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Kang Yon-Soo (Dissertation).pdf (1.92 MB)

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The Role of Prewriting Discussion in L2 Writing: A Qualitative Study of Intermediate L2 Korean Learners

Kang, Yon-Soo
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1430765587

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, EDU Teaching and Learning.
In current communicative language teaching, collaborative activities have been among the most commonly used instructional tools in second and foreign language (L2) classrooms. This pedagogical practice is grounded in Sociocultural Theory, which views human cognition as mediated by language and developed through interactions with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978). Drawing from this theoretical background, the current study explored the mediational role of prewriting discussion in L2 writing. The study was conducted with four students in a third level course of Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL); two of them were of intermediate-high proficiency, and the other two were intermediate-low. In this study, two different prewriting discussion types were used- whole class discussion and paired discussion. The participants engaged in six writing sessions consisting of 20 minutes of prewriting discussion as a class and a pair (with different partner each time) followed by 35 minutes of writing in class. The data were collected for one semester (sixteen weeks) through stimulated recalls, post-writing questionnaires, interviews, participants’ L2 writing, and audio recordings of discussions. The findings of this study showed that prewriting discussion mediated the students’ L2 writing in a variety of ways (i.e., idea mediator- idea reminder, idea development, lexical mediator, syntactic mediator) and with varying degrees of success. The effects of mediation of both discussion types appeared to be affected largely by, but not limited to, participants’ proficiency level, motivation, and pairing structure (in paired discussions). Regarding transfer of input from prewriting discussion to subsequent writing, a higher degree of idea input was transferred while little of lexical and syntactic inputs were transferred. The findings suggest that the transfer environment in the class might not be a rich one, possibly due to the amount of discussion time allotted and a low degree of desire to improve writing skills. As for participants’ attitudes toward prewriting discussion as a class and pair, they were positive toward idea generation, but varied in terms of lexical and syntactic aspects based on their proficiency level. These findings suggest various pedagogical implications for L2 writing instruction in general and in the KFL context in particular.
Alan Hirvela (Advisor)
Samimy Keiko (Committee Member)
Danielle Ooyoung Pyun (Committee Member)
230 p.
Education; Foreign Language

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kang, Y.-S. (2015). The Role of Prewriting Discussion in L2 Writing: A Qualitative Study of Intermediate L2 Korean Learners [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1430765587

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kang, Yon-Soo. The Role of Prewriting Discussion in L2 Writing: A Qualitative Study of Intermediate L2 Korean Learners. 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1430765587.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kang, Yon-Soo. "The Role of Prewriting Discussion in L2 Writing: A Qualitative Study of Intermediate L2 Korean Learners." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1430765587

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1430765587
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© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The Role of Prewriting Discussion in L2 Writing: A Qualitative Study of Intermediate L2 Korean Learners by Yon-Soo Kang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.