Effect of Talk on English as a Foreign Language Writing Development and Language Learner Identity: A Study of Chinese College Students

Abstract

Writing is regarded as a huge challenge for students who study English as a foreign language (EFL). Confronted with the poor writing performance of Chinese students, researchers have been exploring the effective approaches to teaching EFL writing. "Talk for writing" is a widely studied field in countries such as the UK and New Zealand. However, reliable literature in this domain is scarce in China, and most of of it is short-term or unstructured research. Thus, this article aims to explore how (EFL) writing development and language learner identity are affected by talk, a process derived from social constructivism, entailing expounding, exchange, negotiation, reflection, and development. The 18-week longitudinal study applied a "talk for writing" approach to college English writing classes with 74 English-major students from a higher vocational college. This research, employing both quantitative methods and qualitative methods, yielded rich and dynamic results. (1) The quantitative data indicated that the "talk for writing" approach improved students' academic writing attainment on the whole. Particularly, the cohort of so-called "modest writers" benefited the most from it. Moreover, this approach, to a large extent, exerted a positive impact on the reconstruction of students' language learner identity. (2) The qualitative data identified the types of talk that supported writing and provided evidence for the ways in which talk supported students' ability to generate ideas, to use talk as oral rehearsal in preparation for writing, and to improve their linguistic accuracy. It also gave insights into students' views on this approach. Also, this approach developed students' engagement, motivation and confidence in English writing and delineated the negotiating trajectories of students' language learner identity.