Abstract
Ever since 1980s, much research has been done investigating the writing processes of L2 writers of different ages and abilities. Despite the abundance in such a research, there seems to be a dearth of studies on comparing the writing proficiency of both Arabic and Spanish speakers narrating in English. Motivated by such a huge research gap, this study was undertaken to answer the following questions: (1) what factors affect L2 learners accurate performance in writing, apart from their level of morphosyntactic competence? ; (2) from the cognitive perspective, do Arabic speakers differ from Spanish speakers during writing narrative texts?, and what is the nature of this difference (if it exists)?; and (3) from the cultural perspective, do Arabic speakers differ from Spanish speakers in writing narrative texts?, and what is the nature of this difference (if it exists)?. The subjects were ten foreign graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. They belonged to two different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The first was from the Arabic language group, and the second was from the Spanish linguistic group. The data were taken from (1) a questionnaire; (2) writing a narrative text, and (3) individual interviews. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The linguistic analysis of the data focused on the numbers of errors in the light of how many words that each subject produced in his/her essay, and the reason for these errors. In addition, both the cognitive and cultural aspects of the subjects’ written productions were examined and analyzed. Based on such analyses, recommendations were made.
Highlights
Background and Statement of the ProblemRecent attention to communicative competence, with its emphasis on sociolinguistic factors of language use, has led to the erroneous impression that communication is an oral phenomenon
This study was undertaken to answer the following questions: (1) what factors affect second language learners' accurate performance in writing, apart from their level of morphosynctactic competence?; (2) From the cognitive perspective, do Arabic speakers differ from Spanish speakers during writing narrative texts? And what is the nature of this difference?, and (3) From the cultural perspective, do Arabic speakers differ from Spanish speakers in writing narrative texts? And what is the nature of this difference?
The first was from the Arabic language group and the Middle Eastern culture
Summary
Recent attention to communicative competence, with its emphasis on sociolinguistic factors of language use, has led to the erroneous impression that communication is an oral phenomenon. Like speaking, writing shows that the individual can use the language to communicate" In this regard, Buckingham (1979) maintains that writing is no less communicative in intent than speech. It is my contention that writing in a foreign/ second language involves, at least, three interrelated skills: linguistic, cognitive and cultural. In this regard, Taylor (1976) points out that regardless of language proficiency, a writer needs to master the essentially non-linguistic intellectual and cognitive skills which underlie writing (Ferris & Hedgcock, 1998; Lindemann, 2001). We have to do the hard thing, examine the intangible process, rather than the easy thing; evaluate the tangible product” (Lillis & Curry, 2011; Tyler, 2011, Seglawitz, 2011)
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