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Strategy development and cross-linguistic transfer in foreign and first language writing

  • Karen Forbes

    Dr. Karen Forbes is a Lecturer in Second Language Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her current research interests include the development and transfer of language learning strategies, multilingualism and identity, and the education of students who speak English as an additional language in UK schools.

     ORCID logo EMAIL logo     und Linda Fisher

    Dr. Linda Fisher is a Reader in Languages Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her current research interests are in the field of modern languages education, in particular, using metaphor to investigate students’ beliefs about language learning, motivation, teacher learning and the academic and social integration of EAL learners. She is co-investigator of a large AHRC project on multilingualism.
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 31. Juli 2018
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Applied Linguistics Review
Aus der Zeitschrift Applied Linguistics Review Band 11 Heft 2

Abstract

In an increasingly multilingual world, empirical knowledge about the reciprocal influence between the mother tongue (L1) and a learner’s acquisition of foreign languages (FL) is crucial yet remains surprisingly scarce. This paper examines how an explicit focus on metacognitive strategy use within a FL (German) classroom impacts students’ development of writing strategies in the FL, and whether any such effects transfer to another FL (French) and/or to the L1 (English). Based on a quasi-experimental design, the study involved a two-phase intervention of strategy-based instruction primarily in the FL classroom and later also in the English classroom in a secondary school in England. Data were collected using writing strategy task sheets. Key findings indicate high levels of cross-linguistic transfer, both from one FL context to another and from FL – L1, evidenced especially by an improvement in the quality of students’ planning and a reduction in the number of errors. Findings support the development of a multilingual, strategy-based pedagogy for writing where L1 and FL teachers collaborate to encourage and facilitate connection-making across language contexts.

Keywords: language learning strategies; writing; cross-linguistic transfer

Funding statement: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (10.13039/501100000269).

About the authors

Karen Forbes

Dr. Karen Forbes is a Lecturer in Second Language Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her current research interests include the development and transfer of language learning strategies, multilingualism and identity, and the education of students who speak English as an additional language in UK schools.

Linda Fisher

Dr. Linda Fisher is a Reader in Languages Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her current research interests are in the field of modern languages education, in particular, using metaphor to investigate students’ beliefs about language learning, motivation, teacher learning and the academic and social integration of EAL learners. She is co-investigator of a large AHRC project on multilingualism.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the ESRC for providing funding for the PhD study from which this paper is drawn. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Appendix A: Table of frequencies for Figure 3: Range of planning strategies (by number of students)

Language German French English
Group EG CG EG EG CG
Point 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Drafting (paragraph) 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 5 5 3 5 0 0
Drafting (sentence) 1 10 9 1 3 2 2 10 5 6 4 1 2 0 2
Drafting (whole text) 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 4 2 4 1 3 0 0 0
Content items 4 14 16 6 6 4 5 7 11 15 19 16 17 15 20
Language features 2 12 8 1 4 0 0 11 8 2 2 9 5 0 4
Use of resources 0 3 10 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 4 1 0 2 0
Structure 0 6 7 2 0 0 0 9 2 3 15 10 2 6 2
Style 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 2 14 5 0 6
Translations 0 8 6 3 11 1 4 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0
Goal-setting 0 2 9 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 1 8 0 0 1
Total 9 56 67 14 25 9 12 47 43 36 53 65 36 23 35

Appendix B: Table of frequencies for Figure 4: Instances of problem-solving strategies (per 1000 words)

Language German French English
Group EG CG EG EG CG
Point 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Resources (other) 2.78 4.92 4.14 7.36 1.88 4.58 0.49 0.61 2.1 0 0.81 1.25 0.61 2.28 1
Resources (dictionary) 14.6 7.03 5.51 13.13 5.17 13.18 14.66 7.58 3.39 0.26 0.07 0.28 0.61 0.61 0.5
Resources (thesaurus) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.14 0.2 0.15 0
Monitoring grammar 2.09 9.84 0.34 1.77 4.23 0.57 0.49 3.94 2.34 0 0.44 0 0 0.15 0
Avoidance 0.35 0.7 1.03 0.35 0.47 0 0.49 0 0 0 0 0.28 0 0 0
Ask help (peer) 1.04 0 1.38 2.84 0.94 1.15 1.24 0 0 0.45 0.15 0 0 0.15 0
Ask help (teacher) 5.91 0 0 4.61 4.7 1.15 3.02 0 0 0.34 0.37 0.14 0.71 0.15 0.2
Total 26.77 22.49 12.4 30.06 17.39 20.63 20.39 12.13 7.83 1.05 1.84 2.09 2.13 3.49 1.7

Appendix C: Table of frequencies for Figure 5: Number and type of errors (per 1000 words)

Language German French English
Group EG CG EG EG CG
Point 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Grammar 90.40 52.72 65.82 103.62 86.55 131.81 73.77 29.09 33.20 5.88 3.62 2.08 4.16 9.58 8.27
Punctuation 4.87 2.11 1.38 8.16 9.88 3.44 9.77 4.55 7.81 7.24 5.83 3.74 6.39 10.19 9.90
Spelling 33.73 14.06 12.75 36.91 23.99 26.93 48.85 38.18 30.08 16.52 10.34 4.43 15.73 13.53 17.00
Vocabulary 19.12 17.93 8.96 25.90 24.46 37.82 40.06 23.33 17.19 5.36 3.10 4.57 3.96 5.93 6.05
Total 148.12 86.82 88.90 174.59 144.87 200.00 172.45 95.15 88.28 35.00 22.89 14.82 30.25 39.22 41.22

Appendix D: Results of Wilcoxon signed rank tests on errors made over time

Subject Class Point 1 - Point 2 Point 2 - Point 3
Z p r Z p r
German EG −3.493 0.000* −0.76 −0.122 0.903 −0.03
CG −1.977 0.048 −0.41 −1.894 0.058 −0.40
French EG −3.424 <0.001* −0.75 0.000 1.000 0
English EG −3.099 0.002* −0.69 −2.315 0.021 −0.52
CG −1.704 0.088 −0.36 −0.828 0.408 −0.18

  1. *These results remain significant when using Bonferroni adjusted p levels of 0.005

Appendix E: Table of frequencies for Figure 7: Range of evaluation strategies (by number of students)

Language German French English
Group EG CG EG EG CG
Point 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Spelling 10 11 12 15 12 7 11 10 9 11 10 10 16 14 11
Punctuation 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 6 6 6 7 8 6
Grammar 3 9 10 6 6 6 3 7 7 6 7 6 13 7 4
Vocabulary 1 3 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 1 1 2 1 0 1
Content 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 2 2 1 1 3 1 0 0
Word order 2 3 4 0 4 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Back-translating 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Read through 1 1 1 5 3 3 2 0 0 2 1 0 1 1 2
Makes sense 0 2 4 5 1 2 1 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 3
Relevance 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
Structure 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Checked by a peer 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Checklist 2 1 12 2 0 0 0 1 4 1 1 7 1 0 0
Focused checking 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 2 4 0 0 0
Making improvement 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 4 1 0 1
Total 22 34 57 38 30 23 21 32 34 33 35 47 45 35 28

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Published Online: 2018-07-31
Published in Print: 2020-05-26

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  1. Frontmatter
  3. Language(s), culture(s), ethnicity(-ies), social class and religious background: intersections in researcher’s identity and ethnography
  4. Doing ethnography among Latinos in London and Barcelona: languages, genders, and ethnicities
  5. Preparing the milk and honey: between ethnography and academia as a racially minoritised academic
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  7. Regular Articles
  8. Does context really collapse in social media interaction?
  9. Conceptual metonymies and metaphors behind SHUI (WATER) and HUO (FIRE) in ancient and modern Chinese
  10. Strategy development and cross-linguistic transfer in foreign and first language writing
  11. Thai university students studying in China: Identity, imagined communities, and communities of practice
https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2018-0008
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
language learning strategies; writing; cross-linguistic transfer

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Language(s), culture(s), ethnicity(-ies), social class and religious background: intersections in researcher’s identity and ethnography
  4. Doing ethnography among Latinos in London and Barcelona: languages, genders, and ethnicities
  5. Preparing the milk and honey: between ethnography and academia as a racially minoritised academic
  6. Language Choice and Researcher’s Stance in a Multilingual Ethnographic Fieldwork
  7. Regular Articles
  8. Does context really collapse in social media interaction?
  9. Conceptual metonymies and metaphors behind SHUI (WATER) and HUO (FIRE) in ancient and modern Chinese
  10. Strategy development and cross-linguistic transfer in foreign and first language writing
  11. Thai university students studying in China: Identity, imagined communities, and communities of practice
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