Source use and argumentation behavior in L1 and L2 writing: a within-writer comparison

Daphne Van Weijen,Gert Rijlaarsdam,Huub Van Den Bergh

doi:10.1007/s11145-018-9842-9

Daphne Van Weijen, Gert Rijlaarsdam + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9842-9

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to test whether Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH) might also apply to writing, by determining to what extent writers’ text quality, source use and argumentation behavior are related in L1 and L2, how effective writers’ behavior is and whether their L2 proficiency influenced the relations between them. To answer these questions, twenty students wrote four short argumentative source based essays each in L1 (Dutch) and four in L2 (English). A within-writer cross-linguistic comparison of their texts revealed that their L1 and L2 writing competencies appear to be related. Furthermore, writers’ source use behavior differed to some extent between languages, but the strong positive correlations found between source use features suggest that in most cases this was more a person than a language effect. Similarly, for argumentation behavior, results showed some learner specific features (e.g. inclusion of titles and reference lists), but differences between languages for others (e.g. the inclusion of both arguments and counter-arguments). Effects of the different source use and argumentation features studied on text quality were limited and no clear effect of L2 proficiency on writers’ behavior or their influence on text quality were found. Overall, in line with earlier research, these findings provide some additional support for Cummins’ LIH and the idea that writers might have a common underlying source for writing related knowledge and practices which they can apply in multiple languages.

Highlights

In higher education, students are often required to write argumentative essays as part of their academic coursework using relevant sources
The aim of this study was to test whether Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH) might apply to writing, by determining to what extent writers’ text quality, source use and argumentation behavior are related in L1 and L2, how effective writers’ behavior is and whether their L2 proficiency influenced the relations between them
In the last step of the analysis we investigated to what extent writers’ source use and argumentation behavior was related to text quality and to what extent these relations were moderated by L2 proficiency

Summary

Introduction

Students are often required to write argumentative essays as part of their academic coursework using relevant sources. During argumentative essay writing writers must adhere to strict requirements related to argumentative structure (Coirier, Andriessen, & Chanquoy, 1999) and distribute their attention effectively between what they want to say, how they want to say it, and how to apply their reasoning skills Argumentative writing is clearly ‘‘an intellectually challenging problem’’ (Ferretti & Fan, 2016) and as a result it is not surprising that young or inexperienced writers find writing argumentative texts more difficult than writing narrative ones (McCutchen, 2011). An added complicating factor, is that specific characteristics of genres such as argumentative writing, can differ between cultures and languages (cf. Graham & Rijlaarsdam, 2016), this depends to some degree on the extent to which languages are related

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