Literature Review on the Use of First Language During Second Language Writing
Entisar Elsherif, Libya
Entisar Elsherif comes from Libya. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Composition and TESOL program at the University of Indiana of Pennsylvania. She has been teaching English since 1989. E-mail: e.elsherif66@yahoo.com
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Abstract
Introduction
Research question
Method
Summary of findings
Discussion
Conclusion
References
The paper discusses how L2 writers use their L1 while writing in L2. It investigates L1 use in L2 by exploring the results of ten studies that examined it from different perspectives and in different contexts. By introducing the results of L1 use by L2 writers, ESL/EFL teachers will play a great role by helping students use their L1 positively and avoid the negative impacts of L1 use. This kind of research is of significance because the studied research results showed that further research is needed in this area. This review will provide a basis for ideas to investigate L1 use in L2 writing.
The paper focuses on an important skill in English language teaching which is writing. The focus of the paper is L1 use which has been considered as taboo. This would target the interest of most of HLT audience, especially writing teachers. The main mission is to introduce the role of L1 use in L2 writing. This paper reviews the second language (L2) writers’ use of the first language (L1) while composing in the second language (L2) in ten studies. Those studies looked at three proficiency groups that included adult high-proficient, intermediate, and low-proficient writer’s use of L1. The results indicated that L1 is used frequently while writing in L2 by translating, language-switching, and backtracking. It was also noticed that L1 use had positive effects on L2 text.
For nearly three decades, research on second language writing increased and focused on different aspects regarding first language (L1) and second language (L2) writing (Wang, 2003; Wang & Wen, 2002). Several studies compared L1 and L2 processes, whereas others looked at the use of L1 in L2 writing. L2 writing is different than L1 writing because L2 writers have two languages that they can use “for cognitive operations” (Wang & Wen, 2002, p. 225). This difference attracted many researchers, who then looked at their use of L1 in writing, the frequency of using L1, and the effects of using L1 on the quality of L2 written text.
Many researchers and teachers discouraged L1 use in the L2 classroom. Cook (2001) summarized these calls into two groups, a group rejected using L1 in the classroom and the other group called for minimizing L1 use in the language classroom. The dominant idea was that L1 has negative effects on L2 learners. Cook, however, called for considering L1 as a “classroom resource” (p. 402), which opened the “firmly shut” doors to use L1 in the language classroom (p. 403). Similarly, one of Akbari’s (2008, 279) ways of transforming ELT classrooms through the implementation of critical pedagogy was “by using L1 as a resource to be utilized.”
Cook (2001) specified three reasons for rejecting L1 use in L2 classroom. The first reason was derived from the argument that says L2 learners should not depend on their L1 because monolinguals use only their L1. The second was a result of the idea that L1 and L2 should be separated to facilitate L2 learning. Thirdly, it is believed that students will be given more chances to practice using L2 by avoiding L1. Since there was no convincing evidence to avoiding using L1 in the L2 classroom, Cook introduced ways by which L1 can be used positively. Teachers can use L1 to “convey meaning,” “explain grammar,” organize class tasks,” for testing, and “maintain discipline” whereas students can use L1 as “part of the main learning activity” and “classroom activities” (Cook, 2001, p. 213 – 215). Therefore, this review will support either of the arguments raised for or against using L1 in L2 classroom.
The review covers only the studies that were published between the years 1998 – 2011, which looked at adult high proficient and low proficient writers’ L2 writing. The reason behind this focus is to look at more up-to-date relevant data. Most of the studies used think-aloud protocols to analyze the retrieval of L1 while writing in L2. These studies revealed that L2 writers relied on their L1 through translation, language-switching, and backtracking for different purposes during the writing process. This will provide teachers and researchers with insight on the topic and ways to utilize and implement the results. Based on the findings from these studies, suggestions for future research will be presented.
The aim of this review is to investigate L2 writers’ use of their L1 while composing written work. Therefore, how do L2 writers use their L1 while composing? Looking at the strategies they depend on to overcome the difficulties, they encounter to produce a written text will be the main concern to this paper. This investigation will provide teachers, like myself, with a thorough understanding of L2 writers’ use of L1 to help retrieve L1 in a positive way that does not affect their written text negatively.
To answer this question, I explored the published studies from 1998 to 2011 and concentrated on ten accurate and reliable sources. The studies were published in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Second language Writing or TESL-EJ. The studies that were published before 1998 were excluded those that were included in the study supported their findings and were regarded as the most up-to-date. Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Libraries’ Serials Department, IUP E-Journals portal, and IUP online search engines were the main sources that were used to locate studies. EBSCOHOST was used to search the database for related articles. The key words that guided the search were ‘L1 use during L2 writing’, ‘multilingual writers’ use of L1’, and ‘composing in L2.’ After locating studies, they were thoroughly read, focusing on finding the results that provided answers to the question. Those studies that dealt with the same topic from a different perspective would not provide answers to the question, so these were excluded as well. Moreover, some of the studies provided answers to my questions but raised other questions that were not related to this paper. Data with these results were included without mentioning the results of the unrelated questions.
Exploring L2 writers’ use of L1 to produce a written text was the main purpose of this review; therefore, a variety of studies were explored. The results revealed that adult L2 students with high and/or low proficiency used translation, language-switching, or backtracking when they used their L2. Proficiency varied their use of these strategies. The factors that affected the studies show the necessity of further research. In this section, a summary of ten studies will be presented, starting from the previous ones to the latest.
The first study in this section was conducted by Qi (1998) who studied the conditions that would make high proficient writer switch languages while writing in L2. She also looked at how language-switching affected L2 composing. One Chinese female participant, who lived in Canada for three years, was her only participant. The participant learned English for 10 years. Qi collected data from three writing tasks in which the student was asked to compose in English, translate from Chinese to English, and problem-solve in English. Qi considered “two different levels of knowledge demands” (p. 419). The letter-writing task was considered as the low-level knowledge demand and the expository task as the high-level demand. Qi used think aloud-protocols and asked her participant to write by hand while doing the tasks. The writing sessions were recorded and decoded. The participant was interviewed after each writing task. The results revealed that the participant did the letter writing nearly without planning as she developed her ideas while writing whereas, in the expository task, she spent “about a quarter of the time” (p. 422) in planning and replanning for the task. The participant thought, wrote, and revised frequently during the writing process. During the less demanding translation task, the participant read aloud and translated without switching. On the contrary, she switched to her L1 to deal with high-level knowledge demanding tasks. This showed that high knowledge demands were the main factors for language-switching. When Qi looked at the reasons for language switching, the results showed that the participant retrieved her L1 to generate ideas, encode a meaning quickly, check the appropriateness of a word or phrase, and to minimize the overload of working memory. The main concern that yielded from this study is that the researcher relied on only one participant to look at what makes L2 writer resort to his/her L1 while writing in L2. This leads to an important issue which is generalizability. Results that derive from only one participant cannot be generalized to the whole ESL/EFL population.
The second study in this review is different from the previous study in that Machon, Roca & Murphy (2000) investigated backtracking behaviors. The researchers looked at the types of backtracking L2 writers use and the effects of this method. The study included three intermediate level informants. These informants were second-year students in a teacher-training course of English at the University of Murcia in Spain. They had been studying English for eight years. Data was collected through think-aloud protocols during two different writing tasks: narrative and argumentative. The results showed that the subjects rescanned “their [already-written texts], the prompt and their notes/outlines using their L2 and their L1” (p. 24). Because of this, the researchers distinguished between two types of backtracking, which are backtracking through L1 and backtracking through L2. In this review, only the results re |
