A Study Of The Influence Of Continuation Tasks On Writing Fluency, Accuracy And Complexity

According to Wang(2012), the continuation task is an effective way to improve learning efficiency, which combines language input(reading) with output(writing),links creative use of language with imitation and enables learners to use what they have learned. Therefore, researchers begin to conduct a great number of relevant studies, but empirical researches on the influence of different types of the continuation task are scant.Thus, this thesis aims to investigate the influence of the continuation task on writing fluency, accuracy and complexity. The subjects are 127 non-English majors in Jiangxi Normal University. They are sophomores from four classes, of which there is one control group and three experimental groups. Students in the control group still write in a traditional way, while those in the experimental groups write according to different types of the continuation task, that is, continuing a Chinese story in English,finishing an English story in English with hints(the first sentences of the continuing paragraphs) and without hints, respectively. All participants are required to write two compositions in one month, which include the pretest and post test writings. Their compositions are analyzed in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity. The data are collected and analyzed through SPSS19.0.The findings of the study are as follows:Firstly, the continuation task can efficiently improve the accuracy in students’ writings, but the influences on writing fluency and complexity are not statistically significant.Secondly, different types of the continuation task have different effects on writing fluency, accuracy and complexity and it can obviously improve students’ overall writing levels by continuing an English story in English with hints.The above findings can bring the following pedagogical implications: first of all,we are suggested to integrate reading with writing in English writing teaching by means of reading relevant materials to improve students’ writing proficiency. Teachers should choose appropriate reading materials in accordance with students’ writing levels and meanwhile, teachers need to encourage students to read more extensively after class. Then, in order to improve writing fluency, accuracy and complexity,teachers are supposed to provide students with enough time to make them payattention to the form and structure of their productions.