Influence Of Interacting Factors On The Writing Performance In German As A Third Language

As the fields of studying the second language acquisition develop rapidly and the study of factors on individual learners becomes more specific,more and more studies related to effects on the single abilities of learning the second language come into practice.Compared to it,the third language acquisition is still a new subject.Therefore,more studies are badly needed concerning theories supporting the third language acquisition.The studies on the single abilities of learning the third language can make the former studies more complete and give more sufficient findings and draw more effective conclusionsThis study focuses on the factors which affect the writing performance in the third language,that is PGG.Many factors influence the language writing.After an empirical research one can include all factors,which is unrealistic.Compared with factors not related to learners,this study suggests that the learner factors were more important.Depending on this,research into the controllable factors of learners is of benefit to learners'finding the reasons from their own and learn language well through their own efforts.Thus,this study defines the study on the research on learners' controllable factors.The aspects are as follows(1)tolerance of German writing ambiguity,writing anxiety about German(two emotional factors),German writing strategies(cognitive factors),transfer ability(Chinese writing ability,English writing ability,ability of C-E translation,ability of C-G translation,ability of E-G translation),the ability of German(In German,except writing skills,do the ability to listening=dictation+listening,reading ability,grammar and vocabulary,the five controllable factors,have an influence on the writing results in PGG?(2)if any,how these controllable factors on learners influence leaner's writing performance?(3)Is there any connection among the controllable factors on learners.(4)what types of mistakes occur in writing in PGG;the mistakes is because the learner's ability is not so good or is just because of the transfer factor.In order to answer the questions(1)to(3),the study involves 229 Grade 2 students of seven universities majoring in German.A lot of surveys are carried out regarding Chinese writing,two translations(C-G and E-G),three questionnaires(tolerance of German writing ambiguity,tolerance of German writing ambiguity,writing anxiety about German(two emotional factors),German writing strategies and German writing strategy),and two tests(the writing test of university English fourth levels,German specialized fourth level test).Altogether,there are several items including dictation,listening,reading,the usage of vocabulary,grammar,error correction and writing).Based on the theoretical framework and empirical data,the study is conducted to analyze the relationship between variables using descriptive analysis,relative connection analysis and other statistical methods.Then through the AMOS statistical software to build a structure model regarding the effect caused by variables on German specialized four levels(PGG)writing achievement.The model describes the direct or indirect influence of controllable factors on learners' German specialized four levels(PGG)writing performance and what deep influence they have,but also clearly shows the interaction between all the five controllable factors.Through the model the study explains all the problems presented above from(1)to(3).In order to answer the question(4),this study first makes a comparison among the three kinds of languages,that is Chinese,English and German,makes a list of a variety of possible mistakes and marks the mistakes occurring in the 90 compositions belonging to high,middle,lower group.After that,a statistical software are used in the error statistics.Besides,an explanation is made about the cause of errors.On the one hand,it verifies the results of the test phase;on the other hand,it reproduces the effects of migration ability and language ability on writing.The main findings of this study are:(1)among five controllable factors except German writing strategy within the research framework which affect learners' writing achievement in PGG,the relationship between the factors is complicated.The four controllable factors of learners are interactive.Some factors are more affected while some other factors are less.Whereas,various factors are not isolated.Some factors are affected positively.In contrast,some factors are influenced negatively.We can know the differences through the following aspects:on the whole,tolerance of German writing ambiguity has a negative effect on the German writing anxiety.When tolerance of ambiguity is high,German anxiety becomes less;German ability can have positive effects on tranfer ability.The higher the German ability is,the higher the transfer ability is;German writing anxiety has a negative effect on the German ability.If German writing anxiety is becoming worse,one's German ability can be weaker rather than stronger;tolerance of German writing ambiguity can have a positive effect on German ability.Generally,when tolerance of German writing ambiguity is high,German ability is strong;the effect of tolerance of German writing ambiguity on the transfer ability is positive.If tolerance of ambiguity is high,the transfer ability is strong;German writing anxiety has negative effects on transfer ability.If one's German writing anxiety is high,his transfer ability is poor.The second major finding of this study is as follows:five controllable factors except German writing strategy within the research framework which affect learners'writing achievement in PGG definitely has some effects on German writing achievement.Some effects are direct,such as transfer ability;some are indirect,such as tolerance of German writing ambiguity,anxiety and the German ability.About the finding we can have a better understanding through the facts below:the German writing anxiety has a negative effect on writing scores in PGG.When German writing anxiety is high,writing scores are bad;tolerance of German writing ambiguity' effect on writing scores is positive.If tolerance is high,German writing achievement is high;the German ability has a positive effect on writing scores.The higher the ability is,the better one's writing performance is;Besides,one's transfer ability also has a positive effect on writing scores.Due to one's high transfer ability,his writing achievement can be excellent.The third major finding of this study is as follows:the number of kinds of mistakes happens less possibly in high writing group,while the number of various mistakes are among the highest.Based on the classification on types of mistakes into part of speech,grammar,vocabulary and spelling,the number of mistakes become less with one's writing score going up.According to the specific situation,the study finds that the phenomenon has four reasons.Firstly,English is similar to German but not to Chinese.People's traditional way of expressing Chinese is so common that it has a negative effect on the transfer ability from one language to another.Secondly,Chinese,English and German are three different languages.In most cases,Chinese won't have any effect on German.Although English doesn't agree with German,the two has some similarities.Consequently,English has a deeper influence on German.Thirdly,German differs from Chinese and English.It has its distinct features.Students are more likely to make some mistakes just because of lack of basic knowledge and confusion of their memory.Finally,in some sense,Chinese has some similarities to English rather than German.Students can have a good transmission ability from Chinese to English.Habitually,students still use the same way of expressing ideas in German without noticing the differences.Owing to this,students make a lot of mistakes in German.To conclude,various mistakes are likely to be caused by one or one more reasons.The mistakes in writing in PGG are not only because of negative transfer of Chinese or English to German,but due to students'weakness in acquisition of basic knowledge of German.The study indicates that the ability of writing in German is affected by several factors.Based on this,students and teachers should learn to better the writing skill in various aspects.(1)psychological education should be highlighted.In addition,tolerance of ambiguity and writing skill should be improved while writing anxiety be weakened.(2)different skills of language learning ought to be bettered all around,especially the skill of the first and second language learning.Meanwhile the writing skill in the third language should be strengthened.(3)The teaching of languages should be lively and diverse.Aside from this,the learning and acquisition can be combined reasonably;With regard to this,translation exercises can be employed in applying the target language.Importantly,the learning of making a comparison among languages should be strengthened.(4)Finally,the effectiveness in teaching writing should be improved.Because of this,students can enjoy themselves in writing,so that they can improve their writing skill.