Chinese and English Writing Processes:A Case Study of Four ESL College Writers in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Po-wei Chang, 張伯瑋
• Other Authors: Hsi-chin Chu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/tfb22t

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 英國語文學系研究所 === 97 === ABSTRACT(英文摘要) The purpose of the present study is to describe and compare Chinese and English writing. The study adopts qualitative case study approach using think-aloud protocol to collect data. It recruits four ESL writers from a junior writing course in Providence University, a university in central Taiwan. These writers went through three sessions. In the first session, they were trained to use the think-aloud procedure by verbalizing all thoughts coming to their minds while writing an essay. In the second and third sessions, they wrote Chinese and English essays respectively and did think-aloud verbalizations simultaneously. After each of the writing sessions, they were interviewed regarding their Chinese(L1) and English(L2) writing process . All verbalizations were tape-recorded and then analyzed. The study generated several findings. Firstly, the writing process is recursive. Secondly, writing process remains similar in L1 and L2 writing. Both L1 and L2 writing process involve the similar writing behavior Thirdly, L2 writing is less fluent and less effective than L1 writing. Fourthly, prewriting time is insufficiently in the writing of both languages but allocates more time and plays a more important role in L2 writing than in L1 writing. Lastly, the use of writing strategies does not vary greatly across the two writing sessions. Whether writing in L1 or L2, students use the similar writing strategies for planning, translating, and reviewing.