{"title":"The Role of Task Types and Reading Proficiency on Young English as a Foreign Language Learners' Writing Performances","authors":"Ching-Ni Hsieh","doi":"10.1002/tesq.3286","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study examined the role of writing task types and L2 reading proficiency on young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' writing performances. The participants were 185 students (Grades 7 and 8) from Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. The students responded to a descriptive and an email writing tasks that assessed their writing ability. The written responses were scored holistically and analyzed for aspects of lexical sophistication, syntactic complexity, writing fluency, and idea development. The students were grouped into strong or emergent readers based on their performances on an English reading comprehension test. Results showed that the students' writing performances differed across task types and were associated with their reading proficiency. The students produced more unique and concrete words and more complex syntactic structures and wrote longer essays in the descriptive writing task. Strong readers outperformed the emergent readers in both tasks and in writing fluency and idea development. Findings corroborate previous research on the connection between reading and writing skills and highlight the importance of strengthening young EFL learners' reading skills to support their writing development.","PeriodicalId":48245,"journal":{"name":"Tesol Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Tesol Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3286","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study examined the role of writing task types and L2 reading proficiency on young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' writing performances. The participants were 185 students (Grades 7 and 8) from Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. The students responded to a descriptive and an email writing tasks that assessed their writing ability. The written responses were scored holistically and analyzed for aspects of lexical sophistication, syntactic complexity, writing fluency, and idea development. The students were grouped into strong or emergent readers based on their performances on an English reading comprehension test. Results showed that the students' writing performances differed across task types and were associated with their reading proficiency. The students produced more unique and concrete words and more complex syntactic structures and wrote longer essays in the descriptive writing task. Strong readers outperformed the emergent readers in both tasks and in writing fluency and idea development. Findings corroborate previous research on the connection between reading and writing skills and highlight the importance of strengthening young EFL learners' reading skills to support their writing development.
期刊介绍:
TESOL Quarterly, a professional, refereed journal, was first published in 1967. The Quarterly encourages submission of previously unpublished articles on topics of significance to individuals concerned with English language teaching and learning and standard English as a second dialect. As a publication that represents a variety of cross-disciplinary interests, both theoretical and practical, the Quarterly invites manuscripts on a wide range of topics, especially in the following areas: -psychology and sociology of language learning and teaching -issues in research and research methodology -testing and evaluation -professional preparation -curriculum design and development -instructional methods, materials, and techniques -language planning -professional standards Because the Quarterly is committed to publishing manuscripts that contribute to bridging theory and practice in our profession, it particularly welcomes submissions that address the implications and applications of research in, for example, -anthropology -applied and theoretical linguistics -communication education -English education, including reading and writing theory -psycholinguistics -psychology -first and second language acquisition -sociolinguistics The Quarterly prefers that all submissions be written in a style that is accessible to a broad readership, including those individuals who may not be familiar with the subject matter. TESOL Quarterly is an international journal. It welcomes submissions from English language contexts around the world.