Mother Tongue Transfer To The English Writing Process And Product

The present study was undertaken to investigate the involvement of L1thinkingin L2writing of non-English majors, who are usually regarded as low-proficiencylearners. The rate of L1thinking was calculated to find out if there is, and to whatextent L1thinking is involved in L2writing. A correlation analysis was made betweenthe amount of L1thinking and the final scores of the compositions as well as thescores of each stage in L2writing to discover if L1involvement would facilitate orhinder L2writing. Data analyses of the post-writing questionnaire aimed at figuringout the effects and reasons of L1thinking involvement in L2writing for non-Englishmajors.All the30participants majoring in Preschool Education from two intact classes inShaanxi Institute of Education were asked to write two tasks of an English picturecomposition and a narrative writing. Think-aloud method was used to record theprocess of L2writing to find out the amount of L1involvement in L2writing. Aquestionnaire was answered after their writing.The quantitative results of SPSS analyses and qualitative data collected frompost-writing questionnaire revealed that1) All the subjects depended greatly on L1thinking in L2writing in both the picture composition and narration, and the frequencyvaried in four stages of the composition process.2) Positive correlations were foundbetween L1thinking and L2writing products. But none of the coefficients wassignificant. Many students still believed that L1thinking could not help or even hinderL2writing. L1thinking and direct translating from Chinese to English intext-generating would result in unidiomatic and inaccurate English expressions, whichlower L2writing quality.3) Different reasons were given by the students for the use ofL1thinking, but most of them admitted one main reason: inadequate L2competence.Almost every student claimed that they were restrained by L2inadequacy and couldnot think in English directly when being asked the reasons why L1thinking wereadopted.4) From a cognitive point of view, L1involvement is a learning strategy, andappropriate adoption of L1under proper circumstances will help to improve learners’English proficiency. Appropriate and reasonable treatment should be given to L1thinking in L2writing instructions so that students can take advantage of the merits of L1thinking and get rid of the demerits in order to create idiomatic and accurateEnglish.