Time Factors on Writing Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency: A Case Study of Taiwanese University-level EFL Student Writers

• Main Authors: Hsi-Kuang Chen, 陳璽光
• Other Authors: Ming Huei Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/22418772939532167085

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系碩士班 === 104 === Writing has been an important research issue in the domain of English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL). Many investigations have been deployed to survey the latent factors that could affect ESL/EFL learners’ writing performance. Amongst them, time has been identified as one of the major causes, which may activate the Limited Attentional Capacity Model (LACM)—a framework considered to be potent over the memory processing system—and could result in possible turbulence in the interactive relationship between writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Still, the current understanding towards this aspect, particularly the influence of time on Taiwanese university-level EFL students’ writing CAF, is still limited. To throw clear light on how time variables alone may have an impact on LACM and hence writing CAF, the researcher of this study scrutinized the textual outputs created by 43 EFL participants, who wrote under two different time frames (i.e., 30 minutes versus 50 minutes). Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data garnered. The results reveal explicit trade-off models between complexity and accuracy/fluency. Specifically, when writing with limited time resources (i.e., 30 minutes), student writers were inclined to develop writing fluency; in contrast, when writing with more time resources (i.e., 50 minutes), they would apply themselves to the development of writing accuracy. This research finishes with pedagogical implications and suggestions for future investigations.