Writing in cognate vs. non cognate languages: A comparative study of two groups of American students writing in Arabic and French as L2
Abstract
Although second language writing research has considerably flourished during the last 4 decades; there are still many "unanswered questions" (Johns, 2004) and many underexamined areas. Besides, second language writing research is still dominated by ESL studies. For instance, many studies have been conducted with Arabic L1 students, since the emergence of the field, to investigate the specific characteristics and the rhetorical patterns in Arabic as compared to English. However no-one has looked at the problem from the "other side". No study, in fact, has involved English L1 students writing in Arabic, for examining for example, how the language group differences alter the writing process and the writers' behavior as well as the produced text. The present exploratory study aims to be an attempt to fill the gap. It investigates the impact of language group on the use of L1-L2 translation as a strategy during the L2 writing process and its effects on written text quantity and quality. Think aloud protocols were conducted with two groups of American university students in their fourth semester of learning Arabic and French as L2 in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Purdue University. As Arabic and English are non cognate languages, it was hypothesized that Arabic writers were more likely to rely on word to word translation from their L1 as a primary writing strategy, compared to French writers who were writing within cognate languages, significantly affecting the written text length as well as the degree of interference. Results show that the Arabic text was shorter compared to the French text, and drawn from word to word translation with a high L1 interference, confirming the study hypotheses and answering positively the three research questions. Students' use of translation from L2 to L1 while reading the writing instructions was also examined and other study findings are presented including the study limitations and its results and implications.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Silva, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Rhetoric|Composition
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.