First and second language writing relationship : Chinese and English

Abstract

This study was designed: (1) to investigate the Chinese college students' apprehension of both first and second language writing tasks; (2) to determine if there is a relationship between the attitude one holds for writing and his/her writing proficiency; (2) to explore the impact of the learners' first language (L1) proficiency on their second language (L2) writing proficiency, and (4) to examine the learners' linguistic background and other possible factors associated with their writing proficiency. Thirty Chinese students enrolled in the English As Second Language (ESL) Program at Laney College were given the Measurement of Writing Apprehension Test (the Daly-Miller Test) and the scores were analyzed to assess their apprehension of writing tasks. Writing samples of both Chinese and English were collected and the Test of Written English (TWE) portion of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TOESL), and the guideline for scoring Chinese essays used by Carson and others (1990) were utilized to analyze and determine the learners writing proficiency level. A questionnaire was administered to gather information about the learners' linguistic and academic background. Descriptive and correlational statistical analyses were conducted to determine the impact of learners' apprehension of writing tasks, L1 writing proficiency and linguistic differences between L1 and L2 on L2 writing. From the findings of this study, it was concluded that Chinese college students studying ESL displayed different attitudes toward writing tasks in both Chinese and English. It was found that there was a statistically significant relationship between participants' attitude toward writing in Chinese and the Chinese essay scores. Statistically significant relationship was also found between participants' attitude toward writing in English and the English writing scores. There was a statistical indication of a possible relationship between Chinese college students' L1 and L2 writing proficiency. In the comparative analyses of Chinese and English writing samples, several linguistic difficulties or gaps in interlingual transfer were identified such as passive voice, modifiers, and some phrasal and sentence structures.