Effects of Content-Based Communicative Language Teaching in University English Writing Classes

Based on the textbook of Contemporary College English First-Year Writing (Volume Two), content-based communicative language teaching has been fully practiced in the English majors' writing classes. Through a comparative analysis of narrative essays written by students from two parallel classes at the beginning and end of the first semester of their sophomore year, this research has found significant effects of content-based communicative language teaching on students' writing proficiency. Even though the essays were of the same genre, similar topics and styles, those finished at the end of the semester showed reduced writing anxiety, broadened thinking, more profound emotion and increased logic. However, no prominent change in students' grammatical proficiency has been observed. Thus, it is proposed that in the future English writing classes, teachers can combine content-based communicative language teaching with traditional grammar teaching, which will complement with each other and produce more positive influence on students' writing proficiency.