The Role Of Attention In L2 Writing Process Of Chinese EFL Learners: A Psycholinguistic Perspective

Recent SLA research has highlighted the ways in which attention monitors the process of selection and subsequent memory of input. However, how attention is allocated and how much awareness is involved with the allocated attention in second language written communication have been rarely touched upon either in the L2 writing area or in the L2 language learning field.Classical models dominating both L1 and L2 writing studies propose that writing is a complex problem-solving process, which involves thinking under the monitoring of the central executive control. To solve problems, the writer is assumed to employ various strategies to come up with what one wants to achieve with the text.Based on the contributions of L1 writing models and empirical studies on L1 writing process, L2 writing research regards the problem-solving strategies as the essential feature of writing expertise. As a result, the majority of research has endeavored to ascertain whether there are similarities between the mental processes in L1 and L2 writing, or whether L2 writing shows its own specificity.Empirical research on the Chinese EFL learner's writing has been increasing. Yet, much more studies have been done on the written product and fewer studies are concerned with the writing process of this group of learners. These studies are similar to those ESL studies in that both investigate whether L2 proficiency imposes constraints on the L2 writing process, and whether L2 learners adopt the same strategies in L2 writing process as used in their L1 writing in order to solve the writing problems.A great majority of both ESL and EFL studies of writing widely acknowledge that the complex problem-solving nature of writing entails the juggling of various sets of ideational, linguistic, and rhetorical constraints, which might compete with one another for the limited attentional capacity. However, how the central executive actually functions or what monitor component supervises the writing process where these strategies perform is left out of the interest of both the writing models and the great majority of empirical studies in L2 writing field.Yet, studies as such are significant in understanding the writing process because as an indispensable chain between the first output and the modified output, attention monitors the writing process which then leads to the final writing product. Therefore, more studies are called for to relate the psycholinguistic process of L2 writing with theories of attention in SLA in order to reveal how writers operate their attentional resources and how their attention causes the use of strategies.To answer this call, the present research investigates the role of attention in the L2 (English) writing process of the Chinese college English majors at different levels of L2 proficiency, in comparison to their L1 (Chinese) writing process. Two dimensions—the allocation of attention and the degree of awareness in attention in the central executive are studied through exploring intra-subject performance in the L1 and the L2 writing processes, and inter-subject characteristics of the L2 writing process across different L2 proficiency levels.Eighteen English majors from a university of foreign languages in China participated in the experiment after strict solicitation procedures. They had the same level of L1 writing ability but distinctively different levels of L2 proficiency, which may reflect the current EFL learning situation in China. The Chinese writing ability of the majority of college English majors is kept stagnant but their L2 proficiency and L2 writing proficiency may be in constant progress through several years of study. These participants were asked to complete two writing tasks of very similar topics in L1 and L2 respectively.The study was carried out with a triangulation of data collecting techniques, which resulted in qualitative analyses of data of various types, that is, think-aloud protocols, researchers'concurrent observations, questionnaires, immediate retrospective interviews, and written products, supplemented with quantitative analyses in forms of T-tests, ANOVAs and Chi-square tests. The think-aloud protocols, the main source of data in the analysis, were transcribed, segmented and coded. The answers to the listed questions in the questionnaires were calculated.The detailed depiction of the role of attention in the writing process has offered concrete and direct evidence for the process of writing. The principal findings of the present study are summarized as follows.(1) L2 writers show different attentional patterns in monitoring the writing processes of L1 and L2. In English writing, language use is attended to the most; in contrast, in the Chinese writing process, attention to content ranks the first. As for the aspect of language use, L2 writers attend to language problems for form more frequently in the English writing process; however, they pay more attention to language use for meaning conveying in the Chinese writing process.(2) In L2 writing process, L2 proficiency affects the L2 writers'allocation of attention to content, discourse organization and language use. As their L2 proficiency moves up, L2 writers pay more attention to content, but less to language use in the English writing process. Additionally, with the development of L2 proficiency, L2 writers develop an attentional pattern approaching their performance in L1 writing.(3) L2 writers manifest the same pattern of awareness levels of attention in both L1 and L2 writing processes. However, in terms of content and language use, specific differences arise in the two writing processes. When writing in Chinese, writers show a deeper consideration of content in the fluent writing process than when writing in L2. As for attention to language use, writers set a higher goal of appropriateness of language use at all levels of awareness in the Chinese writing process. However, when writing in English, they display lower levels of awareness to linguistic problems with less difficulty, and higher levels of awareness to deal with more difficult language problems.(4) L2 proficiency affects the distribution of degree of awareness in attention to L2 writing process. More proficient writers generate the text more fluently than less proficient ones, but when determined to solve some problems, the more proficient ones use more strategies to actively solve them, rather than to merely report the recognition of them. In comparison, less proficient writers seem to find the writing process more problematic, and they cope with these problems with more immediate decision making. However, less proficient writers are also competent strategy users, especially in solving problems of content and discourse organization. As to language use aspect, both fluent and strategic writing processes increase with the development of L2 proficiency.The present study is of theoretical implications in that it broadens the scope of study on attention in SLA by contributing to it with the findings in L2 writing; and it necessitates the urge for a reexamination of the existing theories of writing as problem-solving by offering direct evidence for a dual process of writing in the form of knowledge-constituting and problem-solving. It also provides strong pedagogical implications for L2 writing in general, and the English teaching and learning in the Chinese context in particular.