Abstract
The present study attempted to unveil the differences in the cognitive processes employed in writing in a second language while writing on computer, and with paper and pencil. In doing so, eleven upper-intermediate, Persian-speaking English Language learners wrote texts in response to two International English Language Testing System (IELTS) writing tasks on computer and with paper and pencil. The Cognitive Processes Questionnaire (Weir, et al., 2007) and stimulated recall interviews were employed to collect data. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collected data indicated that the participants spent less time on pre-writing planning, in the computerized condition, but they paused more often during the writing process for online planning. Furthermore, the participants, in both conditions, spent less time for planning when they wanted to write examples pertinent to their own life experience. The participants, in the computerized writing, tended to evaluate and review the text during the process writing, while in the paper and pencil condition, the evaluation was postponed to the end of the writing process. Longer text revision and a higher number of the rearrangements of sentences and ideas were other features of computerized writing. These findings along with those of other studies can deepen our understanding of second language writing cognitive processes which can benefit second language teachers, curriculum developers, and test developers.
Highlights
Understanding the underlying processes of producing and comprehending a language has always been an appealing research topic for language researchers
The responses to cognitive processing questionnaire (CPQ), the analysis of think-aloud protocols, and the observation of the writing processes indicated the validity of Weir‟s (2005) cognitive model of writing; all phases that had been proposed by Weir were reported by the participants of this study in the written survey and the think-aloud interviews
The results of both survey and think-aloud interviews indicated that in both computerized and paper and pencil conditions, the participants prepared for writing by planning for the generic structure of the text, form-related, and content-related items which were dictated by the task requirements
Summary
Understanding the underlying processes of producing and comprehending a language has always been an appealing research topic for language researchers. Internal cognitive processes of comprehending and producing language discourse were ignored by the followers of behaviorism; the cognitive approach to studying first and second language gave currency to the input and output, and the processes that bridge these two poles. A long-lasting question which has lingered on writing studies has to do with the internal cognitive processes that one goes through to write a piece of writing. The research on this concealed part of language production started in the late 1970s, reviewing the scope and aims section of the journals specialized on first and second language writing, we can observe that the investigation of the internal processes is still in vogue. Taking the increasing instances of using computers to write texts in the real life tasks
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