Effects Of Topic Familiarity On Noticing In Input Processing In The Continuation Task

The continuation task is one of the reading-writing integrated tasks with great potential to facilitate second language(L2)learning.In order to maximize the effects of the continuation task on L2 learners and help instructors to perform this task better,the underlying cognitive process while completing the task deserves further exploration.Input processing involves the conversion from input to intake(Van Patten & Cadierno,1993;Van Patten,2004)and thus initiates language learning.However,little is known with respect to input processing in the continuation task.Besides,input processing is prone to be affected by many factors.Thus,this study takes one of the task-internal factors in L2 learning—topic familiarity into consideration to investigate the effects on input processing in the context of the continuation task.As suggested by C.M.Wang(2015),the processing of input in the continuation task involved two stages,i.e.,the stage of reading before writing(Stage 1)and the stage of reading while writing(Stage 2).Input processing at these two stages was observed respectively from the perspective of noticing,which was classified into three aspects:meaning,form and organization(Qi & Lapkin,2001;Kang,2020;Luquin & Mayo,2021).The writing outcomes were assessed from content,language use,organization and overall results.This study tries to answer the following questions:Q1: What are the effects of topic familiarity on how noticing is allocated to certain aspects of input in Stage 1 and Stage 2?Q2: What are the effects of topic familiarity on writing outcomes,in terms of content,language use,organization and overall results?Q3: Does the allocation of noticing(meaning,form,organization)correlate with writing outcomes(content,language use,organization and overall results)?14 English major students were recruited from a university in Jiangsu Province.Participants completed two continuation tasks,with a familiar and an unfamiliar topic.Their input processing was elicited via think-aloud,note-taking and an immediate retrospective interview.The major findings are as the following:1)Topic familiarity did not affect the proportions of noticing in the three aspects in Stage 1.Regardless of topic familiarity,the most frequent features noticed in the two conditions were meaning-related,followed by organization-related and form-related.While in Stage 2,it significantly increased the meaning-related features and reduced the form-related features,leading to the largest proportion of noticing of meaning in the familiar condition and the largest proportion of noticing of form in the unfamiliar condition.2)The participants wrote significantly better with the familiar topic in terms of overall scores,but not in accuracy.No significant difference was found in content scores,complexity and organization scores when the two writing tasks differed in topic familiarity.3)The proportion of noticing of form during the whole reading process correlated negatively with lexical complexity,but positively correlated with accuracy.Positive correlations were found between the proportion of noticing of organization in Stage 2 and organization scores.Topic familiarity was found to influence the allocation of noticing,especially in Stage 2 and the whole input process.In the familiar condition,with a better schematic support,learners could produce richer content.In order to avoid the repetition of the viewpoints in the input,they had to refer back to the input,which increased the proportion of noticing of meaning in Stage 2.In the unfamiliar condition,lack of the topic-related expressions,learners resorted to input for appropriate language forms,leading to the higher proportion of noticing of form.With respect to writing outcomes,topic familiarity improved complexity and overall results.When learners wrote on the familiar topic,cognitive resources relieved from content development could be allocated to forms,producing more complex linguistic forms at the cost of accuracy.When writing on the unfamiliar topic,increased cognitive demands pushed learners to prioritize accuracy at the cost of other aspects.In terms of the role of noticing of the input in the continuation writing task,improved accuracy and organization scores suggested that noticing of form and organization may be closely related to the writing performance.Therefore,this study provides teachers with better understanding of learners’ allocation of noticing in the continuation task,so that they can manipulate topic familiarity of the input materials and direct learners’ attention to the input in order to maximize the facilitative effects of the continuation task.