The Effects Of Topic Familiarity On Continuation Task In Second Language Writing

Input and output,as important issues in the field of second language acquisition(SLA),have always attracted much attention.Nowadays,researchers invest more effort in how to integrate input and output appropriately,and how to promote input processing through output,so as to facilitate second language(L2)learning more efficiently.Continuation task integrates writing with reading comprehension and it is thus considered as one of the efforts to combine input with output.A lot of studies have explored that many factors influenced continuation task,but few have investigated the influence of topic familiarity on continuation task which is an important factor in input and output processing in L2 learning.Therefore,the present study aims to explore the effects of topic familiarity on continuation task in L2 writing.Two research questions are proposed:1.What are the effects of continuation task on L2 writing?1-1 What are the effects of continuation task on alignment and error frequency in L2 writing?1-2 What are the effects of continuation task on complexity,accuracy and fluency in L2 writing?2.What are the effects of topic familiarity on continuation task?2-1 What are the effects of topic familiarity on alignment and error frequency in continuation task?2-2 What are the effects of topic familiarity on complexity,accuracy and fluency in continuation task?120 English majors in their first year were recruited from a key university.An experiment was conducted with writing tasks(continuation task vs.writing-only task)and topic familiarity(familiar vs.unfamiliar)as two independent variables.The 120 participants were divided into two groups,comparable in language proficiency.The writing tasks were assigned in a split-plot design and each group completed two writing tasks.Group A did a continuation task with the familiar topic and a writing-only task with the unfamiliar topic.Group B did a continuation task with the unfamiliar topic and a writing-only task with the familiar topic.After the writing tasks,corresponding questionnaire investigations were done with the purpose to know more about learners’ opinions and attitude to the two writing tasks.Finally,six participants were randomly selected from each group for an interview.The major findings are as the following:1)Effects of continuation task: Alignment effect was found in continuation task.The two continuation task groups imitated more words in the given passages no matter whether the topic was familiar or not.With the unfamiliar topic,the continuation task helped to reduce the meaning-based errors but not the total number of errors or the form-based errors compared with the writing-only task.No significant difference was found in any type of error frequency between the two familiar topic groups.With the unfamiliar topic,the continuation task group performed better in lexical complexity but worse in accuracy than the writing-only task group.No significant difference was found in syntactic complexity or fluency between the two tasks.Meanwhile,no significant difference was found in complexity,accuracy or fluency between the two tasks with the familiar topic.2)Effects of topic familiarity: There was alignment effect in continuation task no matter whether the topic was familiar or not.Both of the two continuation task groups imitated the words in the passages.However,the familiar topic task led to stronger alignment effect than the unfamiliar topic task.In the continuation task,the unfamiliar topic reduced the total error frequency and the form-based error frequency,but the familiar topic reduced the frequency of misuse of articles.No significant difference was found in the meaning-based error frequency between the two tasks,but it was nearly significant.In the continuation task,the familiar topic led to higher syntactic complexity and accuracy,but lower lexical complexity than the unfamiliar topic.No significant difference was found in fluency between the two tasks with different topic familiarity.This study found alignment effect in continuation task.The familiar topic had a positive effect on enhancing the alignment effect and improving learners’ syntactic complexity and accuracy.However,the unfamiliar topic facilitated to reduce the form-based error frequency and increase lexical complexity.Thus,topic familiarity effect is found for alignment effect and L2 writing performance in continuation task.Input materials with different topic familiarity can promote writing production in different aspects.Therefore,foreign language teachers should select suitable reading materials for learners in continuation task so as to enhance the strength of the alignment effect and promote learners’ L2 learning.