The writing development of Chinese and Vietnamese newcomer students.

摘要

This one-year case study investigated the writing development of six Chinese and Vietnamese newcomer students in fifth and sixth grades to address the question: What are the patterns of writing development of recent immigrant students? Quantitative text analysis and genre-based text analysis using the framework of systemic functional linguistics were used to analyze the students' writing. Contextual factors affecting these students' writing development were investigated through classroom observation, home visits, and interviews with students, teachers, and parents.; Findings from quantitative text analysis showed a developmental pattern within individual writers and between less proficient incipient writers and more proficient developing writers. All students' texts increased in length over time; and more proficient developing writers consistently wrote longer texts than less proficient incipient writers. However, there was little variation in lexical density both within and between the incipient and developing writers.; Genre-based text analysis found more distinct schematic structures and relative clauses, and both personal and relative pronouns as references when students became more proficient writers. Developing writers wrote multi-paragraph texts in various genres with more varied conjunctions and complex marked topical themes. Incipient writers wrote single paragraph texts of simple declarative clauses, mostly narrative texts with simple nominal groups, more repetition and less variety. Their texts showed less varied conjunctions, more unmarked topical themes and a higher frequency of missing subjects attributed to influence from Chinese and Vietnamese.; Students who showed more progress in their writing had comparatively more schooling in their primary language and were avid readers. Individually, the students used different strategies and had different attitudes toward writing. Differences were related to students' self-image, primary language literacy and access to academic resources. Other contextual factors that played important roles in writing development included teachers' writing instructions, primary language support, and family literacy practice.; In summary, this study identified the language resources these recent immigrant students used to meet the demands of writing in English and showed how factors in their learning environments affected their literacy development.