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Cognitive demand as a factor in interlanguage syntax: A study in topics and texts.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Cognitive demand as a factor in interlanguage syntax: A study in topics and texts./
Author:	Tapia, Elena.
Published:	Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, : 1993,
Description:	253 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 56-02, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International56-02A.
Subject:	Linguistics. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=9418812
ISBN:	9798208680117

Cognitive demand as a factor in interlanguage syntax: A study in topics and texts.
Tapia, Elena.

Cognitive demand as a factor in interlanguage syntax: A study in topics and texts. - Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1993 - 253 p.

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 56-02, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 1993.

This item must not be added to any third party search indexes.

A large-scale writing assessment is the current means to evaluate the writing of non-native speakers of English. These assessments involve eliciting expository essays on assigned topics and under time constraints. Little is known about the cognitive demands different topics place on a writer or about how they affect performance; yet, important decisions are made on these essays. The purpose of this study was to examine topic-related differences in the syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency of second language (L2) writers writing essays under time constraints. To test the effects of the cognitive demands of the topics on performance, two topics were employed. Subjects wrote a 35 minute essay on each topic several days apart. A hypothetical topic for which the writers were unlikely to have organized knowledge structures (schemata) created high cognitive demands. A second topic, rhetorically and structurally similar to the first, but for which the writers were more likely to have organized knowledge structures created lower cognitive demands. It was called the experiential topic. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed topic type to have a highly significant main effect. Mean scores for five of the seven variables were higher on the experiential topic. The writers wrote longer essays on this topic which proved to be cognitively manageable. Greater length means greater opportunity for error; yet, accuracy was in fact higher on the experiential topic. Greater length also suggests that the writers possessed content schemata for the experiential topic. The experiential topic essays were also more syntactically complex as measured by two of three complexity measures. These results show that the topic allowed the writers to take risks and to extend themselves in writing. They also produced larger samples, an indication that they were not avoiding more complex structures. Although experiential topic essays had higher scores on the quantitative measures, they were not always rated higher holistically. This indicates, generally, that raters base judgments on factors beyond the sentence level. The results suggest that hypothetical topics are not suitable for writing assessments with a time limit of less than an hour.

ISBN: 9798208680117Subjects--Topical Terms:

524476
Linguistics.
Subjects--Index Terms:

syntax

Cognitive demand as a factor in interlanguage syntax: A study in topics and texts.
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100 1 $a Tapia, Elena. $3 3691245
245 1 0 $a Cognitive demand as a factor in interlanguage syntax: A study in topics and texts.
260 1 $a Ann Arbor : $b ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, $c 1993
300 $a 253 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 56-02, Section: A.
500 $a Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
500 $a Advisor: Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 1993.
506 $a This item must not be added to any third party search indexes.
506 $a This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
520 $a A large-scale writing assessment is the current means to evaluate the writing of non-native speakers of English. These assessments involve eliciting expository essays on assigned topics and under time constraints. Little is known about the cognitive demands different topics place on a writer or about how they affect performance; yet, important decisions are made on these essays. The purpose of this study was to examine topic-related differences in the syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency of second language (L2) writers writing essays under time constraints. To test the effects of the cognitive demands of the topics on performance, two topics were employed. Subjects wrote a 35 minute essay on each topic several days apart. A hypothetical topic for which the writers were unlikely to have organized knowledge structures (schemata) created high cognitive demands. A second topic, rhetorically and structurally similar to the first, but for which the writers were more likely to have organized knowledge structures created lower cognitive demands. It was called the experiential topic. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed topic type to have a highly significant main effect. Mean scores for five of the seven variables were higher on the experiential topic. The writers wrote longer essays on this topic which proved to be cognitively manageable. Greater length means greater opportunity for error; yet, accuracy was in fact higher on the experiential topic. Greater length also suggests that the writers possessed content schemata for the experiential topic. The experiential topic essays were also more syntactically complex as measured by two of three complexity measures. These results show that the topic allowed the writers to take risks and to extend themselves in writing. They also produced larger samples, an indication that they were not avoiding more complex structures. Although experiential topic essays had higher scores on the quantitative measures, they were not always rated higher holistically. This indicates, generally, that raters base judgments on factors beyond the sentence level. The results suggest that hypothetical topics are not suitable for writing assessments with a time limit of less than an hour.
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773 0 $t Dissertations Abstracts International $g 56-02A.
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793 $a English
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