A Study Of The Use Of Pre-writing Strategies By Chinese Tertiary EFL Learners In A Timed Writing Condition

This thesis reports a study of the use of pre-writing strategies by Chinese tertiary EFL learners in a timed writing condition. The study aims to (1) describe the possible strategies employed by the students prior to the writing tasks before and after the training they received, (2) observe the changes in the use of the pre-writing strategies along with different post-training writing tasks, and (3) examine the relationship between the use of pre-writing strategies and the learners'writing performances.The subjects chosen for this study were 6 non-English major students with different academic backgrounds, and labeled respectively as high- and low-level learners according to their performances on CET-4. The data used in this study came from three major sources: the subjects'writings; the subjects'verbal reports such as post-writing interviews and post-writing logs, and the subjects'responses to the pre-training questionnaires. The subjects were asked to write four compositions on different topics. Before they started with the first two writing tasks, the 6 subjects were trained to have some necessary knowledge of the pre-writing strategies, and then were asked to write another two compositions on different given topics after the training. The pre-writing strategies introduced in the training include: clustering of strategies, brainstorming strategy, free writing strategy and journalist's questions.This study adopted the qualitative approach in the data analysis, which generated the following major findings:First, the subjects were aware of using some strategies in their pre-training writings on the two given topics although they did not know what strategies they used. For example, they wrote with the aid of the cue cards by making a list of key words or expressions on the blank paper. Second, different strategies were used by the subjects in the two post-training writing task. Of the four strategies introduced in the training, the journalists'questions and clustering were preferably used by the learners prior to the writing. Interestingly, free writing was totally ignored by the all the subjects in accomplishing the writing tasks. This suggests that the learners prefer to use the time-saving pre-writing strategies to get the writing tasks completed in a timed writing condition.Third, the data analysis based on the subjects'post-writing logs and the subjects'retrospectives in the interviews reveals that the learners made different choices of pre-writing strategies according to the different writing tasks, namely, narration and argumentation. In the case of the narrative writing task, the journalists'questions was used as the first choice of strategy. In the case of the argumentative writing task, brainstorming was preferred to be used. Therefore, the different types of writing tasks may somehow affect the choice of the pre-writing strategies.Finally, the in-depth analysis shows that the use of pre-writing strategies may produce some effect on the learners'writing performances. However, high-level students'writing performances were least affected by the use of pre-writing strategies while the low-level students made substantial progress in writing as was indicated in their performances on the post-training writing tasks. This suggests that the use of pre-writing strategies is more effective for the learners of lower linguistic proficiency.The findings generated in this study may have some pedagogical implications. First, the strategy-based writing instruction is applicable and practical in the L2 teaching and in some degree is more important than the learners'process of writing. Second, the pre-writing strategy is more effective for less successful learners in their writing practice, but should not be overused in all writing conditions or extended to learners of all levels.