Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of lexical usage in college English writing based on the knowledge of six professionals who have been teaching English writing to university students in Taiwan for more than ten years. Methods of GRA (Grey Relational Analysis), S-P chart (Student-Problem Chart), and GSP (Grey S-P Chart) are used; Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was also used to examine the clarity of the data and investigate the importance of word usage in college English writing. According to the GSP chart , the importance of English lexical usages are clustered into groups. It is hoped that the information could encourage teachers to provide adaptive teaching methods and remedial instructions, and the students can get a general idea on how to master English writing. A number of significant conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of the results.

While evaluating college students’ English writing, the following factors, such as ideas and organization, style and voice, sentence varieties or rhetorical modes, will all influence their scores. According to the researchers, most Taiwanese students make mistakes on grammar and vocabulary and then comes the rhetorical errors when they write in English. These errors not only lower their scores, but also interfere teacher’s grading weight. If teachers fail to explain the scoring rubric to the students, how can they expect to see the effective writings from students. Also, students feel aimlessly because there is no clear direction for them. Besides, it will be difficult for teachers to design the curriculum and decide which factor should be emphasized more in class and writing assessment.

Therefore, the goal of the paper is to evaluate the lexical usage in English writing among college students since the majority of second language writers displayed more concern and difficulty with it . The paper will not only serve the function of informing teachers when they grade the writings, but also let students understand how to reach higher scores and make a better lexical choice in English writing. Also, the paper tends to help teachers modify the curriculum and the goal of teaching in order to reinforce the effectiveness of teaching. In particular, the paper uses GRA method, S-P chart, and GSP chart to evaluate the data and the numbers are shown clearly to the audience.

Due to the examinees of the study are experienced English teachers, the data of the evaluation are objective and seem to be a Glass-box. In peculiar, the study provides an innovative and systemic research method by using GRA, S-P chart and LGRA equations, and the study also considers the sequence, continuity, articulation and integration of the research structure to set up a vertical organization. Through this method, the results are presented clearly, and they are shown in GSP figure which can be the reference factor for teachers to design the curriculum and grade the English writing more effectively.

The contributions of the paper can be concluded as follows:
1.According to the GSP chart, teachers can improve their teaching methods and decide which lexical factors should be included in the curriculum.
2.Students can benefit from the ordinal lexical rubric and modify their writing skills for getting higher scores. They can also realize what the teachers expect to see in their vocabulary usage and try to meet the requirement.

Keywords:

College English writing, GRA, S-P chart, GSP chart, AHP.