Formulaic Competence in College-Level Asian English Learner's Argumentative Writing: Examining the Effects of Language Background and Topic

Autor/inn/en	Li, Hang; Yao, Yao
Titel	Formulaic Competence in College-Level Asian English Learner's Argumentative Writing: Examining the Effects of Language Background and Topic
Quelle	In: Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 32 (2023) 6, S.793-803 (11 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Li, Hang)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0119-5646
DOI	10.1007/s40299-022-00695-w
Schlagwörter	Persuasive Discourse; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Phrase Structure; Language Usage; Essays; Writing (Composition); Foreign Countries; Computational Linguistics; Learning Theories; Native Speakers; Difficulty Level; Writing Instruction; Scores; Writing Evaluation; Asia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Persuasion; Persuasive Kommunikation; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Phrasenstruktur; Sprachgebrauch; Essay; Aufsatzunterricht; Schreibübung; Ausland; Linguistics; Computerlinguistik; Learning theory; Lerntheorie; Muttersprachler; Schwierigkeitsgrad; Schreibunterricht; Asien
Abstract	The present study examined the effect of language background and topic on productive formulaic competence. Guided by usage-based theory of language learning, this study used a distribution-based approach to the examination of the native-likeness of formulaic usage in English timed argumentative writing. Six indices informed by a large-scale native corpus were chosen to gauge the frequency and association strength of bigrams and trigrams in a total of 778 English timed independent argumentative essays on two topics by 100 native speaker writers, 210 English as a foreign language (EFL) writers and 79 English as a second language (ESL) writers in Asia. Results of a series of linear mixed-effects regression analyses showed that, while EFL writers scored lower on most of the indices than both NS writers and ESL writers, ESL writers did not differ much from NS writers in their use of n-grams across topics. Meanwhile, the topic that was deemed more cognitively demanding and of a stronger technical nature elicited more native-like performance in bigram and trigram use across all three language groups. Findings of the study highlight the important effect of input on the development of formulaic competence in a second language, offer empirical support to the use of cognitively complex topics in second language writing practice, and carry important implications for L2 writing pedagogy. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01