To Assign a Topic or Not

Observing Fluency and Complexity in Intermediate Foreign Language Writing

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8936852
AutoresJoshua D Bonzo (Washington State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen41
Número4
Páginas722-735
Fecha de publicación2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaForeign Language Annals (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0015-718X • E-ISSN: 1944-9720
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1944-9720.2008.tb03327.x
OpenAlexW2110180404
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas16

The present study examines the written products of third‐semester German students' written productions during a timed, in‐class writing activity. Topic selection control was modulated from instructor to student during eight 10‐minute sessions. To account for order of treatment, two of the four groups were counterbalanced with the other two. Each written product was textually analyzed and categorized into a general fluency index and an overall grammatical complexity score, both of which were correlated and statistically analyzed (ANOVA). ANOVA results indicate that topic control did influence participants' written fluency but not grammatical complexity (though mean scores for complexity were higher during self‐selected topic writing). Participants' overall level of fluency was significantly higher when they selected their own topics

Class (philosophy · Control (management · Fluency · Foreign language · German · Grammar · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Selection (genetic algorithm · Variance (accounting · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Psychology · Writing and Handwriting Education