TASK-INDUCED VARIABILITY IN FL COMPOSITION - LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC PERSPECTIVES

This study investigated the ways in which different writing tasks infl uence the quality and quantity of FL composition, as well as the writi ng strategies used by American college students when composing in Japa nese as a foreign language. The purposes of the study were three-fold: (a) to compare qualitative and quantitative differences between descr iptive and narrative writing tasks; (b) to describe linguistic and rhe torical requirements in each task; and (c) to identify the discourse s trategies utilized in the tasks. Three types of text analyses demonstr ated that the two tasks posed varying linguistic and cognitive require ments. This finding suggests that different linguistic competencies ar e required to perform varying writing tasks. The data also indicated t hat narrative discourse involves more demanding linguistic processing, at varying levels, than descriptive discourse. In addition, the analy ses demonstrated that the ability to expand and elaborate preceding su btopics in discourse accounts at least in part for individual differen ces in FL composition aptitude. This ability, moreover, is related to knowledge of content-word meanings. These findings are consistent with those from reading comprehension research, both in L1 and L2, and thu s support the view that reading and writing involve essentially simila r processes of constructing meaning.1