Effects Of Three Types Of Writing Tasks On Syntactic Complexity,Lexical Complexity And Vocabulary Acquisition

In recent years,continuation writing has been a new item in the English Gaokao.It has been regarded as an integral part of English writing skills in the General High School English Curriculum Standard（2020）.Continuation writing was first proposed by Wang（2012）based on the Interactive Alignment Model.He argued that reading incomplete L2 stories and finishing the story through continuation writing could stimulate learners’ alignment with the reading materials and promote their L2 development.In 2018,Wang proposed two variants – iterative continuation writing and contrastive continuation writing,arguing that they could enhance learners’ interaction with the source text and strengthen their alignment with it.Subsequent empirical studies supported his view.However,there is no conclusive evidence on whether the simplified version of multiple-round continuation writing,i.e.,two-round continuation writing,can facilitate writers’ performances in writing.And previous studies on one-round continuation writing applied limited measures for syntactic and lexical complexity.To fill these research gaps,practical writing（PW）,one-round continuation writing（E1）,and two-round continuation writing（E2）were investigated in the present study.The general research question is which one of the three would best promote syntactic complexity,lexical complexity,and vocabulary acquisition in L2 writing.The participants involved were 86 preliminary-to-intermediate high school English learners from Hunan Province.They were randomly assigned to the three writing task groups,and a pre-test showed no significant difference in English proficiency among the three groups.Each subject was required to complete a writing task,an instant vocabulary post-test,and a delayed vocabulary post-test;some subjects were required to complete an open-ended questionnaire.After the experiment,all the subjects’ compositions were analyzed in L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer and L2 Lexical Complexity Analyzer.Their scores in the post-test and the delayed post-test were also calculated.All data were finally input into SPSS 23.0.The statistical analyses showed that: Firstly,the syntactic complexity of the subjects in E1 and E2 was better than that in PW,but there was no significant difference between E1 and E2;Secondly,the lexical variation of the participants was higher in PW and E1 than in E2,but the percentages of the sophisticated lexical words and sophisticated verbs were higher in PW than in E1 and E2.Thirdly,the three writing tasks did not differ significantly in their effects on the participants’ acquisition and retention of L2 vocabulary,but there was some trend – E1 alleviated the decline of vocabulary knowledge in learners’ minds.In addition,this study also found that E2 had a positive effect on the participants’ attitudes towards writing,making them more willing to write longer passages.Many middle-low level high school students hold negative attitudes to continuation writing and lack self-confidence and writing strategies.These research findings provide guidance for L2 teaching practices.In writing lessons,English teachers should focus on developing students’ selfconfidence and interest,stimulating their imagination,and helping them to develop good habits and strategies for continuation writing.