Abstract：Abstract: Continuation tasks have been proved to facilitate learning. Research now focuses on the reading-writing integrated continuation task while ignores other continuation tasks. This study explored whether comparative continuation task promoted writing and intensified interaction facilitated writing more by comparing the performance of Chinese English learners on writings without text reading and writings under two conditions of comparative continuation task: ordinary comparative continuation (OCC) and comparative continuation with sentence filling (CCSF) to trigger more interaction. Results showed that both conditions of comparative continuation task effectively improved writing accuracy, complexity and fluency, enhanced alignment of words and difficult sentence patterns, and fostered students’ critical thinking abilities. Students under CCSF paid more attention to critical thinking than under OCC, thus improved their critical thinking abilities more, but meanwhile, hindered the alignment with linguistic forms. What’s more, due to the implicit input of reading material, some linguistic forms couldn’t be noticed and therefore high-quality alignment with these forms couldn’t be entailed even through intensified interaction. This study helps understand the relationship among interaction, attention and alignment, and provides guidance on improving comparative continuation task.
Key words: comparative continuation in argumentative writing; interaction; attention; alignment
