Shanshan Zhu

The Use of Paraphrases in L2 Summary Writing: a Comparison Study

L2 Summary Writing“ attempted paraphrase” “A writer selects a specific excerpt of a

source text and makes at least one attempt to change the language of the selected excerpt”.

Paraphrasing strategies Near copy, Minimal revision, Moderate

revision, Substantial revision

Many studies have been conducted to examine the inappropriateness in the use of source texts. Some factors that affect the source text copy have been found.

Few studies use the construct “attempted paraphrase” to examine the use of paraphrases in writing. And also few studies investigate how non-native speakers’ language proficiency will influence the use of paraphrase.

Chandrasoma, R. (2004). Beyond Plagiarism: Transgressive and Nontransgressive Intertextuality. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 3(3), 171-193.

Jia, Y. (2008). On Plagiarism and Chinese ESL/ EFL Learners: Negotiating Academic writing in the Western Context. CELEA Journal, 31(3), 100-108.

Keck, C. (2006). The Use of Paraphrase in Summary Writing: A Comparison of L1 and L2 Writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15(4), 261-278.

Pecorari, D. (2003). Good and Original: Plagiarism and Patchwriting in Academic Second-Language Writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12(4), 317-345.

Shi, L. (2004). Textual Borrowing in Second Language Writing. Written Communication, 21(2), 171-200.

Is the use of paraphrase by non-native speakers different than that by the native English speakers while writing summary?

Will the language proficiency affect non-native speakers’ use of paraphrase and paraphrasing strategies? How the language proficiency influence the difference in the use of paraphrases between advanced learners and intermediate learners?

Participants:

About 15 students at OU will be recruited in this study. 5 will be native English speakers, 5 will be intermediate learners of English, and 5 will be advanced learners of English.

MATERIALS/INSTRUMENTS:

About 1000 words reading text will be used.

PROCEDURE:1.According to the TOEFL scores of the

participants, non-native speakers will be divided into two groups, intermediate learners and advanced learners.

2.Participants including native speakers and non-native speakers will do a 45 minutes summary task containing text reading and summary writing.

3. The paraphrases in the summaries will be indentified.

4.The statistics will be analyzed.

DATA & ANALYSIS

The data will contain the frequency of the use of paraphrases (4 type of paraphrasing strategies) in the summaries.

A quantitative analysis, with simple statistics, will be used

The sample size is small.

The time constraint (45 minutes) for the summary writing may affect the results.

• Non-native speakers may use fewer moderate and substantial revisions than native speakers in summary writing.