ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the L2 writing–Second Language Acquisition (SLA) interface by broadening L2 to the Chinese language through investigating the development of writing competence of advanced L2 Chinese learners under formal instructional conditions in tertiary education. It investigates the development of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) writing with instructed language learning through a small-scale longitudinal study on written samples produced by advanced learners. A T-unit analysis in Chinese was adopted as an objective and reliable measure of writing development in terms of grammatical and lexical accuracy and syntactic complexity. The findings indicate that with instructed learning the development of syntactic complexity produced by L2 Chinese advanced learners may be at the cost of grammatical and lexical accuracy. Instructed language learning has both advantages and disadvantages for interlanguage development, though it has been suggested that such an approach may offer better opportunities for more effective learning of forms of language.
