The Effects Of Continuation Task Instructions On The Writing Performance Of High School EFL Learners

“Attention” plays an important role in language acquisition and conscious attention influences language learning outcomes.The present study used different reading-writing continuation task instructions to manipulate learners’ allocation of attentional resources in order to explore the effect of task instructions on learners’ writing performance.Specifically,this study recruited three students from a key high school in Shandong Province as research participants.According to the number of keywords in the reading materials used in continuation writing,the instructions for reading-writing continuation tasks were divided into three types: no-keyword instruction group,five-keyword instruction group,and ten-keyword instruction group.Through semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews,the participants’ accuracy,complexity,and fluency in continuation writings were analyzed from both the overall and individual levels.The results of the study showed that:(1)For the overall characteristics of writing performance,there was a significant effect of the different continuation task instructions on the writing accuracy of the three high school EFL learners,with the highest accuracy of writing in the no-keyword instruction group.In terms of writing complexity,there was no significant effect of different continuation task instructions.Different continuation task instructions had a significant effect on the writing fluency of the three high school EFL learners’ only in terms of the W/EFT measure.(2)For the individual characteristics of writing performance,the three participants differed in their writing performance in the reading-writing continuation of the three different task instructions.The three participants’ writing accuracy in continuation writing was highest in the no-keyword instruction group;they differed in terms of writing complexity and writing fluency,each showing different characteristics.The analysis of the interviews and their written production showed that their different writing performances in the continuation might be attributed to the learners’ emotions,their accumulation of linguistic materials,and the storyline of the reading materials.Theoretically,the findings of this study further validate the promoting effect of reading-writing continuation,and offer a different research perspective for the study of reading-writing continuation.Pedagogically,teachers can adopt different reading-writing continuation tasks to improve learners’ writing performance.Teachers can use no-keyword instruction group to improve learners’ writing accuracy,use five-keyword instruction group to improve learners’ story construction skills and writing complexity,etc.