Second Language Writing

Argumentation across L1 and L2 Writing: Exploring Cultural Influences and Transfer issues

by Hacer Hande Uysal

Published in Vial Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics (2012)

Meeting in the writing center: The field of ESL

by Lynne Ronesi

Intertextuality as Resource for Building ELLs Generic Competence: A Systemic Functional View

by Joshua Schulze

Superdiverse repertoires and the individual

by Jan Blommaert

Qualitative studies in contrastive rhetoric: An analysis of composition research

by Jonathan Benda

An Interlanguage Perspective on Genre

by Avary Carhill-Poza

Score Generalizability in Writing Assessment: The Interface Between Applied Linguistics and Psychometrics Research

by Atta Gebril

Bringing reading-to-write and writing-only assessment tasks together: A generalizability analysis

by Atta Gebril

Assessing Writing Journal, 15, 100-117.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2010.05.002.

A close investigation into source use in integrated second language writing tasks

by Atta Gebril

Assessing Writing Journal, 17(1), 18-34.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2011.09.002

Investigating source use, discourse features, and process in integrated writing tests

by Atta Gebril

Co-authored with Lia Plakans as part of a Spaan Fellwoship in Second / Foreign Language Assessment from the University of Michigan.

Towards a transparent construct of reading-to-write assessment tasks: The interface between discourse features and proficiency.

by Atta Gebril

Gebril A. & Plakans, L. (Forthcoming). Towards a transparent construct of reading-to-write assessment tasks: The interface between discourse features and proficiency. Language Assessment Quarterly. A Special Issue on the Use of Integrated Writing Tasks in Language Assessment.

Reading-to-Write Assessment Tasks: Fundamental Issues in Reliability, Validity, and Task Development

by Atta Gebril

In Arshad Samad & Sharifah Rahman, Readings in Professional Development in Teaching English as a Second Language, pp 89-106.  Selangor, Malaysia: Universiti Putra  Malaysia Press.

More heat than light:controversies in second language writing

by Michael Stout

Published in the Bulletin of Toyo Gakuen University

This paper examines four areas of controversy in second language writing: contrastive rhetoric, ideology and politics,... more This paper examines four areas of controversy in second language writing: contrastive rhetoric, ideology and politics, personal versus academic writing, and assessment. It questions the value of the resulting debate for second language writing instructors and in the end concludes that these controversies are of little practical value.

Comparability of Holistic/Analytic Intra-Reliability in Student/Teacher Assessment of Writing

by Masood Siyyari

Published in Language Testing in Asia: Volume 2, Issue 1, February 2012

Original paper presented at TELLSI 9 annual conference, held at Ilam University, Iran, October 2011

Abstract
Despite the many pedagogical benefits of self-/peer-assessment, they are not often practiced in the... more Abstract
Despite the many pedagogical benefits of self-/peer-assessment, they are not often practiced in the classroom, due to the fact that most teachers doubt learners’ ability to do self-/peer-assessment accurately. Although several factors have been identified to affect self-/peer-assessment accuracy, the literature shows the rating accuracy of learners can improve if enough training is provided. Given the abovementioned supporting literature, it was hypothesized that learners, if provided with training and practice, may also have the potential to show behavior similar to that of expert-raters in terms of holistic and analytic intra-reliability. To test this hypothesis, having been trained to do self-/peer-assessment according to their group assignment, 136 English-major students conducted self-/peer-assessment of writing performance both holistically and analytically across 11 sessions. After correlating the students and raters’ holistic and analytic scores and examining the variations among the correlations, it was found that students have indeed got the potential to show rating behaviors similar to those of expert raters and at times even show higher correlations. This paper closes with some implications these findings can have for theory and practice, and some new lines of research are recommended in the area investigated in this study.

Keywords: analytic scoring, holistic scoring, peer-assessment, self-assessment, teacher assessment, writing skill

Examining L1 and L2 Use in Idea Generation for Japanese ESL Writers

by Joshua Paiz

Master's Thesis

This thesis examines the effects of the language used in an idea generation task on the quantity and potential quality... more This thesis examines the effects of the language used in an idea generation task on the quantity and potential quality of ideas developed during a timed idea generation task; quality here being how developed the ideas are. This was done by having two Japanese ESL students of differing proficiency levels engage in three rounds idea generation tasks using their native language (Japanese), their second language (English), or the language
of their choice; depending on the round. The participants than wrote a short essay, in English, based on their idea generation tasks.

Once the Japanese was glossed into English and coded using a modified version of episodic units (see Brice, 2005), the thesis corroborates findings of Wang and Wen
(2003) which seem to suggest that they language used in idea generation may correlate to
a writer’s level of English proficiency. Also, it was discovered that the participants of this
study developed their ideas more thoroughly in English as opposed to Japanese. This may
be because of differences between the “communication mode (Scarborough, 1998).”

Revision In ESL Writing Tutorials: A Case Study

by Michael Lessard-Clouston

ELI Teaching: A Journal of Theory and Practice, 19, 20-28. (1995)

This article describes a preliminary case study which considers two approaches to revision in English as a second... more This article describes a preliminary case study which considers two approaches to revision in English as a second language (ESL) writing tutorials: using writing prompts and error correction. After a summary of the background literature, the questions addressed, the methodology used, and the findings of the study will be described. Then the paper will conclude with a discussion of these findings.

Evidence on the Effectiveness of Comprehensive Error Correction in Second Language Writing

by Catherine van Beuningen

Co-authored with N.H. De Jong & F. Kuiken, to appear in Language Learning.

This study investigated the effect of direct and indirect comprehensive corrective feedback (CF) on second language... more This study investigated the effect of direct and indirect comprehensive corrective feedback (CF) on second language (L2) learners’ written accuracy (N = 268). The study set out to explore the value of CF as a revising tool as well as its capacity to support long-term accuracy development. In addition, we tested Truscott’s (e.g., 2001, 2007) claims that: (a) correction may have value for nongrammatical errors but not for errors in grammar; (b) students are inclined to avoid more complex constructions due to error correction; and (c) the time spent on CF may be more wisely spent on additional writing practice. Results showed that both direct and indirect comprehensive CF led to improved accuracy, over what is gained from self-editing without CF (control group 1) and from sheer writing practice without CF (control group 2), and this was true not only during revision but also in new pieces of writing (i.e., texts written during post-test and delayed post-test sessions, one and four weeks after the delivery of CF). Furthermore, a separate analysis of grammatical and nongrammatical error types revealed that only direct CF resulted in grammatical accuracy gains in new writing and that pupils’ nongrammatical accuracy benefited most from indirect CF. Moreover, CF did not result in simplified writing when structural complexity and lexical diversity in students’ new writing were measured. Our findings suggest that comprehensive CF is a useful educational tool that teachers can use to help L2 learners improve their written accuracy over time. 

Skoufaki, S. (2009) ‘An exploratory application of Rhetorical Structure Theory to detect coherence errors in L2 English writing: possible implications for Automated Writing Evaluation software.’ International Journal of Computational Linguistics and Chinese Language Processing: Special issue in Computer Assisted Language Learning [Liu, C.L. and Gao, Z-M. (guest eds.)], 14(2), 181-203.

by Sophia Skoufaki

The effects of writing task repetition and teacher feedback on writing quality and fluency among students of different proficiency levels

by Gavin Xiaoyue Bei

Bei, X. (2009). The effects of writing task repetition and teacher feedback on writing quality and fluency among students of different proficiency levels. Modern Foreign Languages, 32(4), 389-398.

This study reports on the effects on task repetition， teacher feedback and proficiency levels on writing quality and... more This study reports on the effects on task repetition， teacher feedback and proficiency levels on writing quality and fluency． The study design takes practice effects as the within-group
independent variable， with the teacher feedback and proficiency levels as the between-group independent variables． The eight-week investigation discovers that generally repetition of writing tasks significantly contributes to the improvement of writing quality and fluency． However， the low-proficiency group fails to keep momentum in writing quality improvement as their high proficiency counterparts do in the third writing task． It is also found that proficiency per se is a strong predictive variable for both writing quality and fluency， whose effects will not be diluted by practice or teacher feedback．The effects of teacher feedback are， however， disappointing. It is probably the seven-week time span and the ways of administrating feedback that lead to the very weak effects of teacher feedback on writing quality and fluency．

Corrective Feedback in L2 Writing: Theoretical Perspectives, Empirical Insights, and Future Directions

by Catherine van Beuningen

The role of (written) corrective feedback (CF) in the process of acquiring a second language (L2) has been an issue of... more The role of (written) corrective feedback (CF) in the process of acquiring a second language (L2) has been an issue of considerable controversy among theorists and researchers alike. Although CF is a widely applied pedagogical tool and its use finds support in SLA theory, practical and theoretical objections to its usefulness have been raised (e.g. Truscott, 1996; 1999; 2004; 2007; 2009). In the present paper, I start by summarizing the theoretical arguments underpinning the use of CF in L2 classrooms. Subsequently, the objections raised against error correction are reviewed, and some controversies concerning different CF methodologies and error types are discussed. Next, the paper provides a critical summary of the findings produced by empirical work to date, and sketches out some of the issues that need to be attended to in future research. Based on the available empirical evidence, I conclude that, by offering learners opportunities to notice the gaps in their developing L2 systems, test interlanguage hypotheses, and engage in metalinguistic reflection, written CF has the ability to foster SLA and to lead to accuracy development.