The rational evaluation of carbon-based conductive ink performance is critical to both industrial production and applications. Herein, a model to evaluate writing performance of conductive ink by line resistance was proposed by investigating possible relations among different parameters and establishing relevant model to estimate ink writing performance. Bulk conductive inks were prepared and characterized to provide samples for model. To improve the precision of model, the impact of external factors including writing speed and angle was studied. Nonlinear regression and back propagation artificial neural network were employed to estimate line resistance, and cross check validation was conducted to prove robustness and precision of model. Most importantly, the investigation will open up a new path for the exploration of other carbon-based handwritten electronic devices.

This study explored how task complexity, writing behaviors (i.e., pausing and revision behaviors), and writing performance (i.e., task completion, coherence and cohesion, language use, and expression and tone) influence and relate to each other. Thirty advanced-level Korean EFL undergraduates completed writing tasks differing in complexity. A combination of keystroke logging and stimulated recall interview was employed. It was found that the simple task group showed a greater number of pauses and revisions related to lower-order writing processes, whereas the complex task group showed longer pauses related to higher-order writing processes. While task complexity had no influence on writing performance, writing behaviors revealed significant relationships with text quality. In the simple task group, pause length and revision were negatively related to writing scores, whereas pause frequency revealed mixed results. In the complex task group, consistent negative relations were found between pausing behaviors and text quality, and fewer revisions were related to better scores in expression and tone.

Motivational orientation and creativity of students in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing courses have recently garnered increased attention in South Korea and around the world. In an effort to advance research in these areas, this study examined relationships involving motivational orientation (intrinsic goal orientation and self-efficacy), creativity, and writing performance. A group of university EFL students (n = 41) in South Korea participated in this study. They were asked to complete questionnaires of intrinsic goal orientation and self-efficacy, take the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and complete a series of writing tasks including a persuasive essay as part of their performance assessment of a writing class, which served as the context of this study. Results showed no significant relationship between motivational orientation and creativity. However, an interaction effect between intrinsic goal orientation and self-efficacy on student writing performance was found. Results are discussed and recommendations are made based on pedagogical implications of these findings.

This study explored the effect of writing activity on EFL participants’ speaking performance. In order to attain this purpose, three research questions were presented; 1) What are the characteristics of learners’ writing? 2) How does their speaking fluency change during the writing sessions?, and 3) What is the effect of writing practice on learners’ speaking fluency, in terms of features of spoken grammar? Four college students participated in this study. Pre- and post-oral proficiency test scores, the participants’ writing products, and recorded data of their speaking performance were used for data analysis. Results of data analysis showed that, first, the more proficient participants were, the fewer the errors they made in their writing. Second, there was an increase in scores of intermediate- and beginning-level of students between the pre- and post- oral tests while the scores of advanced level of students did not show any differences between those two tests. Lastly, the result shows that the learners with higher proficiency in writing ability have higher recognition to the spoken grammar. Pedagogical implications are also made on the effective teaching of English writing and speaking in the Korean classroom setting.

We examined the role of L1 writing on L2 writing performance by repeating the same topic twice through L1 writing first and L2 writing later. We designed what we call a ‘L1 + L2 writing task’ and a ‘L2-only writing task’ respectively. In the L1 + L2 writing task, students wrote a text in their L1, and wrote the same topic in L2, by removing the initial L1 essay. We focused on validating which task conditions (± L1 writing) account for the variation in linguistic performance in EFL high-school students’ writing. Our study was conducted with two intact classes (n = 60) assigned to the L2-only, and students from the other two classes (n = 60) assigned to the L1 + L2. The findings indicate that L1 writing may push students to direct their attentional resources toward effective text construction, thereby mitigating a large number of simultaneous demands on attention. We add to empirical knowledge on the effects of L1 writing in task repetition, by exploring how task repetition affected our students’ L2 writing performance.

This study sought to investigate factors affecting the English writing performance of 30 Korean ESL students overseas. Also, examined were the relationship between L1 and L2 education levels and L2 writing performance, the relationship between English language proficiency and L2 writing performance and between length of residence and L2 writing performance. The participants were asked to write essays in their L1 and L2 along with a questionnaire. To analyze the data, two-way ANOVA and correlation were performed. The results showed there was no significant relation between L1 educational level and L2 writing performance, but there was a significant relation between L2 educational level and L2 writing performance. Also, English language proficiency and L2 writing performance were highly correlated. The length of residence of the participants in the U.S. and their L2 writing performance showed a weak correlation. Similarly, their L1 writing performance was not related to their L2 writing performance. These imply that students need to have adequate proficiency of English to write in their L2, and they need to receive a considerate number of years of formal education in their L2 for the success of L2 writing.

We explored whether task complexity, operationalized by the two types of writing prompts, affects EFL high school students’ narrative writing in terms of syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, fluency, cohesion, and text quality. 32 intermediate EFL students who were randomly assigned to two prompt groups completed a written narrative task based on a series of sixteen pictures. Task complexity was operationalized as a bare versus frame prompt. The results indicate that the task complexity had an impact on lexical sophistication measures. The students in the framed prompt group were able to include more sophisticated vocabulary in their narratives than those in the bare prompt group. The findings are discussed in terms of the Limited Attentional Capacity Model in that the students in the bare prompt group might have prioritized meaning rather than form in order to ease attentional overload. The findings of our study could assist teachers in selecting writing prompts that have the potential to elicit the targeted features of writing performance.

This study investigated the effects of types of post-reading instructional scaffolds on university-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ WebQuest writing performance. One hundred twenty students, randomly selected from 8 EFL classes at a Korean university, were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (a) online Instructional Conversation (IC), (b) online recitation, or (c) no post-reading instructional scaffold (i.e., control). After reading WebQuest texts, the online IC and online recitation groups received their treatments, using an Internet-based synchronous textual communication tool as a medium for communication. The control group, on the other hand, did not receive any post-reading instructional scaffold and continued to read the WebQuest texts for the same amount of time that the IC and recitation groups received their treatments. Results showed that the online IC group outperformed one or both of the other two groups in overall WebQuest writing performance and in the specific areas of overall writing quality and content. Implications are discussed in both theoretical and practical terms.

The present study aims to explore the factors affecting Korean EFL high school students’ choice of picture options with key expressions in a writing test prompt, as well as the effects of option position and contents on their performance. It further aims to examine whether these effects vary with English writing proficiency. The performance of lower- and higher-level students in two prompts was analyzed along with their reasons for their choices. The prompt had three picture options with two key expressions in each option; the students chose one picture option and wrote a 20-word message declining a request using a reason specified in the option. Significant effects were not found for position within the prompts, but for the content of the options. The participants tended to choose a certain picture option over others mainly because of topical knowledge, difficulty level, or picture preference. The findings suggest a significant effect of picture contents, which yields implications for designing prompts with picture options for score validity.

The current study aimed to explore how students’ L2 writing self-efficacy and interest contribute to strategy use and writing performance. An exploratory factor analysis with 212 Korean college students’ self-reported motivation scores revealed three underlying constructs of self-efficacy, communicative interest, and instrumental interest. Subsequent multiple regression analyses indicated significant positive relations between self-efficacy and the five types of strategy use. Communicative interest appeared to positively contribute to use of planning,monitoring, and compensatory strategies. Instrumental interest was a predictor of retrieval and compensatory strategies. L2 writing strategy use was a statistically significant but minor contributor to L2 writing performance. The current study also suggests that students’ instrumental interest and communicative interest should be balanced. Further research is needed to identify mitigating effects of L2writing strategy use for motivation and performance development.

記敍文是香港非華語學生學習中文的基礎文類。本研究以60位分別接受主流中文課程和調適中文課程的非華語學生為對象，選取他們參加香港大學「學生支援計劃」的記敍文前測和後測共120 篇文章，以系統功能語言學為理論框架，分析學生在通篇層次、句子層次和字詞層次的表現，藉此比較兩組非華語學生中文書寫能力的差異，並探究「學生支援計劃」提昇非華語學生中文水平的成效。

This study aimed to explore the etfect of translated writing on English writing performance of Korean learners of English and their perceptions on translated writing in comparison with direct writing depending on their English proficiency level. A total of 75 male high school students were divided into two groups according to their L2 writing expertise and were asked to perform two ditferent writing tasks: 1) write directly in English (direct writing), and 2) write in Korean first and then translate the draft into English (translated writing). 136 written compositions (68 direct writing samples and 68 translated writing samples each) from 68 students were selected for analytical scoring and T-Unit analysis. The 68 students also filled a survey questionnaire which asked which type of writing was preferred for their English writing. The results showed that the performance of the direct writing was significantly better than that of the translated writing for hjghlevel writers, while there were no great ditferences among low-Ievel writers between the two writing tasks. T-Unit analysis revealed that syntactic complexity between direct and translated writings by two proficiency groups did not yield any statistically significant ditferences, and more students preferred translated writing to di rect writi ng in general. 8ased on the results, pedagogical implications are suggested.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of prompt types on EFL learners’ writing performance. 6 university students and 10 university students were provided with bare and prose prompts and the fluency of their writings was measured by analyzing the length of product (word count) and mean length of T-units (MLTU) was used to measure syntactic complexity. Furthermore, independent T-tests were administered in addition to qualitative analysis in order to determine whether the differences between the two types of prompts were significant. The results showed that while high school students’ writing wrote longer texts and had higher MLTU on the prose prompt than the bare prompt, a large portion of their writing was copied from the prompt when they were provided with the prose prompt. The university students’ writing showed that they wrote longer texts and had higher MLTU on the bare prompt than the prose prompt. In addition, they had responded after the test that they were able to write more freely when they were given the bare prompt. The findings of this study suggest that test developers need to consider the effects of prompt types and examine the quality of the writings more carefully.

A field-specific essay test was developed as an attempt to improve the ESL placement procedure for international graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Graduate departments were classified into four areas, business, humanities/social sciences, technology and life sciences, and a set of four input prompts, and writing questions was developed. A total of 124 volunteers participated in taking both the regularly-required general-topic test and the field-specific test. A total-group FACETS analysis of the students’ performance on the two tests showed that they performed better on the field-specific test. However, subgroup analyses showed the field-specific topic effect only in the business and life sciences subgroups, while no prompt effect was found for the humanities/social sciences and technology subgroups. Considering that early in the test development procedure, these results were predicted by in a prompt evaluation session, the results suggest that more effort should be exerted to carefully select the topic and content of prompts in order to secure equivalency of the topic effect across all disciplinary groups. This paper further addresses limitations and promising research directions.