Good Text in, Good Text out: The Impact of Extensive Reading on Lexical Complexity in Second Language Writing

AbstractThe purpose of the current study is to examine the role of topic familiarity in the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of second language (L2) writing. Topic familiarity was operationalized as whether writers are writing about a common, everyday subject matter in relation to themselves (+ familiar) or to a group they are not familiar with (–familiar), and a learner survey was used to test the validity of the construct. A total of 123 Chinese EFL college students participated in the study, with 61 writing on a familiar topic and 62 writing on a less familiar topic. Their writing performance was analyzed for lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Data analyses revealed that the students produced essays with significantly lower lexical complexity for the less familiar topic than for the familiar topic, while the performance areas of accuracy, fluency, and syntactic complexity were not affected by the degree of familiarity. The study findings are discussed in terms of their implications for task selection and sequencing for L2 teaching and assessment purposes.

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The Effects of Pre-Task Planning on Second Language Writing: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies

Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1515/cjal-2021-0009 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 131-165

Author(s):

Rod Ellis

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Writing ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Future Research ◽

Task Planning ◽

Writing Quality ◽

Moderating Variables ◽

Online Planning ◽

Language Writing ◽

The Impact

Abstract There are both pedagogical and theoretical grounds for asking second language writers to plan before they start writing. The question then arises whether pre-task planning (PTP) improves written output. To address this question, this article reviewed 32 studies by comparing the effect of PTP either with no planning or with unpressured online planning (OLP). These studies also investigated the moderating effect of variables relating to the writer participants, the nature of the planning, and the writing tasks. The main findings are: (1) There is no clear evidence that PTP leads to better overall writing quality when this is measured using rating rubrics, (2) PTP generally results in more fluent writing, (3) its impact on syntactical and lexical complexity is inconsistent and negligible, (4) OLP does sometimes result in increased linguistic accuracy, and (5) there is insufficient evidence to reach clear conclusions about the role that moderating variables have on the impact of PTP, but the results suggest that collaborative (as opposed to individual planning) can lead to increased accuracy and that PTP tends to lead to more complex language when the writing task is a complex one. The article concludes with a set of principles to ensure better quality research and three general proposals for the kind of future research needed.

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The Impact of Out-of-class Friends’ Interaction on Second Language Writing

Theory and Practice in Language Studies ◽

10.17507/tpls.0610.02 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (10) ◽

pp. 1905

Author(s):

Zainab M. Jabur

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

Second Language Writing ◽

Academic Skills ◽

Conversational Interaction ◽

Written Text ◽

Language Writing ◽

The Impact

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of friends’ interaction outside the classroom on the development and production of writing in English as a second language inside the classroom. The paper examines second language writing from the perspective of second language learning in the field of education. The terms: friends, friendship, interaction, and conversational interaction are explored as they mean in the context of this study. Then an experimental study is performed to examine the feedback the students obtain from the interaction with their friends within the same field of study and the impact of this interaction on developing the students’ writing and revision. The paper discusses how the interaction has or has not changed the writer of the paper’s view of the topic. The result of the study shows that friends’ feedback outside of the classroom plays a very important role in enhancing and developing second language writing. The group interaction helped in improving the writer’s ideas, knowledge, linguistic and academic skills which all lead to producing a better written text.

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The impact of the computer in second language writing

Exploring the Dynamics of Second Language Writing ◽

10.1017/cbo9781139524810.019 ◽

2003 ◽

pp. 287-310 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Martha C. Pennington

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Writing ◽

Language Writing ◽

The Impact

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Measuring the impact of rater negotiation in writing performance assessment

Language Testing ◽

10.1177/0265532215594830 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 3-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jonathan Trace ◽

Gerriet Janssen ◽

Valerie Meier

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Writing Assessment ◽

Second Language Writing ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Assessment Validation ◽

Language Writing ◽

Rater Severity ◽

Nuanced Understanding ◽

Placement Exam ◽

The Impact

Previous research in second language writing has shown that when scoring performance assessments even trained raters can exhibit significant differences in severity. When raters disagree, using discussion to try to reach a consensus is one popular form of score resolution, particularly in contexts with limited resources, as it does not require adjudication by at third rater. However, from an assessment validation standpoint, questions remain about the impact of negotiation on the scoring inference of a validation argument (Kane, 2006, 2012). Thus, this mixed-methods study evaluates the impact of score negotiation on scoring consistency in second language writing assessment, as well as negotiation’s potential contributions to raters’ understanding of test constructs and the local curriculum. Many-faceted Rasch measurement (MFRM) was used to analyze scores ( n = 524) from the writing section an EAP placement exam and to quantify how negotiation affected rater severity, self-consistency, and bias toward individual categories and test takers. Semi-structured interviews with raters ( n = 3) documented their perspectives about how negotiation affects scoring and teaching. In this study, negotiation did not change rater severity, though it greatly reduced measures of rater bias. Furthermore, rater comments indicated that negotiation supports a nuanced understanding of the rubric categories and increases positive washback on teaching practices.

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