What is beneath the surface? : comparing the product and process in L2 texts written by university students

Abstract

This article examines how far traditional methods of evaluating texts can benefit from analysis of the process of students’ L2 writing. Twelve Finnish university students wrote a text in Swedish using a keystroke logging program which registered speed, pauses and revisions. The quality of the finished texts was evaluated by four experienced university teachers and then compared to the online measurements. The analysis showed that there were great individual differences between the writers and that there was no direct relation between the quality of texts as evaluated by teachers and the online measurements, i.e. the writing process. An analysis of the grammar revisions showed that only some of the grammatical structures that had been pointed out as problematic by the teachers were revised by the writers. Analyses of writing processes may have pedagogical implications, such as arranging teaching according to individual writing strategies and more effective grammar training.