Abstract
A growing body of research has been investigating how L2 writers, while writing in the second language (L2), make use of their first language (L1). In view of this, the present study was conducted to examine the effect of translation on the enhancement or deterioration of Iranian Elementary EFL learners’ writing ability. The participants (N = 60) were prompted to perform two writing tasks: (a) writing directly in English (learners’ L2) and (b) writing in their L1 (Persian) and then translating it into English. They were also assigned a checklist, a retrospective verbal report, to express their attitudes towards the two modes of writing. Analysis of the results revealed that although translation may be of help to some learners, it cannot be an effective strategy to enhance the writing ability of all learners. In effect, the results indicated that there was a significant difference between two writing tasks in terms of using expressions, transitions, and grammatical points. What was of particular interest to the authors was the fact that direct writing did not seem to be as direct as it was expected. The vast majority (75%) of students reported they think in Persian, as “often” or “always” while doing the English task in the direct writing mode. This finding suggests that teachers should incorporate translation strategies into their writing courses and explicitly teach students how to employ effective strategies in different situations. The provision of instruction and practice in using L1, particularly in planning and organizing learners’ writings, may be of benefit to some learners in performing certain writing tasks. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/GEMA-2014-1402-05
Highlights
Second language writing is a complex task which depends on the writer’s capacity and interest in understanding the reader’s potential point of view (Perez, et al, 2003)
Students’ performances on the direct writing task were rather good in terms of expression, transition, and grammar, while their performances on the translated task were rather weak in terms of expression, transition, and grammar
These findings clearly pointed to the superiority of performances in the direct writing task than in the translated one
Summary
Second language writing is a complex task which depends on the writer’s capacity and interest in understanding the reader’s potential point of view (Perez, et al, 2003). A number of studies have been conducted to explore how L2 writers make use of their first language (L1) while writing in the second language. These studies have demonstrated how learners use their first language for different purposes such as planning (Wang, 2003; Woodall, 2002), idea or content generation (Beare & Bourdages, 2007; Knutson, 2006), linguistic problem solving (Beare, 2000; Centeno-Cortes & Jimenez Jimenez, 2004; Lay, 1982), backtracking ISSN: 1675-8021. Taking a translation approach to writing in the second language, the cohesion of the text, including markers of transition and syntactic complexity, could be enhanced. Cohen and Brooks-Carson (2001) argued that the translated approach to writing might lead to the lower quality of grammar, in particular syntax. It seems necessary that the investigators consider participants’ ability to use, inter alia, a vast number of cohesive devices, complex syntactic structures, breadth of terminologies, and grammatical structures in L1
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