Effects Of Task Repetition On The Use Of Formulaic Sequences In Senior High-school Students’ English Writing

Resent years,the area of second language acquisition has witnessed a great transformation.Universal grammar has been gradually eclipsed by the upsurge of usage-based approach like emergentism,connectionism,and so on.Emergentism is a theory of change,believing that language uses are dynamic processes in which regularities arise from the interaction of people,brains,selves,societies and cultures using languages in the world(Ellis & Larsen-freeman 2006).As the emergence of shared features from language use,learners start with a few specific linguistic constructions and gradually acquire a wider range of formulaic constructions,including more complex ones over time,during which the frequency of events in experience plays an essential role.Prior studies concerning task repetition mainly pivoted on investigating such language skills as listening,speaking,reading,and writing.However,previous studies also note that advanced and fluent second language or foreign language writing is often featured by appropriate and frequent use of various formulaic sequences(FSs).Relatively small number of studies explore the effects of task repetition on the use of FSs in writing,especially when it comes to take senior high-school students as research subjects.Therefore,based on emergentism,this research investigated the effects of task repetition on the use of FSs in the continuation task of learners at different proficiency levels.The use of FSs was measured and explored in three aspects: density,accuracy,and variation.After the identification and calculation of FSs in students’ writing,the present research attempted to answer the following two questions:(1)How does task repetition affect the use of FSs in high school students’ English writing in density,accuracy,and variation?(2)How does task repetition affect the use of FSs in writings of students with different language proficiency?The present study employed a mixed method of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis.65 senior high-school students from a key high school in East China were selected as the research subjects.16 students with the highest grades were grouped as the high-level group,whereas 16 students with the lowest grades were classified as the low-level group.They were required to carry out a continuation task after reading the given material.The same writing task were assigned in the first week,the fourth week and the eighth week consecutively.The measurements of FSs used in Qi and Ding(2011)were adopted to calculate the density,accuracy,and variation of FSs in students’ writing.Then,all data was run and analyzed by software SPSS 28,and the statistical results were yielded.The research found that task repetition wields positive influence on the density,accuracy,and variation of FSs in the continuation task.While it bore different implications on students of different proficiency levels.With task repetition,high-level group made progress in terms of the density and variation of FSs,with no improvement in accuracy.While low-level group significantly made some inroads into the density and accuracy of FSs,with no improvement in variation.The findings of the present study enjoyed theoretical as well as pedagogical implications for EFL writing research and instruction.Theoretically,the study enriches the empirical research carried out under the framework of emergentism.Pedagogically,some suggestions are proposed for the teaching of English writing for senior high-school students.First of all,teachers should come to realize that English writing is characterized by a dynamic development,and that the accuracy,density and variation of FSs are not isolated elements.Therefore,reasonable and scientific writing class design and teaching process can help to guide learners to allocate limited attention resources to different aspects of FSs.First of all,teachers should come to realize that English writing is characterized by a dynamic development,and that the accuracy,density and variation of FSs are not isolated elements in students’ language learning process.Therefore,reasonable and scientific writing task design and teaching process are in an urgent need,helping to guide learners to allocate limited attention resources to different writing elements,such as density,accuracy and variation of FSs in this case,so that these aspects can be improved effectively.Secondly,teachers should take senior high-school students language proficiency into consideration when designing repetitive writing tasks so that the maximum positive effect of task repetition can be brought into play.While giving affirmation to high-level students for their great performance in using more and more different FSs,it is also of necessity to guide them to consciously notice their error and improve their accuracy.As for students of low language proficiency,more attention should be paid to enlarging their reservoir of FSs and helping them to notice and diagnosed fossilized erroneous FSs.Finally,teachers need to pay more attention to each indicator,in this case,the accuracy,density,and variation of FSs,in students’ writing individually.It should dawn on teachers that the relationship of each indicator enjoys a dynamic nonlinear development characteristic in students of different level.Therefore,it is of importance to systematically evaluate their English writing performance in combination with language proficiency individual students,and their waxing and waning patterns of FSs development.