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RESEARCH NEWS .

Using L1 in collaborative writing for

improved language complexity in L2?

PXHERE CREATIVE COMMONS how using their L1 enabled this
increased complexity. Take the
following exchange, for example
translations
with
(Chinese
English in italics):
St1: ‘Using use is good enough.’
St2: ‘Take use of, does it have
the meaning of using? Or the
meaning of exploiting?’
St1: Exploiting. ‘It works,
exploiting works. It works in this
context.’
St2: ‘Wait, wait, there is
another one … use take the
advantages of, more advanced.’

In using L1 to discuss how
best to express their ideas in L2
students L1 has a metalinguistic
function here – it enables a fuller
discussion of meaning.
This kind of use of L1 in
collaborative tasks reflects the
sociocultural theory of language:
language learning cannot be
separated from a social and
By Gillian Ragsdale One quality stood out as Of the several ways to cultural context and must
significantly improved by add information to clauses, always depend on interpersonal
Pairs of Chinese students discussion in L1 – complexity. the students that discussed interaction between the language
tackling a collaborative English Accuracy showed moderate their writing in Chinese used producer and the receiver.
essay produced more complex improvement, but there was no significantly more prepositional The use of L1, in this case,
writing and improved accuracy difference in fluency or overall phrases and nominalisations. is thought to enable better
when allowed to discuss their text quality. This enabled them to pack more scaffolding for the learners by more
assignment in L1, a Northern To examine what kind of information into their clauses, fully facilitating the interpersonal
Arizona University research complexity had been increased making their writing more negotiations involved in the task.
project has shown. by L1 discussion, Zhang information-dense. This style is
While opinions on using L1 compared measures of lexical and typical of academic writing. REFRENCE
in the EFL classroom are strong syntactical complexity and found Using the recordings of the n Zhang, M (2018) ‘Collaborative
and diverse, empirical research is that increased complexity was students’ conversations about writing in the EFL classroom: The
somewhat less common. To find specifically due to writing longer how best to write their assignment effects of L1 and L2 use.’ System.
more evidence, Meixiu Zhang clauses. in English gave some insight into 76: 1-12
put 70 intermediate-level adult
students at a Chinese University
into pairs and gave each pair two EvidEncE of incrEasEd complExity in writing samplEs
writing assignments, both in the
form of the argumentative essays The following excerpts come from two argumentative essays on the same topic. Each essay was written
common in academic writing. collaboratively by a pair of students. The first excerpt was written by a pair who discussed their writing
The topics were chosen to elicit in Chinese. The second is an example of writing from a pair that did not use L1. The difference in style
genuine opinions: should students is easy to spot. The spelling and grammar are as produced by the students. The key stylistic differences
be allowed to use cell phones in class, are shown in the text: prepositional phrases are underlined; nominalisations are in bold.
and: should college graduates rely on
their parents financially. Each pair Following discussion in L1
recorded their discussions during Recently, more and more college students accept their parents’ help in economics when they graduate
the hour-long writing process. from the university. This phenomenon triggers broad discussion in the society. And we believe that
They were allowed to use Chinese as a college students, it is very shameful for us to accept the help form our old parents.
to discuss just one of the two
assignments. Following discussion in L2
The resulting essays were Graduations are adult, they are no longer children. Parents do not have duty to give an adult money.
scored for complexity, accuracy, Adults should depend on themselves. Parents have their own life. They have worked hard about
fluency and overall quality in twenty years to bring us up. It is time to enjoy their life. They can use their money more freely.
terms of content, language use
and organisation.

10 November/December 2018

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