Abstract（摘要）: The technique of self-monitoring is an effective approach which gives students control over the feedback they receive and enables teachers to provide effective feedback. The advantages of self-monitoring and its suitability in teaching writing in China will be analyzed in details.
Key Words (关键词): self-monitoring; advantages; challenges
Self-monitoring is the technique by which students annotate their compositions with any uncertainty they have during the writing process to help teachers give feedbacks not only on the finished draft but also on the queries which emerge during the writing process (Charles, 1990, p. 286).
Advantages of Self-monitoring in Writing
There are three advantages of self-monitoring. The first advantage is that self-monitoring makes it easy for students to express doubts about any part of their composition (Charles, 1990, p. 292). Second, teachers’ feedback can target at students’ writing developmental stage since students can receive answers to their queries directly from their teachers (Cresswell, 2000, p. 236). The third advantage is that students are encouraged to “look critically and analytically at their writing and to place themselves in the position of readers.” (Charles, 1990, p. 292)
Suitability of Self-monitoring in Teaching English Writing in China
Advantages of Self-monitoring in Chinese University Teaching Context
Self-monitoring can be integrated into the real context of teaching writing in China. On one hand, students can develop responsibility and their autonomy in the learning of writing can be also increased (Cresswell, 2000, p. 235). This is exactly what most Chinese students lack as they are learning in a culture where teachers are highly directive and respected as authoritarian (Wang, 2006, pp. 5-6). On the other hand, writing is a complicated recursive process rather than a linear one during which writers are supposed to go back and forth when they compose (Flower & Hayes, 1981, pp. 366-368). Thus self-monitoring also gives students opportunities to reflect the problems they have in the writing process instead of just writing from the beginning to the end. So it facilitates teachers to identify difficulties students meet in their writing and help them shorten the time of giving students feedback. This is quite applicable to large English classes in Chinese university context.
Challenges of Using Self-monitoring in Chinese University Teaching Context
However many challenges may be faced in the process of using self-monitoring in teaching writing in China. First of all, in the Chinese context, the product approach has been dominant in university writing classes for many years, which focuses on the learner’s final piece of work instead of how it is produced (Zhang, 2006, pp. 24-28). Teachers are accustomed to assigning papers, grading them, and then giving them back. What they attend to is the product-its clarity, originality and correctness rather than the writing process (Ge, 2005, p. 111). It is difficult for teachers to change the habitual focus, let alone students themselves. On the contrary, self-monitoring attends to the process of writing, which contradicts the product approach normally used in most Chinese university classrooms. As a result, it is difficult to put self-monitoring into practice. Moreover, students need to be trained on how to write annotation in their composition writing, but for Chinese university students, most of them are not good at English writing and may regard self-monitoring as burden in the process of writing. Negative emotion might emerge and discourage students from improving their writing competence.
Another challenge is due to the desire for high College English Test(CET) pass rates among universities students. Under such pressure, as Ge (2005, p. 111) points out that English teachers have to select a framework of useful structure and expressions and teach students just to fit suitable words into this framework of writing so as to meet the need of the test, in which students are required to write a three-paragraph essay based on three topic sentences written in Chinese. The controlled writing format in CET hinders teachers in trying new approaches to teaching writing and this exam-oriented teaching style focuses on teaching correct language forms and test-oriented skills instead of helping students develop creative thinking and communicative language skills. Teacher focuses more on the final product in terms of grammar and vocabulary instead of writing process exploration.
Conclusion
Self-monitoring is an effective way in both teaching and learning of English writing. However, limited to a non-English speaking and exam-oriented educational environment plus special characteristics of the university students in China, the practical effectiveness of self-monitoring is still doubtable to the majority of Chinese students unless the traditional approach to teaching writing has been replaced by a new one which focus on how to write a good composition (process) rather than the composition itself (product).
References
Charles, M. (1990). ‘Responding to problems in written English using a student self-monitoring technique’. ELT Journal, 44(4), 286-293.
Cresswell, A. (2000). Self-monitoring in student writing: developing learner responsibility. ELT Journal, 54(3), 235-244.
Wang, T. (2006). Understanding Chinese culture and learning. Retrieved April 24,2009,from http://www.cnkikbs.com
Flower, L. & Hayes, J. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32, 365-387.
Zhang, Y. (2006). A study of college students’ response to writing conferences. Teaching English in China, 29(3), 24-28.
Ge, G. (2005). A strategic approach to teaching English writing. CELEA Journal, 28(6), 110-116. |
