Change in French Second Language Writing in Study Abroad and Domestic Contexts

Abstract

This descriptive case study examines the writing of eight university learners of French—four during study abroad and four in on‐campus courses—over the course of a semester. The study abroad students all improved their ACTFL writing proficiency scores, while the domestic students' writing proficiency levels tended to stay the same or even decreased. But what specific features of students' writing changed over the semester? This study applied fine‐grained measures focused on the complexity, accuracy, fluency, and form‐function relationships of writing samples collected at the beginning and end of the semester. Results showed that students' writing developed in both study abroad and domestic contexts, although in different ways. Given the complexity of writing development, multiple measures should be used to assess second language writing across learning contexts.

Analysis of Accuracy and Grammatical Complexity in the Writing of Upper Intermediate and Advanced Learners of English

“…Advanced users write more accurately, and their writing is grammatically more complex. These results are in line with those of Tedick (1990), Larsen Freeman (2006, and Godfrey and Treacy (2014) that show differences among course levels and a tendency towards improvement in written competence over time.…”

“…Larsen-Freeman, 2006;Tedick, 1990). Some research also reveals improvement in L2 writing over time, although in different ways depending on the students investigated (Godfrey and Treacy, 2014). On the contrary, studies by Knoch et al (2014Knoch et al ( , 2015 found that the participants´ written performance improvement over time was evident only in the holistic rating, and in fluency not finding any significant changes over time in accuracy or complexity.…”

“…Recent studies use measures of fluency, accuracy, and complexity to compare writing performance under different conditions (Ghavamnia, Tavakoli & Esteki, 2013), to analyse raters' judgments of various rating measures (Kuiken and Ved-der (2014), or to compare writing performance at different instruction periods (Knoch, Rouhshad & Storch, 2014;Knoch, Rouhshad, Oon & Storch, 2015;Godfrey and Treacy, 2014). Ghavamnia et al (2013:34) conducted a study with forty intermediate EFL learners in order to see if any significant difference existed in the writing performance of the participants under two planning conditions, pre-task planning and online planning in relation to complexity, accuracy, and fluency.…”

“…In terms of the discourse measures, also consistent with Knoch et al (2014), fluency (measured via word count) increased significantly over three years of degree study, suggesting that participants were able to produce more words within the same allotted time, whereas accuracy, grammatical and lexical complexity did not change over time (2015:50). Godfrey and Treacy (2014) examined the writing of eight university learners of French-four during study abroad and four in on-campus courses-over the course of a semester. This study applied measures focused on the complexity, accuracy, fluency, and form-function relationships of writing samples collected at the beginning and end of the semester.…”

Analysis of EFL Writing in Secondary Education

“…Those of Knoch et al (2014Knoch et al ( , 2015 found significant writing development but limited to certain measures in students who had spent some period of study abroad. Navés, Torras, and Celaya (2003) and Godfrey, Treacy, and Tarone (2014) also report longitudinal studies, but comparing the performance of different groups. Navés et al (2003) investigated the development of the written production of six groups of primary and secondary education learners using fluency, accuracy, and complexity measures.…”