannot meet this requirement.When college students are writing，this limitation of vocabulary often leads to simple description and lack of novelty in their English composition.

1.4 The compositions students written are not coherent enough in discourse.As an excellent English composition，its structure should be very strict.The details should be discussed around the topic sentence of the composition.The topic sentence also should closely around the central idea.And the main idea can not deviate from the title of the article.However，many college students often do not know how to use a topic sentence in English composition； or not have a strong logical thinking ability and have difficulty in forming a complete，consistent and high qualified article.

Errors in English writing are inevitable.In the following according to the steps and the theory of error analysis，from the errors committed by art college students the author will sort them out.And after the close analysis，the author will identify the sources of these errors.

2.Problems of English Writing Teaching of Art Students

According to College English Course Requirements，the objective of college English teaching is to help cultivate students comprehensive ability of using the language，especially the ability of listening and speaking，in order to help them improve oral and written communication in their future work and social interaction.However，although foreign language teaching has gained wide concerns in universities and colleges in China and various teaching approaches have been introduced，the present situation is not quite satisfactory.There are some problems in the present situation of English teaching and learning.What are the difficulties and barriers of English writing at present？

First，reading is emphasized too much in English teaching，while writing is always neglected.We can see the tendency from the proportion of scores in CET 4：writing part covers the least （except the integrated part）：20%； listening part：35%； reading comprehension：35%； integrated part：10%.As a result，the development of writing is always ignored by the English teachers.Many students are good at reading and listening，but they are afraid of writing a complete composition.So the English teachers must pay more attention to students writing practice.It is the key way to improve their writing and strengthen the writing teaching methods.

Second，teachers don't pay enough attention to developing students' integrated English proficiency.In traditional college English classes，teachers spend most of class time in analyzing texts by teaching new words，explaining difficult grammatical items and asking comprehension questions，so chances for students to practice their spoken and written English are very limited.As a result，though they have solid grammar knowledge，they cannot understand foreigners or express themselves freely in written or oral form.

Third，the tendency of examination-oriented teaching still exists.Many employers still regard the CET 4 （College English Test Band 4）and CET 6 grades as major standards to evaluate candidates' English proficiency.As a result，many students have to focus on memorizing some grammar and language points from their textbooks and developing necessary examination skills such as how to do one single test，closing or reading comprehension rather than tell them how to write a well-organized composition and develop their communicative skills.Until the students enter the society，when they need to write something，they always cannot express themselves freely and correctly according to what they learnt in class.

Fourth，excellent English atmosphere is still lacking in art colleges.Although we have joined the WTO，the international exchange organization also continued to increase in the open policy which will also have further in-depth studies and business and foreigners who come to China will significantly increase.But most of the students mainly learn English in the classroom.After class many will study in their dormitory.Therefore，there is a lack of initiative and good English atmosphere for training English writing.

At last，some students pay a lot in writing，but always with little success.Teachers often complain that students ' writing will always be committed one way or another error.They correct many students compositions and errors are also singled out a pile.Then teachers will let students revise by themselves.Unfortunately these errors will be found again in later compositions.A similar error might recur and some errors are often repeated.As the in-depth study of language，new errors are also increasing.Both students and teachers are extremely frustrated.

In order to help students overcome these obstacles and improve their English integrated competence，especially English writing competence，it is very challenging for teachers to think about how to improve students' learning efficiency.Anyhow，we are glad to see that recently many colleges and universities are taking measures to reform college English teaching modes and methods to make them more rational and practical in language teaching.

3.Need for Improving English Writing of Art Students

The sole purpose of learning a language is to express ideas，exchange of feelings，and improve language expression ability.Writing belongs to written communication and integrated output of language，and it is an important part in the teaching of English as a foreign language.Language knowledge such as vocabulary，grammar，sentence patterns and the like can be naturally reviewed and consolidated in the writing process.It is a process of using language comprehensively to rise from apprehension to flexible mastering.However，writing is not only an exercise tool，but also a goal of English learning，and it is the final goal of English learning.The goal of learning English is to：master the basic expression modes of describing the time，place，and orientation in the aspect of writing as for college students； master the basic expression mode of comparing people，objects and events； and the students can conduct simple work expression effectively according to specific purpose.Through the above study，the following objectives can be ultimately achieved：to help students lay a solid language foundation，master good language learning method，enhance self-learning ability and improve their overall cultural literacy.At last they will have strong ability to use English.University curriculum standards emphasize on improving the ability of students to use English in obtaining information，processing information，analyzing problem and solving problem.Its based on further developing the comprehensive language utilization ability of students according to the characteristics of the students' cognitive ability and academic development needs.Writing can comprehensively reflect a students' English proficiency.

In a word English writing，as an important part of students' language skills，one way to express themselves and disseminate knowledge and information，is essential and important to modern college students in the era when English is increasingly and widely used.Thereby the improvement of English writing ability of current students is imperative.