Measuring And Analyzing The Writing Performance In Chinese As A First Language And Chinese As A Second Language (in The Task Of Writing A Chinese Composition On The Same Topic By Upper-Level Chinese Students In Primary School And Upper-Level Vietnamese St

It has been40years since the research of Second language acquisition started growing as an independent field of study, and the concept of "language performance" has often been used in studying second language acquisition. According to Chomsky, a distinction is often made between competence and performance when studying language. In the case of second language acquisition, the concept of "language performance" means using grammar in the process of comprehension and production of language for the communicators (David Krystal/Translated by Shen Jiaxuan2004:262).In other words, language performance is the actual use of language (Richards/Translated by Guan Yanhong2000:338). Therefore, the concept of "performance analysis" means the knowledge of using language. In the study of Second language acquisition, performance analysis is an important method for researching language for learners and language development.This study measures the fluency, accuracy, complexity and diversity of language performance in the task of writing a Chinese composition on the same topic by upper-level Vietnamese students and upper-level Chinese students in primary school and in university, using experiments and literature as the main approaches for research, as well as the theory of second language acquisition and the contrastive analysis of the results of studying as the main reference theory. After describing the similarities and differences between Chinese and Vietnamese language performance, the author proceeds to analyze the reasons by analyzing of the data collected during the research.This article is divided into four chapters:Introduction, Chapter II:Design of the experiments, Chapter Ⅲ:Results of experiments, Chapter IV:Analysis of the results of the experiments.Chapter Ⅰ:Introduction. Firstly, the author presents the reasons, the subjects of experiments and the significance of the research. Secondly, the author determines the concept of language performance and written performance, then briefly introduces the findings of previous studies. On the basis of this, the author introduces the research methodology and experiments of this article.Chapter Ⅱ:Design of the experiments, proposes objectives of the experiments and the experiment design. The experiment is divided into five parts:the objectives, survey design, how the subjects for the experiment are determined, time and location of the survey, indexes (fluency, accuracy, complexity, diversity) and tools of survey (Statistical software Dimsum, survey). Consulting Carroll (1979), Wolfe-Quintero etc (1998) and Ellis&Barkhuizen (2005), summarizing the subjects of experiments and the significance of the research, combining specializations of Chinese, this study presents four indexes, includes the fluency, accuracy, complexity and diversity of language performance.Chapter Ⅲ:Experimental findings. This part reveals similarities and differences in terms of Chinese-writing performance between Vietnamese students and Chinese students by analyzing the data obtained in the survey. Vietnamese students’and Chinese students’character quantity are12113and13755. The statistical findings are as follows:In the fluency indexes, the Chinese students’rate of writing is8.8characters per minute, while Vietnamese students’is8.1characters per minute. In writing words, the Chinese students’rate is6.3words per minute, and Vietnamese students’is5.6words per minute.While the fluency indexes of the Chinese students’composition are slightly above those of the Vietnamese students. The diversity indexes of the Vietnamese students’composition are slightly above the Chinese students’.. Unique characters divided by total characters are0.091and0.095as results respectively of Chinese students’and Vietnamese students’. The result in dividing unique words by total words is0.190for Chinese students, whereas Vietnamese students’number is0.214. According to the researcher, there are four special sentences“是”,“有”,“把”and“被”sentence. The first two kinds of sentences are used more frequently by Vietnamese students than Chinese students; while the last two kinds of sentences are used more often by Chinese students than Vietnamese students. When the comparison comes to classified types in the four special sentences, the rate of using classified ones between Vietnamese students and Chinese students is nearly the same. Then the author finds out two reasons for the use of grammar by Vietnamese students. Firstly, there is a similar between the use of grammars in both Chinese and Vietnamese. Secondly, this is closely related to the teaching methods.The data shows that the Chinese students’accuracy indexes absolutely higher than Vietnamese students’. The rate of failing using words and sentences of Vietnamese students is2.6times higher than Chinese students’.Also, while the accuracy indexes of the Chinese students’composition are significantly higher than those of the Vietnamese students, the Vietnamese students’ syntax complexity index of the composition obviously exceeds that of the Chinese students, however their complexity indexes on Chinese characters and words are approximately the same. Vietnamese students’result of dividing HSK (Chinese proficiency test) words by total characters is29.2%, and by unique characters is 43.5%while those of Chinese students’are respectively of30.2%and41.6%. The author also figures out Vietnamese students’results of dividing HSK words by total words and unique words are24.4%and37.8%, while Chinese students have their results as23.9%and37.03%. The above data shows that their indexes are nearly equal. The two above comparisons demonstrate the determinant of the subjects for the experiment. In complexity indexes in selecting sentences, the mean length of utterance (for short MLU) of Vietnamese students is23.4characters, which is higher than Chinese students’22.5characters. T-unit has a pretty big gap.Chapter Ⅳ:Analysis of the results of the experiments. Based on the results, we analyze and propose main explanations for the findings of the experiment. Then the author finds out the two reasons for the use of grammar by Vietnamese students. Firstly, there is a similar between the use of grammars in both Chinese and Vietnamese. Secondly, this is closely related to the teaching methods.