Effects of First Language on Second Language Writing: Translation versus Direct Composition*

This study of English compositions written by 48 Japanese university students examined: (1) differences between the texts resulting from two writing processes, one writing first in Japanese and then translating into English and the other composing directly in English and (2) the relationship between these two writing processes and students’ language proficiency. In terms of quality of content, organization, and style, lower‐level writers tended to benefit from translation, whereas higher‐level writers did not benefit much. Overall, syntactic complexity was greater in translations than in direct writings. In terms of error frequency, higher‐level students tended to make more errors that interfered with intended meaning in translation than in direct writing, but lower‐level students did not show any difference. Regarding the correlation between language proficiency and the quality of the writing resulting from the two composing processes, oral skills related more closely to writing quality than did grammar knowledge, particularly for direct writing.