The Effect Of Pairwork On Text Cohesion In The Continuation Task

To improve the second learners' writing proficiency,Wang(2010),from the align-to-learn perspective,proposes a new writing type—the continuation task.In this task,learners are required to write after reading an incomplete story.Previous study has proved the improvement of learners' writing accuracy(Xiao,2013;Jiang and Chen,2014),fluency(Xue,2013)and complexity(Jiang and Chen,2014)via alignment with the preceding story.However,there is no study exploring the effect of the task on text cohesion.Therefore,the current study aims to investigate whether the continuation task affects cohesion.Besides,will the cohesion be closer when learners write collaboratively?To answer the questions,the author designed two writing tasks(the picture+ writing task vs.the continuation task),and two writing forms(individual writing vs.collaborative writing).80 college students divided into three groups took part in the study.The first group completed the picture writing task individually(n=20),the second group completed the continuation task individually(n=20),and the third group write in pairs to finish the continuation task(n=40).To further analyze the writing process,the think-aloud method was used on five randomly selected participants from each group,and the whole process was videotaped.Coh-metrix 3.0 was used to analyze the text cohesion,and the cohesion focused LREs were identified and analyzed.The results show that 1)Learners write more cohesively in the continuation task than in the picture writing task.2)The continuation task completed by pairs is more cohesive than that completed by individual learners.Further analysis identifies the major factors contribution to the results.First,learners pay more attention to the text cohesion when they construct the situation model in the continuation task where production is closely coupled with comprehension,while little attention is paid to it in the picture writing task in which no language input exists.Second,when learners write in pairs,not only do they concern more about text cohesion,but they have moreresources(reading material and complementary knowledge)to resolve the encountered problems.Overall,this study has proved the positive influence of the continuation task on text cohesion,and found that pairwork can lead to further improvement.Therefore,L2 teachers can employ the collaborative continuation task in classroom activities to improve learners' writing cohesion.