Linguistic characteristics of ESL writing in task-based e-mail activities  

Oleh:

Li, Yili

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: SYSTEM: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics (Full Text) vol. 28 no. 2 (Jun. 2000), page 229-245.
Topik: Computer-assisted language learning; Computer-mediated communication; English as a second language; Electronic mail; Second language writing; Writing assessment
Fulltext: Li_Yili.pdf (131.5KB)

Isi artikel

This study investigated the ecacy of integrating task-based e-mail activities into a process- oriented ESL writing class. In particular, it examined the linguistic characteristics of 132 pieces of e-mail writing by ESL students in tasks that di?ered in terms of purpose, audience interaction and task structure. The analysis focused on the linguistic features of the students' e-mail writing at di?erent levels, i.e. syntactic complexity, lexical complexity and grammatical accuracy. Computerized text analysis programs were used to ensure internal consistency of the linguistic analysis. Statistical analysis of the results using the repeated measures analysis of variance and post hoc contrast tests showed signi®cant syntactic, lexical and grammatical di?erences in the students' e-mail writing of the di?erent tasks. Speci®cally, in e-mail tasks involving audience interaction, students tended to produce syntactically and lexically more complex texts, and in tasks which allowed students self-selection of topics and content, stu- dents also tended to use more complex sentences and richer and more diverse vocabulary. However, an interesting trade-o? e?ect was observed between linguistic complexity and grammatical accuracy in the students' e-mail writing, indicating the complexity of the second language writing process. The study provides pedagogical implications for designing e?ective e-mail tasks for enhancing second language writing development.

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali