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Writing in a second or foreign language seems to be the most difficult language skill for language learners to acquire in academic contexts. While explicit instruction of strategies is not a usual practice in foreign language classrooms, it could be beneficial for language learners. The present study aims at investigating the effect of concept mapp...
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... Historically, EFL writing has been fraught with difficulties, as evidenced by instructors' concerns over students' written tasks, particularly in formal evaluations (Lee, 2009;Negari, 2011;Al-Sawalha & Chow, 2012;Manchón & Murphy, 2007;Hyland, 2003;Tsui, 1996). These challenges encompass a spectrum of issues, from generating ideas and vocabulary knowledge to constructing grammatically correct sentences. ...
This study explores the writing processes of undergraduate university EFL learners, with a focus on argumentative compositions. Drawing from structured interviews with a cohort of students at Yarmouk University, Jordan, the study offers insights into the foundational writing stages, namely prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. The findings underscore a universal commitment to these stages, suggesting dominant pedagogical influences. Notably, a proficiency-driven dichotomy emerged in revision techniques, with proficient writers leaning towards a holistic approach and less proficient ones emphasizing surface-level concerns. The study also flagged overlaps in students' understanding of 'revision' and 'editing', hinting at potential pedagogical ambiguities. Additionally, gender-driven nuances and potential cultural implications became salient, echoing broader socio-cultural research trends. These findings, while aligning with established academic paradigms, spotlight evolving trends and necessitate adaptive pedagogical strategies.
... Globally, writing acquisition is a challenging task, particularly for English as a Foreign or Second Language (EFL/ESL) students (Negari, 2011;Klimova, 2014;Husna, 2017;. Consequently, extensive research has been conducted on the subject of teaching and learning writing in EFL/ESL (e.g., Raimes, 1983;Warschauer, 2007;Randolph, 2009;Teng et al., 2022;Kitamura, 2023). ...
Linguistic performance, supported by socio-cognitive competencies, is a crucial aspect in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writing. The study investigates the acquisition of English clause constructions among tertiary English as a foreign language (EFL) students. The research focuses on syntactical content, as it is crucial for primary communication in writing. However, there is a lack of research in this area, particularly regarding common clause construction errors. A corpus of 105 narrative essays from 105 tertiary English and non-English major students (75 females, 30 males) of Bangladeshi private and public universities was used as the qualitative content data. The data was analyzed using Hsieh and Shannon's summative content analysis method (2005) to identify acquisition challenges and pedagogical needs. Findings indicate that tertiary EFL students exhibit some ease in acquiring coordinate clauses, while they display a protracted struggle with the acquisition of subordinate clauses and subject-verb agreement. It further indicates that Bangladeshi tertiary EFL students’ syntactic mastery across diverse clause subtypes and aspects is not only non-linear but also asymmetrical. Based on the findings, the study suggests reshaping syntax pedagogy to emphasize syntactic subordination and subject-verb agreement, adapting scaffolding to clause complexities, shifting traditional paradigms towards dynamic, engaging practice, and incorporating socio-cognitive schema.
... The process writing approach has been widely recognized for its effectiveness in developing students' writing skills. Studies have consistently shown that engaging students in prewriting activities, such as brainstorming and outlining, enhances their ability to generate ideas and organize their thoughts effectively (Negari 2011;Dhanya and Alamelu 2020). The iterative nature of the drafting, revising, and editing stages allows students to refine their writing through peer collaboration and self-reflection (Hitchcock et al. 2016). ...
This study investigated the effectiveness of cloud-based instruction integrating a process writing approach on high school students’ English writing skills. It also explored the students’ perceptions regarding their experience with cloud-based learning. The research involved three experts who evaluated the research tools and thirty grade 12 students, and data was collected through a pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire. The pre-test and post-test data were analyzed using a paired sample t-test, while the students’ questionnaire responses were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed significant improvement in the students’ writing skills following the implementation of the cloud-based instruction with the process writing approach, with a significant difference (p < .001) at the .05 significance level, indicating the instruction’s effectiveness. In addition, the students showed a positive attitude toward the course. These findings contributed to understanding the benefits of cloud-based instruction and the process writing approach in enhancing English writing skills and fostering favorable student perception in a high school context.
... In this backdrop, writing is viewed as one of the most vital skills needed for modern individuals engaged in international communication. However, writing is thought to be the most complex and challenging language skill to learn (Alwasilah, 2004;Martin, 1991;1993;Husna, 2017;Klimova, 2014), especially in the case of learning to write in a second or foreign language (Negari, 2011). This is particularly true for English as a second or foreign language (EFL/ESL) students. ...
It is essential that tertiary EFL students become proficient in all key aspects of writing, such as content, arrangement of ideas, usage of appropriate vocabulary, use of language and grammatical precision, and mechanics, in order to improve their formal writing skills. As a result, the current study's objective is to assess the level of writing competency of tertiary EFL students in terms of the key writing components and to provide some recommendations for EFL teachers, syllabus writers, and material designers. This study is qualitative in nature that collected 49 narrative essays from 49 tertiary students. The participants comprised both English and non-English majors from seven private and public universities in Bangladesh. The data were generated from English writing tests where students wrote one narrative essay. The texts were then analyzed on the basis of the analytic writing rubrics proposed by Jacobs et al. (1981) to see students’ writing ability in general. The findings of the analysis indicate that Bangladeshi tertiary EFL learners’ proficiency in all the major components falls in the category of Fair to Poor. The findings also indicate that the most challenging writing skills for the learners are the use of language and the use of vocabulary. The study concludes with some pedagogical suggestions for tertiary EFL teachers, syllabus designers, and material designers. This study stands out as unique and important since little research has previously attempted to evaluate the writing proficiency levels of Bangladeshi tertiary students under the key writing components.
... Academic writing skills are an important but most difficult skills for university students especially who did not have English as their native language (Lee & Tajino 2008, Negari, 2012. They face many problems in the areas of vocabulary and spellings. ...
... (Participant Nine) In particular, the students in this study did not determine and pay much attention to the connections between topic sentences, supporting sentences, and concluding sentences when writing in the first few weeks. This issue has been highlighted by Negari (2011) and Nguyen (2021), who found that students lacked knowledge and skills in organizing ideas. It can be recognized that the exam-oriented approach does not provide students with comprehensive knowledge about academic writing since the students in this study did not pay attention to the organization of a paper or did not know how to organize and develop the ideas. ...
This study aims to investigate Vietnamese students’ perceptions of portfolio assessment and how it affects their writing performance. Furthermore, the study explores problems encountered during the assessment process, which could offer professional support for teachers, particularly novice teachers, when applying this formative assessment to teaching writing. Data was collected through students’ written papers, observations, and semi-structured interviews with a total of thirteen low- and intermediate-level undergraduate students. The findings demonstrate the aspects of the assessment usefulness, namely validity, authenticity, interactive-ness, and impact. Accordingly, the assessment provides students with a comprehensive understanding of academic writing that enhances their writing abilities. In particular, students recognize their common grammatical errors, pay more attention to organizing ideas logically, and develop writing habits throughout the writing process, which have not been carefully addressed in prior education. Nevertheless, there are a number of issues that need to be carefully considered, including idea development, plagiarism knowledge, self- and peer-assessment, and the order of writing steps. In order to improve the reliability and practicality of the assessment, solutions to those concerns are provided.
... (Participant Nine) In particular, the students in this study did not determine and pay much attention to the connections between topic sentences, supporting sentences, and concluding sentences when writing in the first few weeks. This issue has been highlighted by Negari (2011) and Nguyen (2021), who found that students lacked knowledge and skills in organizing ideas. It can be recognized that the exam-oriented approach does not provide students with comprehensive knowledge about academic writing since the students in this study did not pay attention to the organization of a paper or did not know how to organize and develop the ideas. ...
This study aims to investigate Vietnamese students' perceptions of portfolio assessment and how it affects their writing performance. Furthermore, the study explores problems encountered during the assessment process, which could offer professional support for teachers, particularly novice teachers, when applying this formative assessment to teaching writing. Data was collected through students' written papers, observations, and semi-structured interviews with a total of thirteen low-and intermediate-level undergraduate students. The findings demonstrate the aspects of the assessment usefulness, namely validity, authenticity, interactive-ness, and impact. Accordingly, the assessment provides students with a comprehensive understanding of academic writing that enhances their writing abilities. In particular, students recognize their common grammatical errors, pay more attention to organizing ideas logically, and develop writing habits throughout the writing process, which have not been carefully addressed in prior education. Nevertheless, there are a number of issues that need to be carefully considered, including idea development, plagiarism knowledge, self-and peer-assessment, and the order of writing steps. In order to improve the reliability and practicality of the assessment, solutions to those concerns are provided.
... Thus, it is relevant to measure the students' writing skills and their capacity to organize structures and rephrase them on their own, taking an audience in mind. However, writing in a foreign language became unquestionably the most challenging language skill to enhance in academic contexts (Negari, 2011). Godwin-Jones (2018) highlighted that "the complexity of online writing environments has increased the need for both learner and teacher training." ...
This research study aimed at enhancing English language learners’ writing skills to promote communication among them. The process involved five weeks of applying and practicing the stages of the writing process. Twenty-nine high school public EFL students participated in the investigation. They had an A2 – B1 level of proficiency and faced challenges at writing complete and consistent paragraphs. Peer feedback facilitated by Google Docs provided students with opportunities for practicing, interaction, communication, and reflection. The instruments were a pretest-posttest to measure students’ writing improvement.
Pre-post surveys were applied to collect the perspectives of students towards peer feedback. Field notes were completed during the group tasks to analyze students’ difficulties in writing activities. Findings report higher scores in the posttest, and a Cohen’s d = 2.98. This suggests that the application of peer feedback in the writing process helped learners improve the quality of their written compositions. Students’ perspectives indicate that this intervention raised their self-confidence, peer communication, and motivation. The difficulties that were observed at the beginning were overcome at the end of the intervention.
... Experts (Graham & Perin, 2007;Koster, Tribushina, De Yong & Van den Bergh, 2015) affirm that this contributes to a large percentage of what constitutes the instructional practices that improve students' achievement in reading and writing. Several scholars (Negari, 2011;Parr & Wolloshyn, 2013;Tawalbeh & Al-zuoud, 2013) have also reported the enhancing effect of different teaching techniques on the literacy development of tertiary undergraduates as well as other students. Different types of texts (narrative, expository, argumentative and descriptive) are simultaneously employed in the integration of instructional methods that are meant to enhance students' reading and writing skills. ...
The advanced language requirement at the tertiary education level has continually challenged and affected the performance of many fresh students in their core courses, and have impeded their achievements generally. This has been attributed in part to the conventional instructional methods employed by language instructors at the lower rung of the educational ladder. Therefore, this study investigates the probabilities that the integration of reading and writing instruction would make any difference on the writing achievement of freshly admitted undergraduates of Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria. The study adopts the pretest, post test, control group quasi experimental design in which three hundred and two students from three different faculties and departments participated. Two experimental groups and one control group were used for the study. The first experimental group was taught with the activation of the background knowledge method; while for the second experimental group, the response to the text-strategy was added to the activation of the background knowledge method. The control group was taught with the usual conventional method and the treatments lasted for six weeks. All groups of participants were given a pretest before treatment commenced for the experimental groups. A post test was also administered on all participants at the end of the six weeks treatment. Students' writing were graded and the scores used as data which are analysed using means, standard deviation and t-test. The results show that the experimental groups which are treated with the integrated reading and writing instructional methods perform significantly better than the control group whose own instruction had gone on with the conventional method. It therefore concludes that integrating reading and writing instruction would enhance the writing competence of newly admitted undergraduates in the university.
... For example, learning words from a vocabulary list can be considered as low in element interactivity, since individual words can be learned without much reference to other ones in the list, rendering only one or a few elements being processed in the working memory. In comparison with vocabulary learning, the process of writing has a higher level of element interactivity, as it involves arranging the related words according to the rules of grammar and a number of other cognitive and metacognitive activities (Negari, 2011), requiring simultaneous processing of much more interactive elements in the working memory for comprehension (Sweller, 2010). Same writing materials may generate heavier intrinsic cognitive load to novices than to more experienced writers who would use their organized knowledge base to encapsulate many interactive elements into only a few higher level structures and thus reduce working memory load. ...
Background: Previous research in the field of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has not yet comprehensively investigated the interaction between learners' expertise and the instructional effectiveness.
Aims: Taking cognitive load theory as the theoretical framework , a study was conducted to investigate the expertise reversal effect on learning English and mathematics simultaneously: whether an integrated approach (i.e. learning both English and mathematics simultaneously) could facilitate the acquisition of mathematic skills and English linguistic skills as a foreign language more effectively and efficiently than a separated learning approach (i.e. learning Mathematics and English separately).
Materials: The materials for the integrated learning approach were in English-only, and the materials for the separated learning approach were in English-and-Chinese. Both sets of materials were given as reading content for teaching mathematic skills and English as a foreign language.
Methods: The study adopted a 2 (language expertise: low vs. high) × 2 (instruction: integrated vs. separated) between-subject factorial design with instructional approaches and learners' expertise in English as independent variables, the learning performance in Mathematics and English with the cognitive load ratings as the dependent variables. Sixty-five Year-10 students with lower expertise in English and 56 Year-2 college students with higher expertise in English in China were recruited and allocated to two instructional conditions respectively.
Results: An expertise reversal effect was confirmed: the English and mathematics integrated learning approach was more effective for higher expertise learners while the English and mathematics separated learning condition was more beneficial for lower expertise learners.
