Negatively Affect L2 Writing Experiences

L1 Culture and the Lack of L2 Writing Experiences Negatively Affect L2 Writing Production

By

Julio Díaz and Macarena Figueroa

Writing is a complex skill which is always perfectible considering that writers can go forward and go back to their pieces of writing, whether by adding or deleting information, in order to improve it. However, when ESL learners write, its complexity becomes considerable because students must know and put into practice grammar and structures of a new language and set aside their own structures and culture. Indeed, Cumming (2001) postulates that “second-language writing involves three main dimensions: Features of the text that people produce; the composing process that people use while they write; and the sociocultural contexts in which people write” (p. 2). Accordingly, this essay will try to prove that writing in a second language (L2) is complex because it is negatively affected by the first language (L1) culture and the lack of writing experiences in the L2.

According to Karim (2013), “reliance on the L1 can have negative consequences,” implying that if the writer is confused by the similarities between L1 and L2 or if the learner transfers structures from the mother tongue to the target

Table 4.7 represents the highest types of errors made by students: Both groups, Chinese and Czech students, failed at the use of prepositions. This can be explained because prepositions system in English language differs greatly from each in the other languages in this study. In fact, the reason for this disparity is the common syntax aspects found in English and Chinese, in contrast with the variations between English and Czech, the latter being more complex in the use of prepositions.

All errors shown in the tables above are the consequence of the lack of experience by ESL learners, which negatively affect their writing production in terms of coherence and cohesion. Thereby, it is assumed that the more practice, the better are the