A Study of the Teaching of ESL Writing in Colleges in China

In China, ESL teaching constitutes an important part of higher education and ESL writing is a required skill for non-English majors in colleges and universities. However, the teaching of college English writing is unsatisfactory and problematic. The author did a survey on the teaching of ESL writing in five universities in China by using the methods of questionnaire, interview and sample collection. The results of the survey indicate that the students' deficiency in English writing is due to personal and instructional reasons, such as ineffective teaching, students' lack of interest in writing, students' poor linguistic competence, students' lack of the cultural knowledge of the target language and so on. In the teaching of college English Writing, the teacher should boost students' motivation, integrate reading with writing, and provide effective feedback to the students.