The effect of different aspects of audience on Korean EFL university learners’ L2 writing performance

Abstract

Although audience awareness, or consideration of the intended audience, has been widely accepted as a critical part of any effective writing, the ability to write audience-appropriate texts has gained little attention in EFL writing instruction. The present paper investigates the impact of different audiences on the writing performance of Korean EFL learners with intermediate to advanced level of language proficiency focusing on the quality of audience awareness. Drawing on Grabe and Kaplan’s (1996) framework of audience, this study incorporated audiences having a high or low level of familiarity with the writers and being more or less knowledgeable on a given topic in email and argumentative writing tasks. Thirty-seven Korean EFL university learners completed two writing tasks and two questionnaires. Their analytic writing scores including scores for the criterion of audience awareness were statistically analyzed and examined together with the responses to audience-related strategy questionnaires. While no statistically significant effect was found for the audience, results collectively indicated that Korean EFL writers were limited in their ability to generate audience-adapted writing. Findings of the study provide pedagogical implications highlighting the importance of cultivating audience awareness in L2 writers.