Developmental Features In Written Production Of Korean Chinese Learners

Writing is an important skill in second language acquisition. Teachers will be able to know understand how learners use the second language (L2) by analyzing learners'writing samples to diagnose the problems in writing and thus, helping to improve accordingly. There are numerous publications discussing writing in English as L2 (ESL) but pretty few in Chinese as L2 (CSL). Many topics in CSL writing call for further research.In regard to the current situation, this research aimed to investigate the developmental features in CSL writing. Our participants were eight Korean natives majoring in Chinese in Hanyang University of South Korea, four with higher proficiency and four lower. They were asked to carry out repeated tasks of writing each week for densely data collection throughout one semester (12 weeks).136 journals were collected with a total of around 60,000 Chinese characters.This research referred to studies on writing development in ESL (Wolfe-Quintero et al. 1998, Wen et al.2003, Larsen-Freeman 2006, Verspoor et al.2008, Ji 2009), to which combined those in CSL output, both oral and written (Yuan 2009, Jiang 2013, An 2015, Chen 2015), and developed the current research framework. Within the framework, writing samples were examined from both quantitative and qualitative standpoints. From a quantitative standpoint, attentions were mainly paid on the development in three dimensions, namely complexity (both lexical and syntactical), accuracy and fluency in cohort average, group average as well as individuals. From a qualitative standpoint, we focused on the changes in idea units and types of errors in writing.The quantitative study demonstrated that improvements, although imbalanced. were seen in all three aspects by cohort average during the 12-week period. Learners made greatest improvement in complexity; certain progress was seen in the development of accuracy; learners improved least in fluency and almost no change was found throughout one semester. The group average showed that different proficiency level in L2 would possibly lead to different developmental paths in writing. Learners with comparatively higher proficiency improved mostly in syntactical complexity and accuracy while remained almost unchanged in other aspects. Learners with relatively lower proficiency made biggest progress in lexical and syntactical complexity; however, unlike their advanced counterparts, they experienced retrogress in accuracy. Developmental paths of individuals were not the same as the cohort and group averages. Development was dynamic, non-linear, chaotic and unpredictable with enormous inter-and even intra-variations when we looked at individual performance.The emergence of a new order in idea units and the changes in sentence patterns and wording of idea units by comparing writing samples from different weeks during the semester in the qualitative study served as supporting details to the conclusion in quantitative analysis. Meanwhile, with the influence of negative transfer of their LI, similar types of errors were discovered in writing samples of all eight learners, which hindered the development in accuracy, particularly of lower-proficient learners.Based on the findings, we proposed following suggestions to Chinese writing and comprehensive courses:1) balanced attention from teachers are called for to all aspects in CSL writing, especially to those in which learners make less progress; 2) break through the bottleneck of writing for learners of different language proficiency by adjusting key points and methods in teaching; 3) especial attention should be paid to the systematic problems by tailoring varied teaching methods and ways of offering corrective feedback to different learners; 4) performance assessments are called for due to the dynamism in writing development, making teachers have a better understanding of learners'current stage in development.