Speakers
ABSTRACT
Research has shown that timed or ‘free’ writing activities can help learners to develop their writing fluency and build on the syntactic complexity of their writing. However, the potential effects of these activities for different proficiency levels have not been explored deeply, and little is known about whether pushed output activities such as timed writing influences the accuracy levels of learner writing. This presentation will report on a study which was undertaken to investigate the development of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) features in the writing of two distinct proficiency groups of Japanese university students: beginning-level first-year students in a compulsory reading and writing class, and advanced-level second-year students in an elective writing class. Over a thirteen-week period, the groups completed weekly timed writing activities. Results indicated that while both groups made significant gains in their writing fluency in terms of the number of words produced per text, only the higher-proficiency group made significant gains in both syntactic and lexical complexity. For both groups, no significant development was seen in two accuracy measures. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the implications of the findings.
KEYWORDS
Writing
Complexity
Accuracy
Fluency
| TITLE | Timed Writing: Effects for Low and High-Proficiency Level Learners |
|---|---|
| RELEVANT SIG | College and University Educators (CUE) |
| FORMAT | Research-oriented Oral Face-to-face presentation (25 minutes, including Q&A) |
