Julio Roca de Larios

The use of restructuring strategies in EFL writing: A study of Spanish learners of English as a foreign language

Abstract This article presents two small-scale studies which analyze how Spanish learners of English use Restructuring, an important formulation strategy in L2 composing. Restructuring is the search for an alternative syntactic plan once the writer predicts, anticipates or realizes that the original one is not going to be satisfactory for a variety of linguistic, ideational or textual reasons. Data for Study 1 were obtained from think-aloud protocols of five intermediate EFL subjects on two tasks. Results indicate that Restructuring has different functions in L2 composing processes: it can compensate for the lack of linguistic resources typical of L2 learners, but it can also serve stylistic, ideational, textual and procedural goals. In Study 2 we analyze the protocols of students at two proficiency levels in order to find the effects of L2 proficiency on the different uses of Restructuring uncovered in Study 1. Results show that while both groups used Restructuring in L2 writing, the intermediate group restructured for compensatory purposes significantly more than the advanced group, whose main goals were of an ideational and textual nature. Thus, L2 proficiency seems to play a role in determining the focus of concerns of Restructuring in L2 composing.

A Critical Examination of L2 Writing Process Research

The present chapter is intended as a critical analysis of the most relevant recent research into the cognitive processes underlying second language written composition. After an introduction of the research domain, a number of relevant methodological aspects are briefly discussed. These include the data collection procedures used, the assessment of writers’ command of the second language, the evaluation of written products, the context of the research, the type and number of participants involved, the type of tasks used, and the way reliability has been reported in the different studies. The substantive part of the research has been analyzed by isolating its main theoretical frames. Each of these frames has allowed us to derive a number of research sub-domains under which the studies have been grouped: the comparison of skilled and unskilled L2 writers, the development of L2 writing skill, the comparison of L1 and L2 writing processes, and the relationship between writing ability and L2 proficiency. A systematic analysis of the findings within each category has led us to identify a number of areas in need of further research: the notion of L2 writing skill, the formulation process, the temporal character of composition, the cognitive mechanisms involved in the transfer of writing abilities across languages, and the situated nature of L2 writing.

A Temporal Analysis of Formulation Processes in L1 and L2 Writing.

This cross-sectional study used verbal protocol analysis to compare the temporal distribution of formulation processes of Spanish EFL writers composing L1 and L2 argumentative texts. We studied three groups at different levels of L2 proficiency. Results showed the same total formulation time regardless of whether participants wrote in L1 or L2. L2 proficiency, however, affected times. Higher-proficiency participants devoted less time to formulation, concentrated formulation in the central stages of composing, and increased the interaction between formulation and other subprocesses. Fluent formulation was twice as common as problem-solving formulation when writing in L2 and five times as common in L1; these ratios appeared to be invariant across proficiency. Theoretical and methodological implications for the study of L2 writing processes are discussed.

An approximation to the study of backtracking in L2 writing

Abstract This article presents the findings of a small-scale study which analyses backtracking behaviour by intermediate Spanish learners of English when writing an argumentative and a narrative essay in their L2 while thinking aloud. The aims of the study were to ascertain what types of backtracking are used by L2 learners, and to analyse the influence of a number of variables on this use. Results indicate that our subjects rescan their texts, written outlines and assignment wording by using their whole linguistic spectrum (L1 and L2), although inter-subject differences are observed. Variation across subjects seems to be more dependent on the writers approach to task completion than to the text modality itself. These results are discussed in the light of findings from process-oriented research on L2 composing and questions for a future research agenda are suggested.

Exploring the Role Played by Error Correction and Models on Children's Reported Noticing and Output Production in a L2 Writing Task.

This article reports an empirical study in which we explored the role played by two forms of feedback—error correction and model texts—on child English as a foreign language learners’ reported noticing and written output. The study was carried out with 11- and 12-year-old children placed in proficiency-matched pairs who engaged in a three-stage collaborative writing task involving (a) spontaneous noticing of linguistic problems while composing, (b) comparison of their texts with the feedback provided, and (c) rewriting of their original output. Results indicate that although the children noticed and later incorporated mainly lexical features into their output, gains in the linguistic acceptability and comprehensibility of their revised texts showed an advantage for error correction over models. Learners in the error correction condition reported more noticing of grammar at the comparison stage, which later emerged in their revisions. The potential effects of both feedback strategies on children’s reported noticing and output production are discussed, and conclusions are drawn for the role of feedback in children’s classroom second language acquisition.

Chapter 2.02.05: Spanish Children’s Use of Writing Strategies When Composing Texts in English as a Foreign Language

As compared to research with adults, childrens writing is not particularly visible as a field of inquiry in foreign language (L2) writing research. Graham and Macaro (2007) and Macaro (2007) initiated a research programme in the United Kingdom aimed at ascertaining how British school children employ formulation strategies when composing French texts. This chapter answers the following research question: To what extent are the L2 writing strategies used by Spanish primary school children dependent on their level of L2 proficiency? The study took place in a primary school situated in a middle-class area in the Southeast of Spain (Murcia). The low-and mid-ability children had access to a limited repertoire of strategies and, as a result, were less successful than their high-ability counterparts in articulating their ideas on paper. Keywords: foreign language; Spanish primary school children; United Kingdom