“It improves our writing enthusiasm”: Exploring multimodal resources for teaching contemporary college English writing in China

Abstract

As Chinese college students work toward writing proficiency in English, a tension between direct, teacher-led instruction that focuses on proper usage conflicts with changes in literacy practices enabled by technology. As a visiting scholar to an American university, Author 1 was compelled to use strategies she saw in Author 2’s first year writing seminar. In this classroom research project, a mixed methods design is used by Author 1 to report on three changes to her teaching practices in college English courses – the use of multimedia presentation software, social network communication, and the Pigaiwang writing assistance tool. By comparing survey results, interview themes, and test scores between control and experimental sections, results demonstrate that students in the experimental group had generally more favorable ratings of the college English experience. Based on these outcomes in a limited study, implications for future changes in college English instruction in China are discussed.

Keywords

• College English
• second language learning
• interactive
• multimodal
• writing
• instruction