Running Head: LANGUAGE EFFECT WRITING
Language effect Writing
Authors Note:
Haleen Nazari
Writing 101, Section 3
Matt Moberly
Annotated Bibliography
7/10/2013
1
Running Head: LANGUAGE EFFECT WRITING
2
Rodriguez, Y., Delgado, V., & Colon, J. (2009). Foreign Language Writing Anxiety
among Preservice EFL Teachers. Lenguas Modernas, (33), 21-31.
This article discusses recent studies of foreign language anxiety related to yet distinct
from the general language anxiety experience in foreign language context or when
writing in L1. For this study, they had three scales to measure language anxieties: The
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) to measure general foreign
language anxiety, The Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) to assess
foreign language writing anxiety, and The Native Language Writing Anxiety Inventory
(NLWAI) to measure native language writing anxiety. There were a total of 120 student
participants that are English majors from two Venezuelan universities. During this study,
four instruments were distributed to the participants. This included a background
questionnaire and three language anxiety scales. Studies showed that relationships among
all the three language anxieties were positive and statistically significant. These findings
showed strong evidence suggesting that the existence of foreign language writing anxiety
related to but distinct from other language anxieties.
This source is valuable to my research because in my study I am looking to see how long
it takes international students to adapt to academics by using writing as the methodology.
Being a foreign student comes with a lot of stress and anxiety so this source is interesting
to look at too sees what comes with anxiety. Interestingly, gender difference was also a
significant effect on foreign language anxiety. Even though the results of this study are
relevant, there were some strengths and weaknesses. Some strengths in this study was
that they had a decent amount of participants, however, all of the participants were
English majors from two universities in Venezuela and were not randomly selected.
Secondly, data was collected from self-report instruments, which might have influenced
the participants’ perceptions and/or willingness to report truthfully.
Running Head: LANGUAGE EFFECT WRITING
Muhammad, S.F., Muhammad, U., & Wahid, S. (2012). Opinion of Second Language
Leaners about Writing Difficulties in English Language. A Research Journal Of
South Asia Studies 27(1), 183-194
The objective of this study was to identify three things; the most frequent writing
difficulties in English language faced by higher secondary school students, compare the
most frequent problems in writing English faced by male and female secondary school
students, and study the relationship among different types of writing difficulties in
writing English. Data was collected through a five point likert scale questionnaire. The
questionnaire consisted of 24 items related to vocabulary, first language interference,
spelling, grammar, punctuation, and rhetorical problems. There were many variables
associated with writing difficulties, such as poor teaching, however, this study focused
only on writing difficulties and problems due to vocabulary, L1 interference, spellings,
grammar, rhetorical and punctuation. Researchers suggest that writing is a literacy skill
and a complex form of self-expression. English writing is a challenging task for
Pakistani students due to the lingual cultural differences. Eastern and Western cultures
differ in many of the aspects that affect the acquisition of language. These differences
may cause grammatical errors, composition problems and inappropriateness of
presentation of ideas in English.
This source is relevant to my study because with English as a second language it can be
difficult to adjust and adapt into writing, learning grammar, punctuation and spelling
which causes stress and anxiety and that can cause you to have a bad performance
academically. This article was also interesting because females struggled more than
males in this study. In the article it states that females had a more difficult time than the
males because of the factors taken in the study. The article however, did not state what
those factors were, so it is interesting to see what was different. Some other limitations
for this study were that they only had participants from the Middle East, (all Pakistani’s
to be specific), the sample size, and the factors causing difficulties in writing English.
3
Running Head: LANGUAGE EFFECT WRITING
4
Rienties, B., Beausaert, S., Grohnert, T., Niemantsverdriet, S., & Kommers, P. (2012).
Understanding academic performance of international students: the role of ethnicity,
academic and social integration. Higher Education, 63(6), 685-700.
This article discusses the findings of how academic and social integration relates to
academic performance on 670 international students and 288 Dutch students at five
business schools in Netherlands. These researchers wanted to conducted this experiment
because a common assumption among educators is that academic and social integration
of international students is not yet well-articulated in the policies and practices of
Western adjustment. Therefore, this study distinguishes factors for students’ successful or
failing integration and academic performance.
One of the main findings for this study was that performance is affected positively by
academic integration. Another major finding is that the successfulness of academic and
social integration is partly related to the distance in East-West social conventions among
international students. Generally, Western students score better than Dutch students on
academic integration and study-performance. A third finding was the relationship
between academic and social adjustment and study performance. Analyses shows that
academic success of students is primarily determined by academic integration, in
particular by the degree of academic adjustment.
This article is very similar to what I am looking at in my research. When foreign
exchange students come it is not very easy to adjust and they stress about a lot of things
for example not having their gamily here, why they cant have a license, what a social
security card can do for them, etc. Foreign exchange students have a very difficult time
adjusting themselves and even teaching here when they barely know the language, so it is
interesting to see how social integration plays into academics. A few limitations are that
researchers used self-reporting for the scores of students on academic and social
integration. Individuals who were “at risk” may not have returned the questionnaire or
answered it in a socially desirable manner. Another limitation was that researchers
clustered the 79 nationalities and 129 ethnic identities into four groups. Further research
should be conducted in depth to better understand the underlying dynamics of academic
and social integration.
Running Head: LANGUAGE EFFECT WRITING
5
Hassannejad, E. (2012). Developing ESL Students' Writing. World Academy Of Science,
Engineering & Technology, (61), 783-790.
This article discusses
This article discusses how most ESL students have problems in writing skills or have
inadequate preparation for the writing assignment. Researchers studied the purpose of
pre-writing by either brainstorming (making lists, webbing, outlining, etc.) Among those
thought provoking techniques in the prewriting phase, brainstorming and outlining seem
more influential than others. Researchers asked 40 students to participate in their
experiment. Researchers separated the students into 2 groups. Each group took five
exams on brainstorming and outlining, and the last exam in both groups was considered a
final exam. The reasoning behind having five exams was to better understand and witness
the trend of students development in writing skills and the researchers statistics would be
more exact. Researchers studied showed that brainstorming and outlining seemed more
influential than other techniques.
This article is interesting for my study because I am curious to see how these foreign
exchange students learned their writing abilities. Was it difficult and challenging for
them? Shockingly those individuals who just brainstorm ideas for their paper were more
successful than individuals who outline ideas for their paper. I would like to know if
these foreign students use their techniques in the United States, specifically at the
University of California, Merced. Some strengths in this article were that the researchers
were right about their hypothesis. Some weaknesses in this article is that they did not
have a large enough sample size and at times seemed confusing if they were testing on
brain storming and outlining outcomes or grammar and punctuation results and then
jumps to talk about how pre-writing is useful and encourages students to take risks.
Running Head: LANGUAGE EFFECT WRITING
6
Thurber, C. A., & Walton, E. A. (2012). Homesickness and Adjustment in University
Students. Journal Of American College Health, 60(5), 415-419
This article discusses how homesickness and anxiety can cause depression for college
students. This article is not a study or experiment, but discusses ways you can prevent
homesickness, depression and anxiety while being away from home.
This article is useful for my study because the transition to a new country or even a
college can be an exciting new experience for many individuals. For some individuals,
intense homesickness can make this move difficult and unsustainable. In my study I am
looking at how these stresses effects their academic success. This article is good in ways
that discusses how to possibly resolve homesickness but it doesn’t show any results or
experiments that these solutions work on individuals. Studies should be conducted to see
if these studies truly work.