خلاصة:
The investigation of the role of L2 proficiency in L2 writing ability continues
to be revealing for the better understanding of the nature of L2 writing. This
kind of study is also much needed in EFL settings like Iran for the better
specification of the actual tole of EFL writing instructors. The present article
addresses the relationship between EFL proficiency and some qualitative and
quantitative aspects of EFL writing performance. 140 college EFL learners,
majoring in English as a foreign language in Iran, performed a letter-writing
task, The quantitative and qualitative aspects of their writing performance
were then quantified and studied in relation to their EFL proficiency.
Correlation coefficients und analysis of variance showed that: 1) participants
with higher EFL proficiency scores produced texts of significantly better
quality (R=0.42, P>.01); 2) text length, measured by the total number of
words written per letter, was very weakly correlated with EFL proficiency
scores (R=0.2, P>.05); and 3) the correlation between the fluency or speed of
writing measured by mean number of words written per minute on the one
hand and EFL proficiency scores on the other hand was not found to be
significant. The results of this study suggest that although higher EFL
proficiency may lead to the production of L2 texts with better quality and
quantity — at least in some tasks — it does not necessarily affect the fluency
and the processing requirements of the complex task of EFL writing. Instead,
L2 writing fluency in its limited definition in this work was shown to be a
function of L2 writing ability level.
ملخص الجهاز:
MAL, Vol. 6, No. 2, September 2003 133 EFL learners' Proficiency in English and their Writing Performance on a Letter Writing Task* Abbas Zare-ee M.
The results of this study suggest that although higher EFL proficiency may lead to the production of L2 texts with better quality and quantity — at least in some tasks — it does not necessarily affect the fluency and the processing requirements of the complex task of EFL writing.
L2 proficiency is necessary but it does not guarantee successful L2 writing (see Matsuda, 1999) and as Leki (1992) points out, after ten years of studying English in classrooms abroad, ESL students still may have trouble writing effectively in English and that those who can recite grammar rules are not always able to use those rules in producing language.
Research has shown that L2 proficiency is indeed related to the quality and quantity of L2 learners' writing performance in different ways (Pennington and So, 1993; Hirose and Sasaki, 1994; Zamel, 1998; Myles, 2002).
This study looks at the relationship between EFL proficiency and EFL writing quality and quantity of 140 college EFL learners, with elementary to advanced EFL proficiency levels in performing a letter writing task in an academic setting.
The hypothesis was that in writing letters, there would be no differences between the means of writing quality scores among learners with elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels of EFL proficiency.