Second Language Learners’ Pauses Over Different Times Intervals in L2 Writing Essays: Evidence From a Keystroke Logging Program

Abstract

Purpose. Several studies have been conducted to analyse students’ pauses during first language and/or second language writing to indicate the magnitude of the underlying cognitive processes learners have. Majority of studies have examined students’ pauses at a threshold 200ms. However, little is known about recording second language learners' pauses at different pauses’ times over different types of genres. The current investigation reports a case study of L2 learners’ cognitive processes by recording their pauses (<500ms, <1000ms, and <2000ms) during L2 writing in response to multiple genres prompts. Design / methodology / approach. Twenty-five postgraduate students were asked to write three essays over three weeks, and their writing processes were recorded using a keystroke logging program (Inputlog, 7, Leijten & van Waes, 2013). Data was triangulated using a log file from the keystroke logging program, a process graph for writing behavior through different stages, and a visual video recording of their captured screens during writing behaviours. Findings. Results found that the students paused over sentence and paragraph boundaries and their pauses between paragraphs were significantly higher in writing narrative essay than in their argumentative essays at pauses intervals <500 and <1000ms respectively, and in turn, their pauses between sentences in an argumentative essay were significantly higher than their pauses in a descriptive essay at <500, <1000 respectively. However, there were no significant differences across word boundaries over genre types. Conclusions. The current study extends the previous literature in examining the underlying cognitive processes during L2 writing tasks as the trendy issue of psycholinguistics. Knowing the cognitive processes is crucial in diagnosing the students’ difficulties in writing L2 essays as advanced technology has the potential to explore intrusively the accurate cognitive processes learners involved during writing tasks. Originality / value. This paper is innovative in examining a state-of-the-art issue and has implications to the field of psycholinguistics.