Task-based explanation for genre effects: Evidence from a dependency treebank

In task-based second language (L2) writing research, genre effects on linguistic features are usually explained by either task complexity hypothesis or differences in communicative demands. The basic distinction between the two explanations is determined by whether cognitive factors are at work. To date, the actual causes for L2 learners' different linguistic features in different genres are still unclear. Aiming at providing empirical evidence for explaining the mechanism of genre effects, this investigation uses dependency-grammar-based measures to examine the role of cognitive factors in L2 argumentative, narrative, and descriptive writings. A total of 540 compositions from three different proficiency groups of English as a foreign language learners were collected, and their mean dependency distances and their distributions of dependency distance were calculated. It was found that in all proficiency groups of compositions, dependency distance distributions of five types showed significant differences between genres. Since dependency distance reflects cognitive load, those five dependency types were able to show that cognitive factors are at play in the writing process. Among the five types, the phrasal dependency relation types could reveal genre effects regardless of learners' language proficiency, and clausal dependency relation types might pinpoint learners' threshold of perceiving task complexity. The findings suggest that genre effects on linguistic features in L2 writings may result from different cognitive demand imposed by writing tasks with different genres, and genre effect may exhibit variation among different proficiency groups.

Typological characteristics of interlanguage: Across L2 modalities and proficiency levels

In recent years, quantitative methods have been increasingly used in interlanguage studies, but these studies have mostly focused on the micro level with an emphasis on certain syntactic structures, rather than the macro where interlanguage is perceived as a whole. There remains a paucity of quantitative studies on interlanguage from the typological perspective. With the majority of the studies focused on the written interlanguage, there is also a lack of sufficient research on its spoken modality. Based on a syntactically annotated corpus and using the quantitative linguistic metric of dependency direction, we have investigated the typological changes in the Chinese interlanguage in both written and spoken modalities. The findings are as follows: (1) the typological features of interlanguage vary across modalities at both macro and micro levels; (2) dependency direction is proved to be an inappropriate indicator to measure the general typological characteristics of interlanguage development due to its failure to reflect the changes in the spoken modality; (3) both macro and micro perspectives taken into consideration, typological errors in the interlanguage is more likely to occur in the spoken modality than in the written one, in which learners may be restricted by greater time pressure and cognitive load in utterance. These factors may affect the distribution of dependency direction in the oral modality, and may be the reason why it is not appropriate to use dependency direction as a measure of changes in mediated language typological features in the oral modality. It is expected that our study will bring insight into second language research with more objective and holistic evidence.

Anticipatory Awareness and Actual Handwriting Performance Measures among Adolescents with Deficient Executive Functions

This secondary analysis explores differences and correlations between handwriting anticipatory awareness (time estimation, expected performance, and expected difficulty) before a paragraph copying task and actual performance time and legibility among adolescents with executive function deficits (EFD) versus neurotypical adolescents. Eighty-one adolescents (10–18 years old; 41 with EFD and daily functioning difficulties as per parent reports) estimated their time, expected performance, and expected difficulty before the paragraph copying task using the Self-Awareness of Performance Questionnaire (SAP-Q). Time duration was assessed using the Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET) software, and legibility was scored using the Handwriting Legibility Scale (HLS). Significant between-group differences were found in actual time duration (ComPET), HLS total score and legibility components, and three SAP-Q questions. Both groups estimated significantly more performance time than their actual performance duration. The adolescents with EFD underestimated their performance before the handwriting task. Significant correlations were found between actual performance, anticipatory awareness, and Executive Function (EF) in both groups. Their performance predictions were significantly correlated with their EF and product’s legibility. The results highlight the potential relationships between anticipatory awareness and actual handwriting performance (time duration and legibility) of adolescents with and without EFD. Further studies may analyze the benefits of focusing on both EF and anticipatory awareness for handwriting improvement among populations with EF deficits.

Cognitive Writing Process Characteristics in Alzheimer's Disease

In this article, we explore if the observation of writing behavior can assist in the screening and follow-up of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD). To this end, we examined the extent to which overall writing process measures and pausing behavior during writing differed between 15 cognitively impaired patients and 15 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Participants completed two typed picture description tasks that were registered with Inputlog, a keystroke logging program that captures keyboard activity during text production. The following variables were analyzed with mixed-effects models: time on task; number of characters, pauses and Pause-bursts per minute; proportion of pause time; duration of Pause-bursts; and pause time between words. For pause time between words, also the effect of pauses preceding specific word categories was analyzed. Results showed a main effect of group on all variables. In addition, for pause time between words a main effect of part-of-speech was found as well. Results indicate that writing process analysis can possibly serve as a supplementary tool for the screening and follow-up of AD.

Do Written Language Bursts Mediate the Relations of Language, Cognitive, and Transcription Skills to Writing Quality?

In this study, we examined burst length and its relation with working memory, attentional control, transcription skills, discourse oral language, and writing quality, using data from English-speaking children in Grade 2 (N = 177; M _age = 7.19). Results from structural equation modeling showed that burst length was related to writing quality after accounting for transcription skills, discourse oral language, working memory, and attentional control. Burst length completely mediated the relations of attentional control and handwriting fluency to writing quality whereas it partially mediated the relations of working memory and spelling to writing quality. Discourse oral language had a suppression effect on burst length but was positively and independently related to writing quality. Working memory had an indirect relation to burst length via transcription skills whereas attentional control had a direct and indirect relation. These results suggest roles of domain-general cognitions and transcription skills in burst length, and reveal the nature of their relations to writing quality.

Syntactic Networks of Interlanguage Across L2 Modalities and Proficiency Levels

Over time, interlanguage studies have shifted from early qualitative to quantitative studies of specific linguistic structures. However, the focus of these studies is usually on one aspect of an interlanguage instead of the whole system. The ideal object of interlanguage research is a second language (L2) learner language system, for only in this way can the entire L2 learning process can be examined. As a self-organizing and self-regulated system, the panorama of interlanguage can be revealed objectively through a complex network approach. In this study, we construct eight interlanguage dependency syntactic networks of varying proficiency levels and modalities, and conduct a quantitative study of respective network parameters. We find that all syntactic networks of Chinese L2 learners (English native speakers) initially present scale-free and small-world properties. Additionally, there is no sudden syntactic emergence in interlanguage with different modalities. This suggests varying regularities in the development of a syntactic network between interlanguage and native language acquisition. Moreover, the first language plays an important role in L2 development. The network parameters (), L, C, ND, and NC can differentiate interlanguage modalities, and five quantitative parameters, , C, ND, γ', and NC, can indicate L2 proficiency.

Verb Errors in 5th-Grade English Learners’ Written Responses: Relation to Writing Quality

The ability to express oneself through written language is a critically important skill for long-term educational, emotional, and social success. However, despite the importance of writing, English Learner students continue to perform at or below basic levels which warrants additional efforts to identify specific areas of weakness that impact writing quality. To that end, this study aims to describe the effect of verb accuracy on writing quality ratings of 5th-grade written expository samples. This study examines the responses of 243 students in the 5th grade who differed in English proficiency. The sample included 112 English Learners and 131 English-proficient students. Verb error patterns in written samples by English Learner students are described and compared to the patterns of their monolingual English-proficient peers. Group differences were examined in verb accuracy, types of verb errors, and overall grammaticality. A regression analysis was used to examine verb accuracy as a predictor of writing quality. Findings showed that English Learner students demonstrated more verb errors than their English-speaking peers and the total number of verb errors was a significant predictor of writing quality ratings.

Rescripting experimental trauma: Effects of imagery and writing as a way to reduce the development of intrusive memories

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Imagery rescripting is an effective treatment strategy for trauma related disorders, but its underlying mechanisms are still largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to test whether a) imagery (versus writing) is essential in the process of rescripting, and b) rescripting affects emotional memories on an implicit level.

METHODS

Healthy participants were subjected to an experimental trauma ('trauma film'), and randomly allocated to four conditions: recall of film + Imagery Rescripting (ImRs), recall of film + Writing Rescripting (WRs), recall only (ImRE), or no recall + no manipulation (NM). Next, participants recorded intrusion frequency and distress during one week, after which they executed a visual interference task (VIT) including neutral and trauma film stills, to access implicit emotional memory.

RESULTS

Main findings were that ImRs and WRs resulted in fewer intrusions than NM, with no differences between both rescripting conditions. We did not find an effect on intrusion distress and the VIT.

LIMITATIONS

Stills in the VIT were distracted from all four film scenes, whereas rescripting was done on one scene only, possibly obscuring the effect. Also, an analogue sample was used, which may limit generalizability to clinical samples.

CONCLUSIONS

We replicated previous effects of ImRs on intrusion development. Furthermore, no superior effect of imagery as key modality for rescripting was found; writing seems a viable alternative. Measures for implicit emotional memory such as the VIT may have to be applied relatively soon after the experimental session (e.g., same day as the experimental session).

Online management of text production from pictures: a comparison between fifth graders and undergraduate students

This study was designed to enhance our understanding of the online management of writing processes by two groups of writers with a different level of expertise, and to explore the impact of this online management on text quality. To this aim, fifth graders (mean age 10.5 years) and undergraduate students (mean age 22.6 years) were asked to compose a narrative from a visual source of images, while their handwriting activity and eye movements were recorded by means of Eye & Pen software and a digitizing tablet. Results showed that fifth graders and undergraduate students used different strategies to engage in high-level source-based text elaboration processes throughout their writing. The main differences concerned the density of source consultation during prewriting, on the one hand, and during pauses, on the other hand. Relationships between these characteristics of online management and text quality were minimal in fifth graders, while in undergraduate students they were more substantial as in the case of syntactic complexity. These findings suggest that with age, the online management of writing becomes more closely related to text quality. In line with a capacity view of writing, it is also concluded that the online management of writing processes of fifth graders is highly constrained by a lack of fluent text production skills which ultimately affects their text quality.

A meta-analysis of working memory in individuals with autism spectrum disorders

BACKGROUND

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are lifelong neurodevelopmental disorders. It is not clear whether working memory (WM) deficits are commonly experienced by individuals with ASD.

AIM

To determine whether individuals with ASD experience significant impairments in WM and whether there are specific domains of working memory that are impaired.

METHODS

We conducted a meta-analysis using four electronic databases EMBASE (OVID), MEDLINE (OVID), PsychINFO (EBSCOHOST), and Web of Science, to examine the literature to investigate whether people with ASD experience impairments related to WM. Meta-analyses were conducted separately for phonological and visuospatial domains of WM. Subgroup analyses investigated age and intelligence quotient as potential moderators.

RESULTS

A total of 29 papers containing 34 studies measuring phonological and visuospatial domains of WM met the inclusion criteria. WM scores were significantly lower for individuals with ASD compared to typically developed (TD) controls, in both the visuospatial domain when investigating accuracy (d: -0.73, 95% CI -1.04 to -0.42, p < 0.05) and error rates (d: 0.56, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.88, p<0.05), and the phonological domain when investigating accuracy (d:-0.67, 95% CI -1.10 to -0.24, p>0.05) and error rate (d: 1.45, 95% CI -0.07 to 2.96, p = 0.06). Age and IQ did not explain the differences in WM in ASD.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this meta-analysis indicate that across the lifespan, individuals with ASD demonstrate large impairments in WM across both phonological and visuospatial WM domains when compared to healthy individuals.

Effects of planning strategies on writing dynamics and final texts

Expert writing involves the interaction among three cognitively demanding processes: planning, translating, and revising. To manage the cognitive load brought on by these processes, writers frequently use strategies. Here, we examined the effects of planning strategies on writing dynamics and final texts. Before writing an argumentative text with the triple-task technique, 63 undergraduates were asked either to elaborate an outline with the argumentative structure embedded (structure-based planning condition), to provide a written list of ideas for the text (list-based planning condition), or to do a non-writing-related filler task (no planning condition). Planning showed no effects on the length of the pre-writing pause and cognitive effort, but influenced writing processes occurrences. Compared to participants in the no-planning condition, those in the planning conditions showed a later activation of revising. Moreover, participants in the structure-based condition were mainly focused on translating in the beginning and middle of composition, whereas their peers tended to distribute their attention among all processes. Planning ahead of writing also resulted in texts with longer words, produced at a higher rate. Only the structure-based planning strategy led to an increase in the number of argumentation elements as well as in essays' persuasiveness and overall quality. There was, however, no indication that these improvements in final texts were associated with changes in the dynamics of writing. Overall, the use of structure-based plans seems to be an effective and efficient way of improving undergraduates' argumentative writing.

Learning Letters With the Whole Body: Visuomotor Versus Visual Teaching in Kindergarten

What constitutes effective teaching of letter learning in early school years is still uncertain. We assessed the impact of a teacher-implemented visuomotor intervention program to teach 5-year-olds' cursive letter knowledge. We compared a program in which letters were explored with the arm and whole body, with a typical visual training program. Children were tested before and after the intervention with different measures of letter knowledge. We showed a greater improvement in letter recognition following the visuomotor intervention, compared with the visual intervention. Results were mixed for letter handwriting for which we found higher scores on stroke direction and overall quality, but lower scores on fluency following whole body visuomotor teaching. We discuss our results in terms of the link between action and perception, the interaction between the different components of letter knowledge, and the link between fine and gross motor development and handwriting.

Writing an Independently Composed Sentence by Spanish-Speaking Children With and Without Poor Transcription Skills: A Writing-Level Match Design

The main objective of this research was to analyze the impact of transcription skills of Spanish writers when writing an independently composed sentence within a writing-level design. The free-writing sentence task from the Early Grade Writing Assessment (Jiménez, in press) was used to examine the production, accuracy, speed, syntactic complexity, quality, and fluency of children with poor transcription skills (PTS). The results showed that there were significant differences between children with PTS and peers who had good transcription skills. The PTS group members were less accurate, slower, and less fluent or even dysfluent. Furthermore, their sentences were less complex and contained lower quality content. These results suggest that transcription skills play a crucial role in early written expression in Spanish, and poor transcription abilities hamper the acquisition and normal development of sentence composition.

Are poor Chinese text comprehenders also poor in written composition?

We studied the performance in three genres of Chinese written composition (narration, exposition, and argumentation) of 158 grade 4, 5, and 6 poor Chinese text comprehenders compared with 156 good Chinese text comprehenders. We examined text comprehension and written composition relationship. Verbal working memory (verbal span working memory and operation span working memory) and different levels of linguistic tasks-morphological sensitivity (morphological compounding and morphological chain), sentence processing (syntax construction and syntax integrity), and text comprehension (narrative and expository texts)-were used to predict separately narrative, expository, and argumentation written compositions in these students. Grade for grade, the good text comprehenders outperformed the poor text comprehenders in all tasks, except for morphological chain. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed differential contribution of the tasks to different genres of writing. In particular, text comprehension made unique contribution to argumentation writing in the poor text comprehenders. Future studies should ask students to read and write parallel passages in the same genre for better comparison and incorporate both instructional and motivational variables.

Developmental and Individual Differences in Chinese Writing

The goal of the present study was to examine the generalizability of a model of the underlying dimensions of written composition across writing systems (Chinese Mandarin vs. English) and level of writing skill. A five-factor model of writing originally developed from analyses of 1st and 4th grade English writing samples was applied to Chinese writing samples obtained from 4th and 7th grade students. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the fits of alternative models of written composition. The results suggest that the five-factor model of written composition generalizes to Chinese writing samples and applies to both less skilled (Grade 4) and more skilled (Grade 7) writing, with differences in factor means between grades that vary in magnitude across factors.

The impact of the development of verbal recoding on children's early writing skills

BACKGROUND

The spontaneous recoding of visual stimuli into a phonological code to aid short-term retention has been associated with progress in learning to read (Palmer, 2000b).

AIM

This study examined whether there was a comparable association with the development of writing skills.

SAMPLE

One hundred eight children (64 males) in the second year of the UK educational system (mean age 5:8 years, SD = 4 months) were recruited to the study.

METHODS

The children participated in tasks to assess their general cognitive abilities, reading skills, and their predominant short-term memory (STM) strategy for retaining visually presented stimuli. On the basis of their memory profile, children were classified as either engaging in verbal recoding of the stimuli (N = 31) or not (N = 77). Writing performance was indexed as alphabet transcription, spelling, and early text production skills.

RESULTS

Children classified as verbal recoders demonstrated better spelling performance and produced more individual letters, words, and T-units in their texts than did children who persisted with a visual memory strategy. In contrast, the alphabet transcription abilities of the groups did not differ. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that variance in text production skills was associated with STM capacity and that moreover, significant independent variance in the number of words and T-units in the children's texts was predicted by individual differences in verbal recoding abilities.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that the development of verbal recoding skills in STM may play a role in children's early progress in writing, particularly their text generation skills.

Writing as Thinking

Writing is analyzed as thinking that uses paper or other media to externalize and manipulate symbolic expressions. Mental operations of natural language can occur somewhat independently, and they communicate well with language that has been written, but for skilled writing these operations need elaborate installation in the mind. We explore four methods to see how expert writers externalize thoughts and interact with them: laboratory comparisons of novices and experts, interviews with accomplished writers (mostly of prose fiction), biographical analysis of Jane Austen's development as a writer, and consideration of Gustave Flaubert's notes and drafts. Writers can use paper to extend their thinking, and to create frameworks of cues that enable readers of a story to construct mental models that they may enter empathetically.

The Importance of Handwriting Speed in Adult Writing

Handwriting speed is important to the quantity and quality of children's essays. This article reviews research on adult essay writing and lecture note taking that extends this finding to adult writers. For both children and adults, research suggests that greater transcription speed increases automaticity of word production, which in turn lessens the burden on working memory (WM) and enables writers to use the limited capacity of WM for the metacognitive processes needed to create good reader-friendly prose. These findings suggest that models of writing, which emphasize the metacognitive components of writing primarily, should be expanded to include transcription (handwriting automaticity and spelling). The article also evaluates the implications of fluent handwriting to WM, given that even the most fluent handwriting can consume some WM resources and recent research and theory has highlighted the importance of WM to quality writing. Finally, the implications of handwriting and WM to assessment and instruction are discussed.

A meta-analysis of working memory impairments in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

OBJECTIVE

To determine the empirical evidence for deficits in working memory (WM) processes in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

METHOD

Exploratory meta-analytic procedures were used to investigate whether children with ADHD exhibit WM impairments. Twenty-six empirical research studies published from 1997 to December, 2003 (subsequent to a previous review) met our inclusion criteria. WM measures were categorized according to both modality (verbal, spatial) and type of processing required (storage versus storage/manipulation).

RESULTS

Children with ADHD exhibited deficits in multiple components of WM that were independent of comorbidity with language learning disorders and weaknesses in general intellectual ability. Overall effect sizes for spatial storage (effect size = 0.85, CI = 0.62 - 1.08) and spatial central executive WM (effect size = 1.06, confidence interval = 0.72-1.39) were greater than those obtained for verbal storage (effect size = 0.47, confidence interval = 0.36-0.59) and verbal central executive WM (effect size = 0.43, confidence interval = 0.24-0.62).

CONCLUSION

Evidence of WM impairments in children with ADHD supports recent theoretical models implicating WM processes in ADHD. Future research is needed to more clearly delineate the nature, severity, and specificity of the impairments to ADHD.

Working Memory in Writing: Empirical Evidence From the Dual-Task Technique

The dual-task paradigm recently played a major role in understanding the role of working memory in writing. By reviewing recent findings in this field of research, this article highlights how the use of the dual-task technique allowed studying the processing and short-term storage functions of working memory involved in writing. With respect to processing functions of working memory (namely, attentional and executive functions), studies investigated resource allocation, step-by-step management, and parallel coordination of the writing processes. With respect to short-term storage in working memory, experiments mainly attempted to test Kellogg's (1996) proposals on the relationship between the writing processes and the slave systems of working memory. The dual-task technique proved fruitful in understanding the relationship between writing and working memory because researchers exploited its major advantage, namely, its flexibility.

Concurrent activation of high- and low-level production processes in written composition

Writing a text requires the coordination of multiple high-level composition processes in working memory, including planning, language generation, and reviewing, in addition to low-level motor transcription. Here, interference in reaction time (RT) for detecting auditory probes was used to measure the attentional demands of (1) copying in longhand a prepared text (transcription), (2) composing a text and pausing handwriting for longer than 250 msec (composition), and (3) composing and currently handwriting (transcription + composition). Greater interference in the transcription + composition condition than in the transcription condition implies that high-level processes are activated concurrently with motor execution, resulting in higher attentional demands. This difference was observed for adults who wrote in standard cursive, but not for children and not for adults who used an unpracticed uppercase script. Greater interference in the composition condition than in the transcription condition implies that high-level processes demand more attention than do motor processes. This difference was observed only when adults wrote with a practiced script. With motor execution being relatively automatic, adults were able to attend fully to the high-level processes required in mature, effective composition. One reason that children fail to engage in such high-level processes is that motor processes deplete available attention.