scholarly journals Exploring the Effects of the Continuation Task on Syntactic Complexity in Second Language Writing

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Zhicheng Mao ◽  
Lin Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Computational Tool ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Written Production ◽  
Writing Group ◽  
Language Writing

This paper aims to investigate the effects of the alignment entailed in the continuation task on syntactic complexity in L2 written production. A total number of 48 sophomores majoring in English at a university in China were randomly assigned to two groups, one is the continuation group and the other is the topic writing group. The current study employs an advanced computational tool ‘the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyser’ to assess syntactic complexity in writing samples and focused on 7 indexes including three measures of length of production, two coordinate phrase measures, and two complex nominal measures. The result shows that significant differences exist in six of the syntactic complexity measures with the continuation group outperforming the topic writing group. It is demonstrated that the continuation task, which couples production with comprehension and entails the alignment effect, has a facilitating impact on improving the writing syntactic complexity for L2 learners. The implications of these findings for second language acquisition and L2 writing pedagogy are considered.

scholarly journals Syntactical Development on Second Language Writing: A Case of L2 Child Learner on Immersion Experience Abroad

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 245
Author(s):  
Hanna Sundari ◽  
Rina Husnaini Febriyanti
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
School Year ◽  
Immersion Experience ◽  
L2 Speaking ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
One Year

Development of child language is tremendously complex, remarkable and wondrous. In a second language acquisition context, a child can acquire his second language in either acquiring both languages at the same time or learning the second language after mastering the first one. This present research is concerned to describe the syntactical development particularly for second language writing of an eight-year old child who has experienced immersion abroad for one year in L2-speaking country. The participant is an eight-year old child from Jakarta Indonesia who has experienced immersion environment in Australia for one year. The research will be carried out qualitative naturalistic research design. Not less than 38 documents of participant’s paperwork during her school year were then collected, grouped and analysed. From the findings, it is known that morphological processes on L2 such as affixes and verb changes have emerged. Meanwhile, the findings also show the development on morphemic, phrasal and sentential level on acquiring L2. Some morphemes have been acquired such as the suffix, the changing of verb, the -ing form. Moreover, post-noun prepositional phrases are the most emerged phrases. On sentential level, active declarative sentences are the most frequently appeared. However, some errors and inconsistency also occur indicating the development of her second language.

The effect of topic familiarity on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of second language writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiwei Yang ◽  
YouJin Kim
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Topic Familiarity ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Lexical Complexity ◽  
Efl College Students

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.

Contextualizing corrective feedback in second language writing pedagogy

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman W. Evans ◽  
K. James Hartshorn ◽  
Robb M. McCollum ◽  
Mark Wolfersberger
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
Language Writing

scholarly journals The locus of written corrective feedback in various SLA theories

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-139
Author(s):  
Ehsan Abbaspour
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Oral Feedback ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Shed Light

Whether corrective feedback is effective in L2 writing has always been a controversial issue among Second Language Acquisition (SLA) scholars despite a vast body of research investigating the issue. This conflict is rooted in the fact that different researchers subscribe to different theories of SLA which are at times contradictory in nature. The present article reviews and investigates major SLA theories with respect to their views and stance toward the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) and error correction in second language writing. Many of these theories do not address the role of corrective feedback explicitly or merely focus on the role of oral feedback. Polio (2012) and Bitchener and Ferris (2012) have partially investigated the issue at stake reviewing a number of SLA theories. In this study, however, attempt is made to shed light on the role of WCF especially in the theories which are not directly concerned with L2 writing.

Automatic analysis of syntactic complexity in second language writing

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 474-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Lu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Automatic Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
College Level ◽  
Second Language Development ◽  
Language Writing

We describe a computational system for automatic analysis of syntactic complexity in second language writing using fourteen different measures that have been explored or proposed in studies of second language development. The system takes a written language sample as input and produces fourteen indices of syntactic complexity of the sample based on these measures. The system is designed with advanced second language proficiency research in mind, and is therefore developed and evaluated using college-level second language writing data from the Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners (Wen et al. 2005). Experimental results show that the system achieves very high reliability on unseen test data from the corpus. We illustrate how the system is used in an example application to investigate whether and to what extent each of these measures significantly differentiate between different proficiency levels

REPLICATION AND REPORTING

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlene Polio ◽  
Susan Gass
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Replication Studies ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Language Writing

In this paper we address the need for replication studies in the field of second language acquisition and discuss the problems surrounding standards of reporting research. A particular focus is on the level of detail necessary for replication to take place. The lack of uniform standards is noted with specific examples of problematic reporting taken from descriptions of second language learners' proficiency levels and measures of linguistic accuracy in second language writing research. We propose ways that we believe will lead to more thorough reporting of research and that will therefore allow others to engage in replication.

scholarly journals Future directions in feedback on second language writing: Overview and research agenda

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Hyland
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Research On Research ◽  
Effective Feedback ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Language Writing

This article provides an overview of the contributions made to this special issue on feedback by the seven papers, examining how they reflect both the growing interest in different areas of research into feedback on writing and the continuing search by teachers for more effective feedback practices. Focusing first on the papers by Van Beuningen, Storch, Evans, Hartshorn and Allen, it discusses how these papers situate written corrective feedback research in the wider area of second language acquisition research and contribute to the debate in feedback research on research design issues. This is followed by an examination of the major findings of the four situated empirical studies by Bitchener, Ma, El-ebyary and Windeatt, and Martinez and Roca, which make up the second section. Echoing the authors of these papers, this article argues that we need more longitudinal naturalistic studies, adopting both cognitive and socio-cultural SLA frameworks to investigate the role of feedback and its impact on individual learners in more depth. Finally some pedagogic implications are discussed, including the need for feedback practices which facilitate students’ abilities to self regulate and evaluate their performance, and the need to raise teachers’ awareness of the different feedback sources and modes of delivery available to them.

The development of formulaic sequences in first and second language writing

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Brook O'Donnell ◽  
Ute Römer ◽  
Nick C. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Formulaic Sequences ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Corpus Design ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
N Gram ◽  
Design And Methods

Formulaic sequences are recognised as having important roles in language acquisition, processing, fluency, idiomaticity, and instruction. But there is little agreement over their definition and measurement, or on methods of corpus comparison. We argue that replicable research must be grounded upon operational definitions in statistical terms. We adopt an experimental design and apply four different corpus-analytic measures, variously based upon n-gram frequency (Frequency-grams), association (MI-grams), phrase-frames (P-frames), and native norm (items in the Academic Formulas List – AFL-grams), to samples of first and second language writing in order to examine and compare knowledge of formulas in first and second language acquisition as a function of proficiency and language background. We find that these different operationalizations produce different patterns of effect of expertise and L1/L2 status. We consider the implications for corpus design and methods of analysis.

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