Correlation Analysis on Influencing Factors of English Writing and Non-English Major Tibetan College Students’ English Writing Development

Abstract

This study aims to research on the correlations between the five aspects in English writing, viz., content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics, and the three important factors that affect students’ writing quality, viz., learners’ English proficiency, writing strategy, and feedback. The researcher compared statistically 108 non-English major Tibetan college students’ writing score in their first year of college. During this academic year, they were required to take the English writing course; the evaluating scheme of the tests and compositions stayed the same. A 118 English compositions of eight students in this year were investigated and analyzed to reveal the development of the five aspects in their writing. Five of these eight students were interviewed in the period of their writing course so that more influencing factors can be discovered. By the end of their study in the first year, questionnaires were distributed to the 108 students. The data from their questionnaire and five aspects of their writing score were analyzed statistically. The analysis of the above-mentioned data show that: (1) English writing quality of these learners improved prominently after study in college for 1 year; (2) four of the five aspects in writing—content, organization, vocabulary, and language use—have shown improvement of different levels with exceptional but explainable changes, and the interviews can explain why the improvement is not persistent, while mechanics does not have a stable pattern of development; (3) in most cases, content, organization, vocabulary, and language use can be predicted by English proficiency and writing strategy, but cannot be predicted by feedback; mechanics cannot be predicted by these three influencing factors. In the end, implications of this study and suggestions for further studies are proposed. If positive factors can be reinforced and negative ones deleted, both English writing’s learning and teaching can be more effective.