The Effects Of Written Languaging In Response To Direct Written Corrective Feedback Upon High School Students' Writing Accuracy

Languaging has been playing an essential role in second language learning.Based on Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory,Swain defines languaging as "the process of making meaning and shaping knowledge through language".Since its introduction,the effects of languaging,especially oral languaging,have been widely investigated in the field of second language acquisition.The paucity of empirical research on written languaging in second language acquisition,in spite of its theoretical significance for learning,prompts this study.Writing,as one of four important basic language skills,is an indispensable part in second language acquisition.Numerous studies conducted about English writing feedback have concentrated on corrective feedback,both on teacher's feedback and peer's feedback.So far,written corrective feedback(WCF),has been regarded as one of the most prevalent methods.However,research in this field has diverged over the efficiency of WCF on improving learners'writing accuracy.Considering that written languaging can provide learners with an opportunity to reflect on their linguistic errors,this study combined written languaging with direct WCF to investigate the effects of written languaging in response to direct WCF on students'writing accuracy.The present study aimed to answer the following three questions:1)What effects does the written languaging in response to direct written corrective feedback have on students' writing accuracy?2)What effects does the written languaging in response to direct written corrective feedback have on the accuracy of the use of proper words,articles,inflectional forms and sentence structures respectively?3)What are the students' attitudes towards written languaging in response to direct written corrective feedback?The present study adopted pretest-posttest comparison group quasi-experimental design.Two intact classes were chosen from one high middle school.The research subjects were 80 second-year students(42 boys and 38 girls,mean age = 16.8 years old).The two classes were randomly regarded as the control group only receiving direct WCF and the experimental group receiving direct WCF plus written languaging respectively.This experiment lasted for 18 weeks.The first week was a pretest for ensuring the comparability of the two groups' writing accuracy before the experiment.In the next 16 weeks,the experiment was divided into 8 rounds with each round including two stages:essay writing stage and revising stage.In the essay writing stage,all participants wrote an essay according to same writing prompts.In the revising stage,experimental group performed written languaging task and revision task,while the control group only performed revision task.The last week was a post-test for comparing the effects on writing accuracy after the experiment.The author utilized both quantitative research method and qualitative research method into the present study.This study encompassed experimental method,and semi-structured interview to collect data about the dependent variables before and after the teaching experiment.After data collection,the author used Paired-samples T test and Independent-samples T test to examine significant differences with SPSS 17.0.Also,the qualitative data was analyzed to find out supportive reasons for the quantitative results and explore students' opinions on receiving direct WCF and involving in written langugaing.After data analysis,the author drew the following conclusions:1.Written languaging in response to direct WCF can be more effective and significant than only direct WCF in improving students' writing accuracy.In other words,written languaging can enhance the efficiency of direct WCF on students'writing accuracy.2.Written langugaing in response to direct WCF can help improve students'writing accuracy on the use of proper words and inflectional forms.But there was no improvement on the accuracy of articles and sentence structures.3.Students' opinions on written languaging in response to direct WCF verified the efficiency of written languaging upon writing accuracy from the following aspects:firstly,written languaging raises learners' awareness and sharpens their consciousness on the target language;secondly,written languaging promotes learners to reflect upon the errors and detect the gaps between their interlanguage and target language;thirdly,written languaging mediates learners' acquisition of self-regulation.