Direct Writing and Translated Writing Strategies in English as a Foreign Language

چکیده مقاله

A modified version of Cohen and Carson’s questionnaire was administered immediately after the completion of a direct EFL writing task and a translated EFL writing task that included an initial draft in Persian. Participants’ response frequencies to questionnaire items about their writing strategies in both situations were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS frequency comparison techniques. The results showed that while writing in the translated writing mode, students report that they avoided word for word translation and did not purposely make use of complex grammatical structures. The results also showed that students did not find themselves thinking in their dominate language (Persian) and translating when involved in direct writing mode.