The Effects of Pre-Task Planning on Second Language Writing:A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies

There are both pedagogical and theoretical grounds for asking second language writers to plan before they start writing.The question then arises whether pre-task planning(PTP)improves written output.To address this question,this article reviewed 32 studies by comparing the effect of PTP either with no planning or with unpressured online planning(OLP).These studies also investigated the moderating effect of variables relating to the writer participants,the nature of the planning,and the writing tasks.The main findings are:(1)There is no clear evidence that PTP leads to better overall writing quality when this is measured using rating rubrics,(2)PTP generally results in more fluent writing,(3)its impact on syntactical and lexical complexity is inconsistent and negligible,(4)OLP does sometimes result in increased linguistic accuracy,and(5)there is insufficient evidence to reach clear conclusions about the role that moderating variables have on the impact of PTP,but the results suggest that collaborative(as opposed to individual planning)can lead to increased accuracy and that PTP tends to lead to more complex language when the writing task is a complex one.The article concludes with a set of principles to ensure better quality research and three general proposals for the kind of future research needed.

An Empirical Study of the Washback of CET-4 Writing

This article is an empirical study on the washback of the writing section （i.e. writing subtest as in this paper） of College English Test Band Four （CET-4） on ELT in Chinese colleges and universities so as to promote the positive effects and diminish the negative ones. The study collected data from 181 college English learners, nine college English teachers and two CET-4 raters through interview, observation and documentary analysis. Findings indicate that CET-4 writing subtest produces more negative impacts than positive ones. Moreover, the findings also indicate that the washback of CET-4 writing is weakened by other sections of the test.

A comparative study of differences in writing strategies among Chinese EFL learners, overseas Chinese ESL learners, and Northern American ENL learners

This paper concerns study of learning strategies from language learners. In the light of the types and models of strategies found in the study of ESL （English as a Second Language） learners＇ strategies abroad, the authors have summed up and induced 3 group learners＇ writing strategies stated in their reports, with which they have designed the surveying tool by using factor analysis. And then, the authors use descriptive and 1-way ANOVA （Analysis of Variance） analysis of SPSS16.0 （Statistical Program for Social Science） to examine the differences of strategies used by EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners in China, overseas Chinese ESL learners in Northern Americas and Northern American ENL （English as a Native Language） learners. It is concluded by he results of the study that ENL and ESL learners are good at using various writing strategies. And there are significant differences in using writing strategies between ENL/ESL learners and EFL learners. The authors also conclude that the differences between ESL group and ENL group are not significant, much less than the ones between ESL group and EFL group. The authors make comparative analysis on the causes to the findings on the aspects of class teaching approaches and language learning surroundings, which bring out implications for teaching of English writing in China.

PROVIDING THE STUDENTS WITH EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK IN THE WRITING PROCESS

This paper focuses on providing effective feedback for the students in the writing process.Excessivemarking is defective as it reduces their motivation,whereas minimal marking is recommended as itimproves their inner drive for writing.In addition,there are other forms of feedback,such as peerfeedback,comments and face-to-face discussions.The students are required to act on the feedback totheir own advantage.It has been proved that the proposed correcting method is time-saving,chal-lenging and efficient.