An Action Research on Improving Non-English Majors’ English Writing by Basic Sentence Pattern Translation Drills

English writing plays an indispensible part in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning for Chinese students, which accounts for a high score in an English test in China. And it is also a comprehensive reflection of students’ abilities in L2 application. However, most non-English majors in vocational and technical colleges have great trouble in English writing and writing incorrect and inappropriate sentences ranks number one among all the English writing problems. English writing teaching is always a weak part in English teaching. The researcher conducted an eleven-week action research on basic sentence pattern translation drills among 50 non-English majors from 4 classes who didn’t pass CET-3 in a Vocational and Technical College. Before the action research, students’ writing problems were identified via questionnaire, sentence test and writing pretest. Then an eleven-week action plan was carried out and one adjustment was made to the plan in the light of results of interviews. Writing posttest was taken and another interview was made afterwards. It was found from data collection and analysis as well as analysis of students’ writing samples that students could write correct sentences in English and their English writing scores and abilities improved a lot after the action research.