Zhai, L. (2008). Research Methods in the Study of Influencing Factors on L2 Writing Performance. Canadian Social Science, 4(6), 66-74.
The journal source for this week’s article is a little different than the usual selection of Linguistic, TESL, TESOL, TEFL or composition journals. However, it is still refereed and pertinent to my focus for the semester.
Lifang Zhai’ article is a review of research studies and methods. Ten studies are reviewed and analyzed for classification, method and effectiveness. Most of the studies selected for review are survey type studies and quantitative in the data gathered with most of the data being statistical in nature.
Again this is a scientifically arranged article with an abstract, an introduction, a review of methods/procedure and a conclusion. The main goals of the article as stated in the introduction are to answer the following:
What research methods are adopted in the study?
What possible improvements can be made? (Zhai 67)
After discussing the various study methods used, Lifang Zhai returns to his 2 questions in the conclusion. He has already answered the first question in great depth during the types of research, participant and instrument sections. The part that most has my attention is the suggestions he offers for improvements based on his analysis. He has specific areas that he sees could stand improvement in future studies.
1. As for participants, future studies can be improved by increasing the size of samples to enhance the representativeness and generalizability of the results.
2. And the proficiency level can be more accurately evaluated by a combination of several methods.
…Future studies can pay more attention to controlling extraneous variables like time restriction, dictionary use, conducting pilot studies before the main ones and adopting more than one data analysis tool for cross-checking. (Zhai 72)
Lifang Zhai’s recommendations are aimed at scientific objectivity of the studies and improving the chances of repeat results by other researchers under similar circumstances.
An observation…I suspect that either Lifang Zhai is a World English speaker or there is a yet another unnoticed difference between British or in this case Canadian English and American English. At different times throughout the article, he comments on things like “the rest 8 studies” (Zhai 68). My usual inclination as an American English speaker would be to say either “the remaining 8 studies” or perhaps in the right context “the rest of the 8 studies.” I understand that British English sometimes has different approaches to collective nouns than American English and this may be one of those cases, or it may be a World English influence of which I am not aware. Either way, I found it both interesting and mildly distracting (for the obsessive proofreader that I tend to be when reading other people's work...).
Would I recommend this article to colleagues or students? Probably yes. It is good to see what studies are being done on Second Language Writing performance and influences. This study reviews a varied number of studies and analyzes them from both an objective and informed perspective. It offers insight into how future studies can improve on the lessons learned in the test studies and hints at how teachers may adjust their teaching methods to better take advantage of L1 writing style and literacy in the L2 classroom. This is a fairly valuable little tool regardless of quirks. J
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