Chapter OneINTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background
Writing is one of the most basic，difficult, and challenging ability in second languageapplication. Therefore，writing development has been considered as one of the corecontents of teaching for second language (L2). As part of linguistic proficiency，writingdirectly mirrors a person's language learning proficiency. In order to have better instructionfor students, teachers should figure out how the students* L2 writing proficiency develops 、rather than merely concentrates on their writing products.The development of writing proficiency has been a hotspot of the second languagewriting research at home and abroad. The scholars and researchers mainly focus theirresearch on two aspects. The first one is the change of the overall writing proficiency of L2learners, especially reflected in the writing quality, i.e. holistic scores. The other one is thechange of writing skills in certain aspects，such as lexical features，syntactic structure,cohesive device, text layout，rhetorical devices，audience awareness, and writing strategiesetc. Empirical studies abroad on the development of second language writing proficiencyhave been carried out for nearly half a century since 1970s; and relevant research in Chinastarted late in the 1980s. Although large number of studies have been conductedconcerning second language writing, there has been a call for more longitudinal studieswith well-chosen measurements (Verspoor, Lowie & Van Dijk, 2008; Norris & Ortega, 200)to better understand how L2 writing proficiency develops.The development of English writing is comparatively lagging behind other Englishskills for Chinese learners. With growing attention paid to the development of Englishwriting proficiency, the development of overall English proficiency will be improved inChina. Larsen-Freeman (1997) thinks that complexity theory, which stresses the chaotic,nonlinear，dynamic and complex features of systems, is suited for the explanation oflanguage proficiency development. Given that, the current study will combine quantitativeapproach with qualitative approach to probe into the complex changes of writingproficiency of twelve Chinese participants.
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1.2 Significance of the Study
The Study on the development of writing proficiency of Chinese English majors willbe of great value mainly for the following three aspects.Firstly, the study applies new software Inputlog to the research of the development ofwriting proficiency of Chinese students. The computer-aided writing will promote theinnovation of research method of writing. The software can give a thorough description ofall the keyboard movements in writing process without disturbing the students' writing. Inthis way，it can provide new perspectives to writing development investigation, and avoidthe drawback of some traditional method. The utilization of computational tool can greatlyimprove the speed and efficiency of the analysis on the writing proficiency development.Secondly, the study enables the students to reflect on their own writing process, andthen understand the developmental path of their writing proficiency. This will improvestudents' metacognition of English writing and develop their writing proficiency. It canalso make some contributions to the promotion of cognitive research on English writingprocess.Thirdly，the study can reflect the long-term developmental process of students, thusproviding important reference for the teachers as to the complex path of students' writingproficiency in terms of accuracy，fluency and complexity. Therefore, the teachers canimprove the way of teaching accordingly.
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Chapter TwoLITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical Basis
Complexity theory is originated from physics and it is seen as an umbrella term toinclude not only complexity theory, but also chaos theory, dynamic systems theory，andcomplex systems theory (Larsen-Freeraan & Cameron, 2008). Complexity scientists studycomplex nonlinear systems. What interests them lies in how disorder gives way to order，and in how complexity arises in nature.Since its inception in the sixties or seventies of last century，this theory has beenapplied to many fields, including biology，chemistry, mathematics, economics，and the like.Increasingly, this theory is seen as an interdisciplinary theoretical framework in bothworlds of science and the humanities; it also poses many challenges and injects much newthinking to the traditional science. At the same time, it has also exerted much influence onlanguage instruction and acquisition, which is of much concern in this thesis. There aremany striking similarities between the new science of chaos/complexity and SecondLanguage Acquisition (SLA). Although the new science of chaos/complexity has beenthought of as a major breakthrough in the physical sciences，some hold the belief that itsimpact on the more human disciplines will be as immense (Waldrop, 1992).This belief willbe asserted by demonstrating how the study of complex nonlinear systems shed new lighton several enduring SLA puzzles .
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2. 2 Related Studies on the Development of L2 Writing Proficiency
Writing proficiency is one of the most basic skills in contemporary society. Writinghas always been considered as the most important part of language teaching. As part oflinguistic proficiency，writing proficiency directly reflects a person's language learning proficiency. The development of writing proficiency has been a hotspot of the secondlanguage (L2) writing research at home and abroad. The scholars and researchers mainlyfocus their research on two aspects. The first one is the change of the overall writingproficiency of L2 learners, especially reflected in the writing quality, i.e. holistic scores.The other one is the change of writing skills in certain aspects，such as lexical features,syntactic structure, cohesive device, text layout，rhetorical devices, audience awareness,writing strategies and so on. Empirical studies abroad on the development of second language (L2) writingproficiency has begun since 1970s. Quantitative approach was mainly adopted in the earlystudies (e.g. Cooper, 1976; Ferris, 1994; Cooper, 1981; Kepner，1991)，includingcross-sectional study and longitudinal study.
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Chapter Three METHODOLOGY....... 26
3.1 Participants ....... 26
3.2 Procedures....... 26
3.3 Measurements of Writing Poficiency....... 27
3.4 Data Analysis....... 33
Chapter Four RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.......34
4.1 Comparison of the First and Last Essays .......34
4.2 Changes of Group Averages over Time .......39
4.3 Individual Changes over Time....... 43
4.4 Relationship between Accuracy, Fluency and Complexity (AFC)....... 47
Chapter Five CONCLUSION....... 60
5.1 Major Findings....... 60
5.2 Implications .......61
5.3 Limitations and Suggestions....... 62
Chapter FourRESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Comparison of the First and Last Essays
The first and last essays of all the participants were scored by two professional raters.Correlation analysis was used to test the reliability of scores given by the two raters.According to the analysis，their assessment were significantly correlated in content (r=.897), organization (r = .784), vocabulary (r = .602)，language use (r = .668)，mechanics(r = .745)，and the total score (r = .901).The students' scores were analyzed in terms of content, organization, vocabulary,language use, mechanics and holistic scores. Table 3 shows the respective scores of thefirst time and the last time. As is shown in the above table，the mean scores in althe six aspects have increased.The mean score in pre-content is 23.667 and in post-content 26.708, increasing by 3.041.The mean score is 15.875 in pre-organization and 17.167 in post-organization, increasingby 1.292. The mean score is 15.54 in pre-vocabulary and 16.58 in post-vocabulary,increasing by 1.04. The mean score is 19.250 in pre-language use and 20.375 inpost-language use，increasing by 1.125. The mean value of holistic score is 77.92 in thepre-test and 84.63 in the post-test, with an increase of 6.71.
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Conclusion
The study has generated the following major findings.Firstly, all the twelve participants have made some progress in writing proficiencyafter a period of one-semester English writing practice. The comparison of qualitativemeasure of the first and last essays shows the growth of writing quality. Specifically, thecontent, organization and holistic scores of participants have improved significantly;however, their scores in vocabulary, language use and mechanics are not apparentlychanged. The results of comparison of quantitative measures indicate that through ninetimes of writing, the accuracy and lexical complexity of participants are obviously higherthan before. Both their fluency and syntactic complexity show no significant changebetween the pre-test and post-test.Secondly, in terms of group changes of writing proficiency over time, all theparticipants have made considerable progress in accuracy and lexical complexity，but notin fluency and syntactic complexity. Specifically, the growth of accuracy and lexicalcomplexity are unstable with both progress and regress in the development. Studentssomewhat have sped up their typing rate, but demonstrated no remarkable improvement orchange in writing fluency. In addition，syntactic complexity of the participants seems tohave a slight upward trend, though not substantially. All these changes of group averagesuggest that the developmental paths of all the components of writing proficiency varyfrom one to another.#p#分页标题#e#
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Reference (omitted)
