An Empirical Research On L1 Use In L2 Writing Process Of Chinese EFL Writers

The study of the L2 writing process has long been a hot issue in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), and abundant experimental research has been done about the first language (L1) use in the L2 writing process and its influence on the L2 writing quality, but the findings are not quite consistent with one another due to a number of factors. And the L1s involved in those studies are mostly of the Indo-European family. Therefore when the L1 is Chinese will there be any difference in its influence on the L2 writing quality? And how will the findings help teaching writing in Chinese EFL classrooms?This thesis is none other than an empirical research into the L2 writing process of Chinese EFL learners, especially their actual thinking activities during this process, trying to find out how frequently they use their L1 (Chinese) when they write in their L2 (English) and what influence the L1 use has on the quality of their L2 writing. Hopefully the findings of this research will throw light on teaching writing in Chinese EFL classrooms.The current research is conducted in two steps, first a questionnaire study and then a case study. Designed by the author herself with the purpose of finding out how frequently the L1 is used in the L2 writing process and whether there is any correlation between the frequency of L1 use and the L2 proficiency level, the questionnaire is composed of two parts: L2 writing habits and the L1 use in the L2 writing process. More than 800 second-year non-English majors participated in the study and 789 valid questionnaires were returned. After that two groups of samples were selected, according to their scores in the final English examination in the earlier term, as the high L2 proficiency and the low L2 proficiency learners. All their answers were put into computer and transformed into data for correlation analysis with SPSS (12.0). Six subjects were selected at random, four from the high L2 proficiency group and 2 from the low L2 proficiency group, to participate in the case study to have a closer examination of their actual L2 writing process. In the case study, the subjects were asked individually to write a L2 passage on a given topic, using think-aloud protocols. The whole writing process was observed and recorded by the author for later analysis.