摘要:

Literacy skills are thought to be transferable across languages. That is, good L1 readers and writers should be able to transfer their reading and writing abilities to the L2. However, studies of language attrition suggest that loss of language skills might influence the transfer of literacy skills from L1 to L2. This study investigates the role that transfer and/or loss of L1 writing abilities plays in the development of L2 writing proficiency. Data from native Chinese speakers enrolled in academic and preacademic English courses in American universities indicate that academic writing skills develop as a function of educational experience in L1 and in L2. There is also evidence that good LI writers tend to become good writers in their L2, but that L1 writing proficiency may decline as L2 writing proficiency increases. Furthermore, there appears to be a writing aptitude factor that imposes a ceiling on writing development both in L1 and in L2.

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00706.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study of English compositions written by 48 Japanese university students examined: (1) differences between the texts resulting from two writing processes, one writing first in Japanese and then translating into English and the other composing directly in English and (2) the relationship between these two writing processes and students’ language proficiency. In terms of quality of content, organization, and style, lower‐level writers tended to benefit from translation, whereas higher‐level writers did not benefit much. Overall, syntactic complexity was greater in translations than in direct writings. In terms of error frequency, higher‐level students tended to make more errors that interfered with intended meaning in translation than in direct writing, but lower‐level students did not show any difference. Regarding the correlation between language proficiency and the quality of the writing resulting from the two composing processes, oral skills related more closely to writing quality than did grammar knowledge, particularly for direc

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00707.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Current research has supported the existence of a critical period for the acquisition of the grammar of a second language. In one study, native speakers of Chinese and Korean, who had arrived in the U.S. at varying ages, were tested on their knowledge of English grammar using an auditory grammaticality judgment task (Johnson&Newport, 1989). Subjects were tested only after having lived in the U.S. for many years as students or academicians. The present study asks whether the poorer performance exhibited by the older arrivals was due to their difficulty with English grammar or merely due to extragrammatical properties associated with an auditory task. The same subjects who participated in the earlier study were tested a year later using an untimed written version of the same test. A strong negative correlation was still observed between age of arrival and performance on the written test: r=‐.54 for subjects of all ages of arrival; r=‐.73 for subjects who arrived to the U.S. before adulthood. Performance was higher on the written version than on the auditory version, but only for the older arrivals. The possibility that earlier formal classroom training boosted the adult arrivals’ performance on the written test is disc

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00708.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study attempted to evaluate the benefits of some task‐based procedures used to develop L2 communicative effectiveness in spoken English among a group of advanced proficiency learners. Using three information transfer tasks and intervening discussion sessions, we attempted to investigate the actual communicative outcomes of interaction prompted by the tasks. When the intervening discussion focused on linguistic aspects of task performance, there was a tendency for speakers to adopt a noticeably more egocentric perspective in a subsequent communicative task. When referential aspects of the task were discussed, subsequent communicative performance was characterized by speakers taking their interlocutor's perspective much more into account. It is suggested that L2 communicative effectiveness in an information transfer task will be enhanced when the speaker is led to think primarily about the listener's needs rather than the form of the speaker's messag

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00709.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Book Reviewed in this article:Syntactic Theory: A Unified Approach.Robert D. Borsley.

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00710.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00711.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00712.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb00713.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1992

数据来源: WILEY