Interweaving of L1 and L2 in L2 Thinking

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Interweaving of L1 and L2 in L2
Thinking

• Bai Hongai
• Yanbian University

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Hypothesis

• No. 1 L1 is a contributing factor in the
  cognitive
• processing of L2 writing in the developmental
  process of SLA (partially supported and
  rejected)
• No. 2 L1 thinking and L2 thinking make
  respective contribution to writing (supported)
• L1 --- a strategy of organizing textual
  
• contents and structure
• L2 --- an effective to approach to
  compose
• the linguistic expression
• No. 3 Writing is the interweaving of L1 and
  L2
• thinking. (supported)

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Theoretical Background

• Lay (1988)The comforts of the first language in
  learning to write
• The benefits from thinking through L1
• (1) Greater ease at brainstorming about topics
  and finding points to make about them
• (2) Increased facility at raising questions
• (3) increased likelihood of being able to work
  through complicated ideas
• (4) Ease at recalling past experiences
• (5) Greater facility at evaluating the
  organization of the essay
• (6) The enhancement of their self-expression
• (7) The availability of greater lexical variety
• (8) Greater propensity to display cultural
  sensitivity.

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Kern (1994)s opinion of L1 functions

• (1) to chunk material into semantic clusters
• (2) to keep their train of thought
• (3) to create a network of association
• (4) to clarify grammatical roles
• (5) to make the input more familiar and
  consequently more user-friendly

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Subjects of the research

• Totally 80 English major students from 3
• classes.

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Data Collection

• Retrospection
• 3 stages of writing, totally 15 steps
• Remove/avoid any possible variables

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• Steps of Writing (3 stages)
• Predrafting stage (1) Comprehending titles or
  requirements (2) Activating the related
  knowledge (3) Thesis statement (4) Textual
  structure (5) Outlines (6) Topic sentences
• Drafting stage (7)Unity (8)Coherence
  (9)Idea-developing (10)Fluent and native
  language (11)Grammar and spelling
• Postdrafting stage (12) Adding or deleting
  contents (13)Rearranging paragraphs or
  sentences (14)Checking up diction
  (15)Correcting grammar and spelling

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Table 1 Students preference of language of
thought at each step of writing()
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Figure 1 Chinese thinking of 3 classes students
at each step of writing process
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
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Figure 2 English thinking of high, middle,
low-level students
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15
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Chinese
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15
 
English
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Questions for further study

• The proportion of L1 and L2 thinking in a writing
  process
• The decisive factors influencing the ratio of L1
  and L2 thinking