Article

Writing in first and second language: Empirical studies on text quality and writing processes

January 2012

Authors:

This thesis is about writing proficiency among students of secondary education. Due to globalization, the ability to express oneself in a language other than the first language (L1) is increasingly becoming a condition for educational success. In The Netherlands, this ‘other’ or second language (L2) is usually English. Although secondary school students are already quite able to express themselves in English, their L2 essays are often of lower quality than L1 essays, in terms of language use, but also in terms of organization. The research reported in this thesis was aimed at explaining this quality difference by comparing L1 and L2 relations between essay quality and writing processes. Analyses of writing processes involved cognitive activities such as reading the assignment, process planning, content planning, evaluating and revising. Results show that, in general, cognitive activities are relevant to essay quality at different stages of task execution during L1 and L2 writing. This means that writers need to distribute their attention differently across task execution during L1 and L2 writing. However, additional analyses show that if students’ general language proficiency levels are included in the analyses, this L1/L2 contrast disappears. For students with high general L2 proficiency, the demands of L2 writing in terms of how often cognitive activities are applied during certain stages of task execution are similar to the demands of L1 writing.

Researching Writing with Observational Logging Tools from 2006 to the Present: Insights from Keystroke Logging and Handwriting

Chapter

Jan 2019

Learning How to Write an Academic Text: A Comparison of Observational Learning with Learning by Doing

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2018

In this study we investigated which instructional method is suitable for university students to learn how to write an academic text. We have compared observational learning with learning by doing, and we have explored the effects of writing preference (planning versus revising) on academic writing performance. In an experiment 145 undergraduate students were assigned to either an observational learning or learning-by-doing condition. In observational learning participants learned by observing a weak and strong models' writing processes. In learning by doing they learned by performing writing tasks. Prior to the sessions participants were labeled as either planners or revisers based on a writing style questionnaire. The effects of the sessions were analyzed with a 2x2 between-subjects design with instructional method (observational learning, learning by doing) and writing preference (plan, revise) as factors. To measure academic writing performance the participants wrote an introduction to an empirical research paper. We found no main effects for instructional method and writing preference. Simple effect analyses did reveal that revisers benefitted somewhat more from observational learning than planners. Planners performed equally well in observational learning and learning by doing. However, planners who learned by doing did seem to outperform revisers who learned by doing. Our study suggests that observational learning presents interesting opportunities for academic writing courses. However, more research on the interplay between writing strategy and instructional method is called for.

The orchestration of processes in relation to the product, and the role of psychological variables in written composition

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2014

We studied the timing of writing processes using a direct retrospective online technique, and differences in the textual product from the earliest school years where such a study is feasible to the final years of compulsory education. We also analysed a range of psychological variables to determine their modulating effect on writing. Participants comprised a highly purified sample of 348 students aged between 9 and 16 years old who presented standard development and average levels of curricular and writing competence. Our results reveal complex patterns in the development of the writing process and its orchestration, compared with the textual product, and no direct relationship was observed between development of the writing process and its timing, and improvement in the textual product. Among the youngest students, all this was mediated by psychological variables related to the existence of inaccurate perceptions of self-efficacy as regards the deployment and use of writing processes and causal attributions to external factors. The implications, limitations and future perspectives are discussed.

Explaining L2 Writing Performance through a Chain of Predictors: A SEM Approach

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2015

Renewed calls for identifying other variables and validating previous models that account for the complex interplay of mechanisms that are activated in the writing process have been made. In response to this call, the study investigates whether text production processes (idea generation, idea encoding, idea/text revision, and idea transcription) mediate the effect of topic knowledge, linguistic knowledge, writing approach, and writing experience on writing performance. Writer's performance was measured by timed essays, while the psycholinguistic and linguistic variables were measured by scales and tests. Results yielded by Structural Equations Modeling indicate that topic knowledge and linguistic knowledge have direct effects on writing performance and indirect effects on writing performance through text production process. Writing approach and writing experience do not directly affect writing performance, but they indirectly affect writing performance through text production processes.

Investigating L2 writing processes across independent and integrated tasks: A mixed-methods study

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Full-text available

May 2020

Most research into second language (L2) writing has focused on the products of writing tasks; much less empirical work has examined the behaviours in which L2 writers engage and the cognitive processes that underlie writing behaviours. We aimed to fill this gap by investigating the extent to which writing speed fluency, pausing, eye-gaze behaviours and the cognitive processes associated with pausing may vary across independent and integrated tasks throughout the whole, and at five different stages, of the writing process. Sixty L2 writers performed two independent and two integrated TOEFL iBT writing tasks counterbalanced across participants. While writing, we logged participants’ keystrokes and captured their eye-movements. Participants took part in a stimulated recall interview based on the last task they had completed. Mixed effects regressions and qualitative analyses revealed that, apart from source use on the integrated task, L2 writers engaged in similar writing behaviours and cognitive processes during the independent and integrated tasks. The integrated task, however, elicited more dynamic and varied behaviours and cognitive processes across writing stages. Adopting a mixed-methods approach enabled us to gain more complete and specific insights than using a single method.

EFL learners' writing processes: the relationship between linguistic knowledge, composing processes and text quality

Thesis

Nov 2020

Gulay Tiryakioglu

Writing is a complex process both in the first language (L1) and in a foreign or second language (L2). Research on second- and foreign-language writing processes is increasing, thanks to the existence of research tools that enable us to look more closely at what language learners actually do as they write (Hyland, 2016; Van Waes et al., 2012; Wengelin et al., 2019); research on plurilingual writing behaviour remains, however, scarce. This study looks at the relationship between knowledge of language, typing skills, writing processes (writing fluency, pauses and revisions) and the quality of texts written by 30 middle school French students (14-15 years old), during writing in their first (French), and second (English) languages. In the second study, we looked at this complex relationship among a sub-group of 15 middle school French-Turkish bilingual students (14-15 years old, residing in France) during writing in their home language (Turkish), school language (French), and English (a foreign language, also learned at school). The third study explores this complex relationship between the subgroup of 17 bilingual learners (15 Turkish-French bilinguals and 2 Arabic-French bilinguals) and 13 French monolingual learners. We used a mixed-method study design: a combination of keystroke loggings, pre- and post-writing questionnaires, students' written texts and stimulated recall interviews. Our participants performed three writing tasks (a copy task, a descriptive and a narrative task) in each language on the computer using the keystroke-logging tool Inputlog (Leijten & Van Waes, 2013). Keystroke logging (the possibility of measuring precise typing behaviour), which has developed over the past two decades, enables empirical investigation of typing behaviour during writing. Data related to writing processes were analyzed from this Inputlog data: writing fluency was measured as characters per minute, words per minute, and mean pause-bursts (text produced between two pauses of 2000 milliseconds); pausing was measured as numbers of pauses, pause length, and location (within and between words); and revisions were measured as numbers of deletions and additions, and revision-bursts (number of characters typed between two revisions). Typing speed was measured with the Inputlog copy task tool in three languages; we developed the Turkish copy task for our study, and it has been standardized and added to the Inputlog software. To assess text quality, a team of evaluators used both a holistic and an analytical rating scale to judge content, organization and language use in the L1, L2 and L3 texts, and this qualitative assessment is compared with the quantitative Inputlog measures. We also collected stimulated recall protocol data from a focus group of seven writers, as they watched the keystroke logged data unfold; this fascinating process enabled us to obtain information related to the writers’ thoughts during long pauses and revisions. Finally, we obtained background data on the participants’ writing behaviors outside the classroom with a questionnaire. Analyses of the keystroke logging data reveal important differences between L1 and L2 as well as between L1, L2 and L3 writing processes, which appear to be linked to our bilingual subjects’ linguistic backgrounds, and especially their contact with written Turkish (Akinci, 2016). Writing processes were more fluent in French, with longer pause-bursts, fewer pauses and revisions than writing in English and Turkish. Post-hoc comparisons of writing processes in the three project languages show that although there are significant differences between French and Turkish/English writing processes, English and Turkish writing processes are similar, with, however, significant fluency differences. Data related to typing behaviour were analyzed from the Inputlog copy task tool in French, English and Turkish, and these analyses reveal important differences between typing in the L1, L2 and L3. We also found significant correlations between language knowledge, writing fluency measures and text quality in the three languages. The relationships between writing processes and text quality in multilingual writing are complex, and we will discuss the implications of our findings for classroom practice, and future research. Keywords: writing processes, keystroke loggings, Inputlog, EFL writing, foreign language learning, multilingual writing, bilingual learners, French-Turkish bilinguals, multilingual writing model, linguistic knowledge, typing skill, copy task, writing fluency, text quality, stimulated recall protocols

Past and future research agendas on writing strategies: Conceptualizations, inquiry methods, and research findings

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Full-text available

Jun 2018

Rosa M. Manchón

This paper offers a retrospective narrative review of research on L2 writing strategies and a prospective discussion of potential theoretical and pedagogical relevant lines of inquiry to be explored in future research agendas. The retrospective analysis will synthesize the main trends observed in the conceptualization of writing strategies as well as central directions followed in empirical research in the domain. The prospective discussion tries to advance research agendas on the basis of several observations about L2 writing that are presented as key points to be considered when analyzing existing or thinking about future research in the domain. Special mention will be made of future research avenues centrally concerned with theoretical and empirical questions on the manner in which strategic behavior during writing and during written corrective feedback processing may foster language learning. It will be suggested that following this route can result in interesting and profitable synergies between research on language learning strategies and recent SLA-oriented L2 writing research initiatives on the language learning potential associated with L2 writing.

An Investigation of the Iranian EFL Learners’ Perceptions Towards the Most Common Writing Problems

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2020

Inasmuch as the fact that writing is a cognitively demanding task and as a step toward overcoming some of the barriers English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners face during writing performance, this study attempted to investigate Iranian EFL learners’ perceptions toward the most common writing difficulties. To this end, 120 Iranian EFL learners from Golestan University, Iran, filled out a reliable and validated questionnaire. The results of the questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews (N = 24) revealed that most of the participants agreed that for teaching grammar and punctuation, they should be embedded in a context and be integrated with the four skills. They also believed that teachers should use punctuation appropriately in their writings themselves and teach them to students explicitly. Besides, it was believed that through using mnemonics, students can better learn words spelling. The results of the interviews revealed grammar, spelling, punctuation, choice of words, organization, and familiarity with genres and rhetorical structures, negative transfer from Persian to English, and idiomatic expressions and collocations are the other factors that make the writing task difficult. Based on the students’ perceptions, the findings of this study can inform English language teachers to teach grammar, punctuation, and spelling by contextualizing them in an appropriate context, and they offer some practical implications for teachers, learners, material developers, and curriculum designers in this regard.

THE TEACHING OF WRITING RECOUNT TEXTS BY UTILIZING PADLET

Article

Feb 2020

Writing has always been beneficial for those who master it. Albeit its virtues, it is subject to investigation due to issues concerning its derisory tasks, its complexity, and its arid learning activities. Based upon the issues, this study is aimed at portraying how English teachers teach students writing recount texts by integrating Padlet into their classroom. Involving one English teacher and a class of 25 students, this study obtained the data through observation of four class meetings. The data were then analyzed qualitatively to depict thoroughly the teaching practice of the teacher as Padlet was deployed in the classroom. The analysis resulted in findings vis-�-vis the integration of Padlet and the teacher�s ways of integrating Padlet, that the integration of technology is categorized into some levels. The findings to some extent conform to previous studies that the integration of technology has been prevalent among English teaching in general. It is therefore suggested that teachers maintain the integration of technology while keep on fostering the accompanying capability of integrating it. �Keywords: writing; recount texts; Padlet; technology integration; digital teaching media.

The Effect of L2 Proficiency Level on Composing Processes of EFL Learners: Data from Keystroke Loggings, Think Alouds and Questionnaires

Chapter

Jan 2019

This study aims to look into the effect of L2 proficiency level on composing processes of L2 student writers in L2 writing. The research to date has produced conflicting evidence concerning the relationship between L2 proficiency and composing processes. A number of L2 studies found that L2 proficiency does not influence L2 writing performance and the occurrence of cognitive activities either in L1 or L2. On the other hand, in other studies, it was found that L2 proficiency plays a major role in explaining L2 writing performance. Results showed that EFL learners spent more time on composing the L2 text with more number of words, pauses and revisions than the L1 text. Additionally, they composed the L1 text more fluently. High L2 proficiency students composed the L2 text more fluently with fewer pauses and revisions than low L2 proficiency students .

Source use and argumentation behavior in L1 and L2 writing: a within-writer comparison

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2019
READ WRIT

The aim of this study was to test whether Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH) might also apply to writing, by determining to what extent writers’ text quality, source use and argumentation behavior are related in L1 and L2, how effective writers’ behavior is and whether their L2 proficiency influenced the relations between them. To answer these questions, twenty students wrote four short argumentative source based essays each in L1 (Dutch) and four in L2 (English). A within-writer cross-linguistic comparison of their texts revealed that their L1 and L2 writing competencies appear to be related. Furthermore, writers’ source use behavior differed to some extent between languages, but the strong positive correlations found between source use features suggest that in most cases this was more a person than a language effect. Similarly, for argumentation behavior, results showed some learner specific features (e.g. inclusion of titles and reference lists), but differences between languages for others (e.g. the inclusion of both arguments and counter-arguments). Effects of the different source use and argumentation features studied on text quality were limited and no clear effect of L2 proficiency on writers’ behavior or their influence on text quality were found. Overall, in line with earlier research, these findings provide some additional support for Cummins’ LIH and the idea that writers might have a common underlying source for writing related knowledge and practices which they can apply in multiple languages.

Feedback op de schrijfaanpak: de ontwikkeling van een schrijfprocesgericht feedbackrapport voor vwo-leerlingen

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2017

Feedback in schrijfvaardigheidsonderwijs gaat over de kwaliteit van teksten en moet leerlingen helpen hun schrijfvaardigheid verder te ontwikkelen. Dat zal voor een deel betekenen dat zij hun schrijfproces anders aan moeten pakken: de betere hardloopcoach zegt zijn pupillen immers niet dát, maar hóe zij harder moeten lopen. In het voortgezet onderwijs is schrijfprocesfeedback nog niet bekend. In die lacune proberen wij te voorzien door voor leerlingen een feedbackrapport te ontwikkelen dat over hun schrijfproces gaat: het beschrijft het schrijfgedrag van leerlingen als zij op de computer een tekst schrijven op basis van bronnen. We genereerden zulke rapporten voor ruim 500 leerlingen uit 4- en 5-vwo op 35 scholen. Die leerlingen schreven ieder vier teksten, zodat ze ook inzicht kregen in de mate waarin hun processen variëren over taken. Het feedbackrapport beoogt gestuurde zelfstudie: de leerlingen worden via uitleg en toepassingsopdrachten vertrouwd gemaakt met hun schrijfprocesgegevens en aangezet tot analyse en verandering. We testten het rapport in een kleinschalige studie met drie leerlingen. Het bleek dat het leerlingen inderdaad in staat stelt zelfstandig concrete acties te formuleren om hun schrijfproces te verbeteren.

Fostering academic writing skills and text quality through metacognitive activities

Thesis

Full-text available

Jan 2017

Anke Wischgoll

Academic writing is complex, and beginning academic writers need support to master the challenges it poses. Although research on writing activities in higher education is still scarce, research on the writing of high school students recommends writing activities for learning academic writing. To master complex tasks, such as writing an empirical article, metacognitive activities are important, as they complement cognitive activities. Therefore, combining cognitive and metacognitive writing activities seems to be a promising means for improving writing skills and text quality: Training cognitive strategies such as summarization and text structure application strategy provide a foundation for writing academic texts. As a metacognitive writing activity, monitoring of the writing process induced by strategy training or feedback serves to control and evaluate the text written so far. The two studies presented in this thesis tested how the acquisition of academic writing skills and the improvement of text quality can be supported. To this aim, the combination of applying cognitive and metacognitive writing activities was tested. Study 1 investigated the effect of combined training of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, while Study 2 examined the effect of training writing strategies and providing feedback. More specifically, Study 1 tested whether undergraduates can be effectively supported in the acquisition of academic writing skills by training one cognitive writing strategy (i.e., text structure application strategy) in combination with one metacognitive writing strategy (i.e., self-monitoring strategy). In contrast to this, we tested training a text structure application strategy as a single cognitive writing strategy or a text structure application strategy combined with another cognitive writing strategy (i.e., summarization strategy). Study 2 tested the effect of training one cognitive writing strategy on the acquisition of academic writing skills. Furthermore, in terms of writing quality, Study 2 tested whether undergraduates and postgraduates benefit differently from feedback for revising and whether text structure application training with feedback that is aligned to undergraduates’ writing experience is supportive. The aim of both studies was to investigate whether inducing metacognitive writing activities in combination with training cognitive writing strategies fosters the acquisition of academic writing skills and the improvement of text quality. The results revealed that supporting undergraduates and postgraduates in order to acquire academic writing skills and improve text quality depends on metacognitive support and how it is administered. Specifically, undergraduates who received the additional selfmonitoring strategy training benefited significantly more in terms of acquisition of academic writing skills and the quality of their texts than learners who did not receive this intervention. Undergraduates and postgraduates benefited from feedback that was aligned to their writing experience in terms of higher text quality. However, the combination of writing strategy and feedback was not significantly related to improved text quality. In summary, the results suggest a combination of training cognitive and metacognitive writing strategies or of providing feedback that is aligned to writing experience in order to improve the text quality of beginning academic writers.

DINÁMICA TEMPORAL DE LA REVISIÓN DURANTE LA ESCRITURA DE RESEÑAS EN LA UNIVERSIDAD TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF REVISION DURING THE WRITING OF REVIEWS AT UNIVERSITY

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2018

En este estudio analizamos desde un enfoque cognitivo la distribución temporal de las actividades de revisión de estudiantes universitarios en el proceso de producción de reseñas académicas. El supuesto de partida es que la distribución temporal de las actividades de revisión tiene impacto en la calidad textual. Con la finalidad de indagar tal supuesto, estudiamos mediante técnicas online cómo se distribuyen a lo largo del proceso de escritura dos actividades de revisión: "leer el texto escrito hasta el momento" y "modificar el propio texto".

Effects of Task Complexity on L2 Writing Behaviors and Linguistic Complexity: Task Complexity and L2 Writing

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2016
LANG LEARN

This study investigated whether task complexity influences second language (L2) writers’ fluency, pausing, and revision behaviors and the cognitive processes underlying these behaviors; whether task complexity affects linguistic complexity of written output; and whether relationships between writing behaviors and linguistic complexity are moderated by task complexity. Participants were 73 advanced L2 writers, who completed simple or complex essay tasks. Task complexity was operationalized as the absence versus presence of content support. Participants’ writing behaviors were recorded via keystroke logging software. Four writers, drawn from groups performing simple and complex tasks, additionally engaged in stimulated recall. Content support was found to lead to less pausing, more revision, and increased linguistic complexity. When content support was absent, more frequent pauses and revisions were associated with less sophisticated lexis. These results, combined with stimulated recall comments, suggest that content support likely reduced processing burden on planning processes, facilitating attention to linguistic encoding.

Development of writing process from Primary to Secondary Ecucation

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2014
REV PSICODIDACT

When teachers compare argumentative texts: Decisions informed by multiple complex aspects of text quality

Article

Full-text available

May 2018

Insight into aspects that guide teachers' decisions when assessing student text quality is crucial to an understanding of the validity of text scores. Such research has been lacking in the context of comparative methods which are, however, increasingly being used for text assessment purposes. This study reports on the aspects of argumentative texts that guide Flemish teachers' decisions when using the comparative judgement method. In using this method, teachers indicate which text of a pair is of higher quality. 27 teachers explained 23 comparative judgements in a decision statement, when comparing randomly se-lected texts written by 135 students in their fifth year of general secondary education. This resulted in 596 statements referring to 2054 segments of aspects of text quality. Firstly, an inductive analysis revealed that teachers consider a wide range of aspects with regard to text quality when making comparison deci-sions. Secondly, the deductive aggregation of these aspects showed that most decisions are informed by the organisation and argumentation of the texts. Lastly, almost all statements reported complex aspects of text quality, whereas half of the decision statements also showed a reflection on the rule-applying aspects of text quality. We conclude that comparative judgement encourages teachers to make decisions on complex and multiple aspects of text quality. Further research should elaborate on whether the as-pects that informed teachers' decisions are related to the text they choose, and whether teachers differ in the aspects to which they refer.

Fluency in Writing: A Multidimensional Perspective on Writing Fluency Applied to L1 and L2

Article

Dec 2015
Comput Compos

Are reading and writing building on the same skills? The relationship between reading and writing in L1 and EFL

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2019
READ WRIT

Rob Schoonen

This article investigates the relationship between reading and writing. We assume that these skills share a number of subskills as can be inferred from models of reading and writing. A set of these subskills are studied for the extent to which they can explain the common variance (correlation) between reading and writing. Data from a sample of Dutch students performing reading and writing tasks in Dutch and English as a foreign language, as well as tests for various Dutch and English subskills, both declarative knowledge and processing fluency, were analyzed using structural equation modeling to estimate residual correlations between reading and writing, controlling for subskills. Results show that declarative linguistic knowledge is a more likely source for the common variance between reading and writing than processing fluency, and the subskills seem to play a larger role in EFL reading and writing than in L1 reading and writing. However, the EFL patterns seem to develop in the direction of the L1 results in the course of three grades.

Effect of genre on the generalizability of writing scores

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2015
Lang Test

In the present study, aspects of the measurement of writing are disentangled in order to investigate the validity of inferences made on the basis of writing performance and to describe implications for the assessment of writing. To include genre as a facet in the measurement, we obtained writing scores of 12 texts in four different genres for each participating student. Results indicate that across raters, tasks and genres, only 10% of the variance in writing scores is related to individual writing skill. In order to draw conclusions about writing proficiency, students should therefore write at least three different texts in each of four genres rated by at least two raters. Moreover, when writing scores are obtained through highly similar tasks, generalization across genres is not warranted. Inferences based on text quality scores should, in this case, be limited to genre-specific writing. These findings replicate the large task variance in writing assessment as consistently found in earlier research and emphasize the effect of genre on the generalizability of writing scores. This research has important implications for writing research and writing education, in which writing proficiency is quite often assessed by only one task rated by one rater.

Using Blogs in Teaching Tertiary ESL Writing

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2018

Romualdo Mabuan

Anchored on the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge or TPACK Framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2009) and Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition or SAMR Model of Technology Integration into the classroom (Puentedura, 2014), this study investigated a corpus of 58 blog posts written by ESL learners through weblogs. It aimed to determine the views of students on the use of blogs in learning English writing skills and to explore students' feedback on the advantages of blogging as a virtual writing platform. Research participants were 58 freshman university tourism students enrolled at a Study and Thinking Skills class in a private university in Manila, the Philippines during the first semester of the academic year 2017-2018. Research data drawn from students' blogs, survey questionnaires and focus group discussion revealed that despite accessibility issues due to technological resources, the learners viewed blogging as a viable platform in learning English writing skills because it affords them freedom to express their thoughts, it develops or improves their writing skills, and it allows them to connect and engage with their peers online, inter alia. Pedagogical implications for ESL writing teachers and researchers are offered based on these results.

Rural Area Learners’ Writing Self-efficacy Development: A Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2017

Ilyana Jalaluddin

This case study aimed to evaluate the rural area learners’ writing self-efficacy using two different approaches which are qualitative and quantitative approach. It involved three form four students and a teacher for six months. In this study, the learners’ writing self-efficacy was investigated using a combination of quantitative and qualitative (classroom observation). Classroom observation was based on three characteristics: persistence in accomplishing language tasks, self-awareness of English proficiency, and willingness to engage in language activities. These characteristics which were concept of self-efficacy. This study did not focus on the score of WSE scales alone but also placed a heavy emphasis on the perceptions and actions of the form four students and teacher. Altogether, 15 non-participant classroom observations, 10 interviews with each of the three students and 10 teacher’s interviews were carried out to understand the participants’ self-efficacy phenomena in their learning to write. Findings showed that the combination of different method of collecting data for writing self-efficacy was a feasible way in explaining rural learners’ writing self-efficacy development.

An example of an L2-writing strategy: NOVSKEV

Article

Dec 2018

In this study the effect of a writing strategy for L2-writing is tested experimentally. 10th grade students (N = 67) took part in a writing experiment in writing German as a second language. In the experimental con-dition students were taught to pay attention to pre-writing activities (think and organize), find the right words in German, and post-writing activities (evaluate and revise). Students in both the experimental and control condition completed two texts as pre- and post-test. All texts were rated holistically as well as with an analytic scoring scheme. Results show that in the experi-mental condition students wrote (on average) better texts than in the control condition, when rated ho-listically. For the analytic ratings improvement was statistically significant for the categories Content, Vo-cabulary and Conventions. For other categories (Syntax, Grammar (Verb and Case), Spelling and Punctu-ation) no effect of the experimental program could be shown.

English-medium instruction in Dutch higher education: A policy reconstruction and impact study

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2018

Iris Breetvelt

English has been introduced as the medium of instruction in three-quarters of Master's-degree programs in the Netherlands and one-quarter of Bachelor's degree programs. The principal driving force behind this trend is internationalization, with the harmonization and Anglicization of higher education applied as means to that end. There is increasing criticism of this development within educational institutions and the Dutch House of Representatives. The main criterion is that the use of English should not undermine the quality of the education provided. The required level of proficiency in English for teaching and receiv-ing academic education is C1 of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference). For native speak-ers of Dutch (L1), both verbal information processing and text production in English (L2) burden the work-ing memory more than their own language would. Relatively little research has been conducted into the impact of English-medium instruction on the aca-demic performance of Dutch students, and many of those studies that do exist are based on self-reporting rather than objective measurements. Semi-experimental research indicates that lecturers using L2 English are less clear, precise, redundant, and expressive, and also improvise less. Findings in respect of academic performance are inconsistent: some studies point to a decline, others find no effect on students' perfor-mance. Research into the impact of L2 as a medium of instruction is generally hindered by the non-ran-dom allocation of students to the language in which they are taught and a lack of objective measurements.

Addressing current and future challenges in EAL writing with Universal Design for Learning

Chapter

Full-text available

Dec 2018

Paul Dickinson

Writing is an essential literacy skill that is crucial to meeting various social demands. It is also extremely difficult to master, especially for learners of an additional language who face significant barriers to learning. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), is an instructional framework promoted as an effective means of removing such barriers. The basis of UDL is that learning barriers are best addressed through curricula and lessons that provide multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression. This study explores the application, and learners' perceptions, of UDL in an English writing course at a Japanese university. The UDL guidelines were used in the design and implementation of goals, instruction, learning tasks, and assessments. Learners’ perceptions of the UDL-based instruction were investigated using a questionnaire survey.

Evolution of the Writing Process from Primary to Secondary Education

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2014
REV PSICODIDACT

The aim of this study was to analyse the differences that arise between different educational levels in the writing process and product, and in the variables moderating writing, using an online technique of immediate retrospection. Participants consisted of 1,231 students presenting normal academic performance and attending compulsory education from the 4th year of Primary Education to the 4th year of Secondary Education. The results show that although students in their final year of compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) comprised the group which obtained the best outcomes, development from Primary Education (PE) was not as steady as might be expected. Engagement in the writing process was observed to diminish at the start of CSE, and there were more interruptions during the first phase of the process and less engagement in planning and producing a written text. Data on the variables modulating writing indicate that inexperienced writers presented more positive attitudes and a greater motivation to write and overestimated their self-efficacy, indicative of having less knowledge, practice and expertise in the process, product and quality of writing. These results suggest that the orchestration of younger students' writing process during the production of a written text is not the most suitable, and results in lower quality. The implications, limitations and future perspectives are discussed.

The effect of two modes of strategy instruction: Modeling vs

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2018

We implemented an intervention of four lessons and tested the effects of two instructional modes as compared to the regular curriculum practices for completing a synthesis task at the preparatory program of a Turkish university. Participants were 48 upper-intermediate English as a Foreign Language learners (mean age = 18) assigned to three conditions. The presentational condition received direct strategy instruction supported by mnemonics; the modeling condition observed a video of a peer doing the task using the same strategies mnemonic. In the control condition, there was no explicit reference to strategies; rather, students inferred the necessary information about writing an effective synthesis text from the instruction and the lesson materials. We hypothesized that both of the experimental conditions would have a positive effect on students' synthesis text quality and writing processes and that modeling of explicit strategy use would have an effect over and above the other conditions. Results showed that students in the modeling condition improved their source use skills significantly more than students in the presentational condition, which was maintained in the delayed posttest four weeks later. No statistically significant condition effect was observed for content and authenticity of students' texts. The modeling condition also showed and reported a more process-oriented approach to writing.

Good Text in, Good Text out

Article

May 2020

Dennis Murphy Odo

Extensive reading (ER) is widely agreed to improve L2 learners’ vocabulary and writing, but the precise effects that ER has on particular characteristics of L2 vocabulary used in L2 writing remain unclear. To address this issue, university level Korean EFL learners in an L2 essay writing class engaged in extensive reading over a semester and wrote argumentative essays about a topic of their choosing. These essays were analyzed for two key indicators of lexical complexity (i.e., lexical density and number of different words) using a computerized text analysis tool. Analysis results generally affirmed previous studies’ conclusions that ER has a positive influence on L2 writing adding that the more words learners read, the greater variety of words they used in their essays. Likewise, in accord with other research showing gains in English word recognition and recall, learners’ perceptions about the difficulty of their ER materials had an effect on the lexical density of their written essays thus providing additional evidence that ER impacts L2 vocabulary use in essay writing. Somewhat unexpectedly, learners’ perceived enjoyment had no effect on either lexical complexity variable which indicates that, contrary to some claims, selecting reading material based on its entertainment value may not actually lead to vocabulary development in L2 writing.

The effect of automated fluency feedback on written text production

Thesis

Full-text available

May 2020

Emily N Dux Speltz

Fluency is undoubtedly an important aspect of written language production, but little is known about the best ways to encourage the fluent production of text. This article presents a new intervention for improving first language (L1) writing fluency and reports an empirical study investigating writing quality with this intervention. The intervention explicitly encourages fluent text production by providing automated real-time feedback to the writer. The design of this intervention was informed by previous studies on strategy-focused interventions and by two learning theories: skill acquisition theory and the cognitive process theory of writing. Guided by previous research and these theories, this study developed two research questions concerning the new intervention. These questions concerned the impact of this intervention on product and process measures of writing and on users’ perceptions of the intervention. To address these research questions, this study employed a mixed-methods approach. It collected quantitative and qualitative data from twenty native-English-speaking undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. The quantitative data consisted of scores earned by the participants upon completing two writing tasks: one which included the new fluency intervention and one which served as the control condition. These tasks were conducted using an online text editor with embedded keystroke logging capabilities. Linear mixed-effect models were run to analyze the effect of the intervention on the final product of writing (i.e., the text that is produced) and the process of writing (i.e., the time-course of the moment-by-moment actions that taken to produce the text). Findings demonstrated that there were significant differences between the fluency intervention condition and the control condition in terms of the product and the process. Specifically, participants wrote more text, expressed more ideas, and produced a higher-quality text in the fluency intervention condition. The qualitative data consisted of responses to questionnaires in which participants reported their perceptions of the intervention upon completing it. They expressed some potential benefits of the intervention, including being able to think faster and generate more ideas, feeling motivated to write, and writing more intentionally. After presenting these findings in more detail, this thesis concludes by discussing potential practical applications of this intervention.

In a Nutshell: an Analysis of Thesis Abstracts of Croatian University Students in L2 English

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2020

Važnost pisanja sažetaka znanstvenih radova leži u tome što su preduvjet za objavu u znanstvenim časopisima, sudjelovanje na konferencijama, prijavu projekata i slično. No, pisanje kvalitetnoga sažetka zahtjevan je zadatak za hrvatske studente koji su često suočeni sa zadatkom pisanja sažetka svog završnog ili diplomskog rada na engleskomu jeziku. Kako bi pružili uvid u vještine pisanja sažetaka hrvatskih studenata, učenika engleskoga jezika, na akademskoj razini, u ovomu radu predstavljena je analiza korpusa 100 sažetaka završnih i diplomskih radova studenata Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Splitu. Provedena je analiza sastavnih dijelova sažetaka i određene su vrste i učestalost učeničkih pogrešaka. Rezultati su pokazali da u sažetcima često nedostaju osnovni podaci koji se očekuju u sažetku znanstvenoga rada kao što je jasno objašnjenje pristupa ili motivacija za rad. Što se tiče pogrešaka, studenti su imali najviše poteš- koća sa članovima i prijedlozima. Leksičke pogreške, npr. pogrešan odabir riječi (kolokacije), također su bile učestale kao i problemi s interpunkcijom. Identifikacija ovih slabosti u vještini pisanja hrvatskih učenika od velike je važnosti za razvoj smjernica za poučavanje kako bi se olakšalo njihovo sprečavanje i eliminacija.

Exploring Feedback and Regulation in Online Writing Classes with Keystroke Logging

Preprint

Aug 2021

The importance of feedback in writing classes has long been recognised. However, most feedback centres on writing products (e.g., drafts, completed essays) with feedback on writing processes difficult to provide, particularly in online writing classes (OWC). This paper explores the potential of keystroke logging software (KSL) to provide process-oriented feedback with a secondary focus on increasing self-regulated writing capacity. Specifically, we designed a four-stage intervention using KSL to provide feedback for 34 undergraduates over a 16-week English as a foreign language OWC. Students recorded themselves writing narrative, descriptive, expository, and opinion essays (~450 words each). One group was given basic tasks and the other was given tasks designed to improve time management, revision, and source use. Results show significant improvements on first draft performance for the intervention group in text quality and words typed. There was no significant difference between groups on second draft scores. Moreover, both groups reported a significant increase in their use of peer learning strategies, whilst the intervention group reported significant increases in metacognitive strategies, particularly idea planning. Based on these findings, and students’ perceptions on process feedback, we make a number of recommendations for future studies and lessons that seek to incorporate process-oriented feedback.

A Testing and Evaluation-Based Approach to Second Language (English) Writing: An Intervention Study

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021

S G S. Samaraweera

ABSTRACT Efficient procedures of testing and evaluation when taken in a positive light are sure to boost the writing skills of the adult ESL learners by introducing a hedonistic element into their learning atmosphere. The grades the learners achieve in multiple series of mini-tests in this context function as incentives to motivate them to continue with their learning. The pedagogical benefit of such a mechanism is interpreted in terms of the high levels of accuracy and appropriateness the learners begin to maintain in their writing in the course of time. In this context, this study focuses on the effectiveness of a testing and evaluation-based approach to developing the writing skills of the adult ESL learners. The intervention study made in this concern involves 80 participants of both genders divided into two groups as experimental and control. The subjects (N=40) in the control group were engaged in writing long essays on complete comprehension passages so as to conclude a lesson unit whereas the subjects (N=40) in the experimental group were engaged in carrying out mini tests on comprehension passages in fragments up to the completion of the lesson unit. When the achievement results of the two respective groups were compared with each other the degrees of reliability, validity, and practicality of the mini tests figured much higher than those of the essay tests. The findings of the intervention study also indicated that statistically there is a significant increase in the learners’ writing skills as a result of testing and evaluation-based approach. Therefore, it is concluded that using testing and evaluation-based teaching/learning approach in developing L2 writing skills is an effective instructional technique and a useful instrument.

Effect of teacher and peer written corrective feedback on writing components in EFL classrooms

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2020

This study aimed to investigate the impact of teacher and peer written corrective feedback (WCF) on Indonesian senior high school students’ writing performance. A total of 71 Indonesian senior high school students from Grade X participated in this study; 36 were provided teacher WCF and 35 peers WCF. To collect and data, the participants were asked to write a legend essay. Using qualitative data analysis, we aimed to reveal the effectiveness of teacher and peer WCF in improving students’ writing performance. Adapted scoring rubric was employed to measure students’ overall writing performance, and competencies in relation to writing components such as content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. The results revealed that peer WCF can better enhance students’ writing abilities compared to teacher WCF. Furthermore, students who received teacher WCF showed substantial improvement in performance relating to all writing components except mechanics. In contrast, peer WCF enhanced students’ organization and vocabulary related performance. HIGHLIGHTS: • Peer WCF is more effective than teacher WCF in enhancing Indonesian senior high school students’ writing performance, especially in writing legend texts. • Teacher WCF helped significantly improve four components of writing competence: content, organization, vocabulary, and language, while peer WCF positively impacted organization and vocabulary components. • Combining both teacher and peer WCF could be more beneficial in improving students’ writing achievement than either type of WCF alone.

Reporting Writing Process Feedback in the Classroom: Using Keystroke Logging Data to Reflect on Writing Processes

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2020

OPEN ACCESS - https://www.jowr.org/abstracts/vol12_1/Vandermeulen_et_al_2020_12_1_abstract.html Keystroke loggers facilitate researchers to collect fine-grained process data and offer support in analyzing these data. Keystroke logging has become popular in writing research, and study by study we are now paving the path to a better understanding of writing process data. However, few researchers have concentrated on how to bring keystroke logging to the classroom. Not because they are not convinced that writing development could benefit from a more process-oriented pedagogy, but because 'translating' complex and large data sets to an educational context is challenging. Therefore, we have developed a new function in Inputlog, specifically aiming to facilitate writing tutors in providing process feedback to their students. Based on an XML- logfile, the so-called 'report' function automatically generates a pdf-file addressing different perspectives of the writing process: pausing, revision, source use, and fluency. These perspectives are reported either quantitatively or visually. Brief introductory texts explain the information presented. Inputlog provides a default feedback report, but users can also customize the report. This paper describes the process report and demonstrates the use of it in an intervention. We also present some additional pedagogical scenarios to actively use this type of feedback in writing classes.

The Complexity of Comparative Judgments in Assessing Argumentative Writing: An Eye Tracking Study

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2021

Comparative judgment (CJ) has been recently introduced in the educational field as a means of assessing competences. In this judgement process, assessors are presented with two pieces of student work and are asked to choose which one is better in relation to the competencies being assessed. However, since student work is heterogeneous and highly information loaded, it raises the question as to whether this type of assessment is too complex for assessors to use. Previous research on the topic has operationalized experienced complexity by employing self-report measures, which have been criticized for common problems associated with their use. In our study, we used eye tracking to study 23 high school teachers when they made 10 comparative judgments, and their pupil diameter was used as an indicator of the experienced complexity. This study builds on previous research that integrated Campbell’s theory on task complexity (1988) into CJ. Based on this framework, three hypotheses regarding the role of decision accuracy were formulated and empirically tested. Hypothesis one assumes that the distance between two pieces of student work on the rank-order (rank-order distance) is negatively related to experienced complexity, irrespective of decision accuracy. Hypothesis two assumes that decision accuracy moderates the relationship between rank-order distance and experienced complexity. Hypothesis three builds on hypothesis two by adding a negative relationship between experience and experienced complexity. In all three hypotheses, the average experienced complexity is assumed to vary between assessors, as is the strength of the expected relationships. An information-theoretic approach was used to test the holding of all three hypotheses. All hypotheses were translated into statistical models, and their relative and absolute fit were assessed. Results provided strong evidence for hypothesis three: both the moderating role of decision accuracy on the relationship between rank-order distance and experienced complexity, and the relationship between experience and experienced complexity, were confirmed.

The Effects of Topic Familiarity on Eleventh Graders’ Writing Performance

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Jan 2020

Writing creative and argumentative texts: What's the difference? Exploring how task type affects students' writing behaviour and performance

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2021

The aim of this study was to gain insight into writing processes of secondary school students when con-fronted with fictional and expressive creative writing prompts compared to argumentative writing prompts. Twenty participants (Grade 10-11) each wrote eight texts, four based on creative prompts, the other four based on argumentative prompts, within a set time. A keystroke logging program recorded participants' writing processes. Texts were rated on global quality. Writing motivation and creativity were measured as well. Results showed that creative text production processes had specific features. Stu-dents' writing processes were faster, more stable and resulted in longer texts, and fewer revisions. Furthermore, creative as well as argumentative text quality improved if students wrote longer texts in short production cycles. Explorative analyses showed that learner characteristics correlate with writing behaviour as well as with text quality. Students wrote longer texts, had higher writing speed, and wrote better texts when they reported a more positive attitude towards writing and considered themselves more creative. Finally, students who believed in their own creative ability and/or believed that writing requires personal commitment wrote significantly better creative texts. These findings are discussed in the light of the aim to re-introduce creative writing in the Dutch curriculum.

Edmodo use in ESP writing: Students' perceptions

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2019
Eur J Engl Stud

A growing body of literature has examined the nature of blended learning and its effects on language teaching and learning, including the use of Edmodo to promote student writing. However, this type of integration of face-to-face instruction and online learning remains relatively new for EFL contexts. Also, teaching writing at the Vietnamese contexts, particularly in the ESP tertiary education, is still largely dependent on conventional way. This paper therefore reports students' perceptions about Edmodo use in writing classes at a Vietnamese university. This paper draws on data collected as part of a larger mixed methods project including tests and interviews over a fifteen-week semester of an ESP writing class. In this paper, the focus is the data from interviews, which explored how students perceived the effects of Edmodo use in their writing learning process. The findings indicate students' positive perceptions about this supportive learning delivery method in writing classes. Implications for teachers and school administrators with regard to practical applications of Edmodo as a potential tool are also discussed.

The effect of two modes of strategy instruction: Modeling vs Presentational

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2018

Formative assessment in primary English writing classes: A case study from Hong Kong

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2019

Based on a well-recognized formative assessment strategy model (Leahy et al, 2005) and multiple analytical frameworks of teacher feedback, the present study investigated three teachers (a novice, an experienced, and a veteran teacher) with regard to their instructional, assessment, and feedback practices throughout the pre-, during-, and post-stages of a second language (L2) writing instruction cycle. Adopting a case study approach, multiple data were gathered from interviews, lesson observations, teaching materials, students' writing, and teacher written feedback. Cross-case comparisons were conducted to understand teachers' formative assessment strategies, feedback practices, and their difficulties. The study found that the teachers engaged primarily with the pre-and post-writing stages. In the pre-writing stage, they conducted a variety of activities to prepare students for writing and to clarify target writing criteria. However, they tended to skip the during-writing stage. In the post-writing stage, all teachers adopted comprehensive error correction with the novice teacher giving more corrections than the other two. Only the experienced teacher required students to compose a second draft, the other two requiring only a single draft. Unlike the veteran teacher, the two younger teachers avoided writing negative comments and wrote many personalized comments probably in order to build relationships with students. In terms of feedback orientation, teachers paid more attention to what a student did and could do better in the task at hand than what a student could do in future tasks. Implications drawn from this research were presented in the form of a checklist for teachers, which integrated instructional and formative assessment strategies with the L2 writing instruction processes.

EFL Learners in Digital Age: The Tendency and Impact of Using Translation Tool Application in Writing English Text

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Mar 2018

A'Thi Fauzani Wisudawati

In the fulfillment of the EFL learners duties, writing using good and proper English is a must as a student of English study program. The growth of technology influences the existence of the translation tool application which is considered effective and greatly helps students to be effortless and to reduce time-consuming in writing English text. The objectives of this study are to examine the tendency of how often the translation tool application was used by EFL learners, the motive behind it was used, and what are the impacts of using translation tool application in their academic life. This study used qualitative research in which the methods of data collections were observation, interview, and questionnaire. Participants in this study were students majoring English department (Education and Literature). The results show that 46.7% of the participants are constantly the translation tool application user. However, it triggers some consequences not only positive but also negative impacts on the EFL learners.

Revising in a non-alphabetic language: The multidimensional and dynamic nature of online revisions in Chinese as a second language

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2021
System

While second language (L2) writing processes have received increased attention in recent years, few studies have considered writing processes in non-alphabetic languages. To help fill this gap, this study examined the online revision behaviours and associated cognitive processes of L2 writers of Chinese from a multi-dimensional and temporal perspective. Thirty-two L2 Chinese writers performed four writing tasks while their keystrokes were logged. Based on their last writing performance, participants engaged in a stimulated recall session, during which they were asked to describe their thoughts during revisions. Baseline data were collected from 32 first language (L1) writers of Chinese following the same procedure. Revisions were coded for linguistic domain, context, and level of transcription. Stimulated recall comments were categorised according to the orientation of revision. We found that L2 writers more frequently revised language than content, smaller linguistic units than larger ones, and text at the inscription point than previously produced text. They also revised Pinyin more than characters. Revisions occurred more frequently in the middle stages of writing, except for most contextual revisions made in the final stage. Similar trends were observed in L1 writing, apart from character revisions outnumbering Pinyin revisions and proportionately more revisions focusing on content.

A Comparative Analysis of Written Errors of Turkish, Azerbaijani and Syrian Students in English Writing Skills

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2018

Mustafa Polat

This study aims to do a comparative analysis of the writing errors of Turkish, Azerbaijani and Syrian university students studying in English preparatory classes in the context of grammatical, lexical and spelling errors. The data of this qualitative case study were obtained from the 15 English preparatory class students from Turkey (N=5), Syria (N=5) and Azerbaijan (N=5). They were studying at A2 (pre-intermediate) level classes at the school of foreign languages of a state university in the northwest of Turkey. In order to get the information from the writing errors made by the students, 60 pieces of their writing portfolio papers were collected through the document analysis technique. The research data were analyzed through the content analysis. The results revealed that Turkish, Azerbaijani and Syrian students have some differences in terms of both the number and the types of writing errors. On the other hand, Turkish and Azerbaijani students also have a great number of similarities, but they differ from Syrian students in almost all types of errors. In the light of the results of the study, it has been concluded that most of the errors resulted from the mother tongue and culture-related negative transfers are frequently encountered ones in the teaching process of writing skills.

Judging texts with rubrics and comparative judgement: Taking into account reliability and time investment.

Article

Jan 2017

Writing researchers and practitioners both aim for reliable judgements with a minimum investment of time. This study focuses on two judgement methods, rubrics and comparative judgement. For each method, we studied how long it took to complete a judgement per text. Moreover, we examined how the reliability evolves in relation to the time spent judging. Judges were randomly attributed to the rubrics condition or the comparative judgement condition. In each condition, the same 35 texts were judged and time was tracked during this process. Results show that, when reliability is operationalized as the stability of the rank order, both methods require a comparable time investment to reach a stable rank order. Future research on the reliability and time investment should take into account the time needed for developing the rubric and to set up a comparative judgement assessment. Further research should also clarify whether the findings can be generalized to other texts and rubrics. © 2018 Vereniging voor Onderwijsresearch (VOR). All rights reserved.

Processus d'écriture en anglais langue étrangère : interactions entre compétences linguistiques, processus de rédaction et qualité du texte

Thesis

Nov 2020

Gulay Tiryakioglu

L'écriture est un processus complexe à la fois dans la langue première (L1) et dans une langue étrangère ou seconde (L2). Les recherches sur les processus d'écriture en langue seconde et en langue étrangère se multiplient, grâce à l'existence d'outils de recherche qui nous permettent d'examiner de plus près ce que les apprenants font réellement dans leurs langues lorsqu'ils écrivent (Hyland, 2016; Van Waes et al., 2012; Wengelin et al., 2019) ; les recherches sur les comportements d'écriture plurilingue restent cependant rares. Cette étude examine la relation entre la connaissance de la langue, les compétences en dactylographie, les processus d'écriture (fluidité d'écriture, pauses et révisions) et la qualité des textes écrits par 30 collégiens français (14-15 ans), lors de l'écriture dans leur premier (français) et deuxième (anglais) langues. Dans la seconde étude, nous avons examiné cette relation complexe au sein d'un sous-groupe de 15 élèves bilingue turcophone (14-15 ans, résidant en France) lors de l'écriture dans leur langue d'origine (turc), langue scolaire (français) et l'anglais (une langue étrangère, également apprise à l'école). La troisième étude explore cetterelation complexe entre le sous-groupe de 17 apprenants bilingues (15 apprenants turcophone et 2 apprenants arabe-français) et 13 apprenants monolingues français.Nous avons utilisé un plan d'étude à méthode mixte: une combinaison d'enregistrement des touches tapées au clavier, de questionnaires avant et après l'écriture, de textes écrits par les élèves et d'entretiens de rappel stimulé. Nos participants ont effectué trois tâches d'écriture (une tâche de copie, une tâche descriptive et une tâche narrative) dans chaque langue à l'ordinateur à l'aide de l'outil d'enregistrement des touches tapées au clavier, Inputlog (Leijten & Van Waes, 2013). L'enregistrement des touches tapées au clavier (possibilité de mesurer avec précision le comportement de frappe), qui s'est développée au cours des deux dernières décennies, permet une investigation empirique des comportements de frappe lors de l'écriture à l'ordinateur. Les données relatives aux processus d'écriture ont été analysées à partir de ces données d'Inputlog: la fluidité d'écriture a été mesurée en caractères par minute, mots par minute et la moyenne des caractères entre deux pause en rafales de pause (de 2000 millisecondes); les hésitations ont été mesurées par le nombre de pauses, la durée des pauses et leur emplacement (à l'intérieur ou entre les mots); les révisions ont été mesurées en nombre de suppressions et d'ajouts, et en rafales de révision (le nombre moyenne d’ajouts et suppressions entre deux longues pauses de 2000 millisecondes). La vitesse de frappe a été mesurée avec une tâche de copie dans chaque langue du projet; cette tâche de copie est corrigée automatiquement par Inputlog ; nous avons développé cette tâche en turc pour notre étude, et elle a été normalisée et figure maintenant comme partie intégrante du logiciel, pour d’autres utilisateurs. Pour évaluer la qualité des textes écrits par nos apprenants, une équipe d'évaluateurs a utilisé une échelle d'évaluation holistique et analytique pour juger du contenu, de l'organisation et de l'utilisation de lalangue dans les textes en L1, L2 et L3 ; nous avons ensuite comparé cette évaluation qualitative aux mesures quantitatives obtenus dans Inputlog. Nous avons également recueilli des données avec un protocole de rappel stimulé auprès d'un sous-groupe de sept scripteurs, pendant qu'ils regardaient les données enregistrées sur Inputlog se dérouler à l’écran (avec la fonction Replay); ce processus fascinant nous a permis d’obtenir des informations liées aux pensées des écrivains lors des pauses et révisions longues. Enfin, nous avons obtenu d’autres informations sur les comportements d’écriture des participants en dehors de la classe à l’aide d’un questionnaire.....

Tracking the Real-Time Evolution of a Writing Event: Second Language Writers at Different Proficiency Levels: Real-Time Evolution of a Writing Event

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2018

The current study focused on emergent processes during real-time second language (L2) writing activity in an English as a foreign language university context, examining differences in these processes across individual capacities. Participants included 22 adult Japanese learners of L2 English and their tutor. The data were collected using digital screen capture and eye-tracking technologies while the learners wrote a 35-minute argumentative essay. Supplementary stimulated retrospective recalls were also conducted to document the learners’ and the tutor's reflections on the writing event. Results revealed clear differences in L2 writing activity at different periods in time as well as differences in cognitive activity that appear to be mediated by L2 proficiency. Importantly, the obtained patterns differed depending on whether duration or frequency data were considered. These findings thus demonstrate the need to broaden the study of the temporal dimension of L2 writing and to consider more nuanced mixed-methods approaches in future work.

Three Written Corrective Feedback Sources in Improving Indonesian and Japanese Students’ Writing Achievement

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021

The quality of written corrective feedback can strongly and positively affect students’ writing achievement levels. This study aimed to examine whether written corrective feedback could improve students’ achievement levels for essay writing and investigated which one from three different feedback sources—teacher, peer, and self—was effective in increasing senior high school students’ achievement levels of English writing in two English as a Foreign Language countries, Indonesia and Japan. The study participants included 81 Indonesian and 81 Japanese senior high school students (Grade XI, 16-17 years old), who were divided into three different groups. Three different feedback sources were utilized for each group. Data collection was from a pretest and posttest to identify the relationship between students’ writing achievement level and the written corrective feedback sources they had been exposed to in the classroom. The data were analyzed by employing descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and Bonferroni post hoc test. The study results showed that written corrective feedback from peers effectively improved Indonesian senior high school students’ writing achievement levels. In contrast, for the Japanese senior high school students, teachers’ written corrective feedback represented the most effective source.

The effect of two modes of strategy instruction: Modeling vs. Presentational.

Article

Apr 2018

INTEGRATING PROCESS-GENRE APPROACH WITH PROJECT IBUNKA TO IMPROVE STUDENTS� ENGLISH WRITING

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2019

This study goes into how an integration of process-genre approach and project ibunka improves students� English writing. Through Process-Genre approach, students put in writing essays by combining Process and Genre based writing. Meanwhile, Project Ibunka as an online collaborative writing project is deployed as a means of publishing the students� writing to be read and commented by other students from various cultures and countries. In the context of this study, Ibunka also provides sources used to explore the topic and as a writing model. This study is a classroom action research that involved 46 university students in two classes who learned to compose English essays in three learning cycles within twelve meetings. The integration of Process-Genre and Project Ibunka is implemented in four stages: introducing and exploring theme and topics of writing, modeling and determining genre, joint writing and independent writing. In joint and independent writing, the students go through several stages of writing process such as planning, drafting, writing, revising and editing. The result of essays scoring shows average score improvement in both classes from cycle 1 to cycle 2 and cycle 3. This students� writing improvement is also confirmed by students� positive responses revealed from observation, questionnaire and students interview.

Analyzing a faculty learning community strategy based on a process-genre approach supported by videos to develop the writing competence of English teaching students

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

The primary purpose of this inquiry is to analyze the impacts of a teaching and learning strategy designed and implemented by a Chilean Faculty Learning Community (FLC) intended to develop the writing competence of student-teachers of an English Teaching Program. The FLC-led strategy was implemented through an eight-step cycle based on the process-genre approach and supported by educational videos. FLC members guided this cycle during writing sessions at the four levels of the English Linguistic Competence course at Universidad Católica de Temuco. The FLC implemented this experience to address the challenge of serving diverse students’ learning needs and meet the requirements of the national English proficiency standards required by the Chilean Ministry of Education. The FLC examined this experience focusing on students’ writing tasks results and their perceptions of the use of videos in the process, oriented by an impact and evaluation framework of teaching innovations and an action research design. The ages of trainee English teachers who participated in this innovation range between 18 and 22 years old. Students’ writing tests results were analyzed and compared to the suggested CEFR outcomes per level. Moreover, students shared their perceptions towards the use of videos through focus groups. Results show that most students improved their writing performance, especially in content and organization. Furthermore, students perceived that videos helped them contextualize their writing process and contribute as a support resource embedded in classroom activities. Overall, this experience helped the FLC members identify changes resulting from the innovations and areas of improvement.

Revision in the Context of Different Drafting Strategies

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2004

Our position in this chapter is that revision cannot be understood independently of the writing strategies in which it is embedded. Some authors have promoted an interactive writing strategy (e.g., Elbow, 1998) which relies on multiple rewriting as a means of developing text content in lieu of producing a structured outline. Galbraith’s (1999) dual-process model, which describes writing processes as an interleaving of dispositional content generation and rhetorical structuring, provides some basis for understanding why this kind of strategy might be successful. We review existing research exploring the efficacy of outlining and rough-drafting strategies. This suggests a clear benefit for outline-based strategies over various forms of rough-drafting strategies, but has not, we argue, included an appropriate form of interactive writing strategy. We then discuss research exploring the writing processes of writers performing non-laboratory real-world writing tasks and find that a minority of writers, and particularly more experienced writers, appear to habitually adopt a non-outline multiple-drafting strategy similar in form to that specified by the dual-process model. Finally, we describe an experiment in which we found (a) that this form of interactive strategy was more effective than the forms of rough drafting strategy which have been investigated in previous research, (b) that, consistent with previous research, outlining also has clear text-quality advantages, and (c) that the effectiveness of revision depends on the form of initial draft to which it is applied.

An investigation of four writing traits and two tasks across two languages

Article

Full-text available

May 2010
Lang Test

This study investigated the validity of four theoretically motivated traits of writing ability across English and Korean, based on elementary school students' responses to letter- and story-writing tasks. Their responses were scored analytically and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. The findings include the following. A model of writing ability that includes the influence of four primary trait factors (grammar, content, spelling, and text length), which are influenced by a higher-order trait factor, and of the effect of test methods (letter- and story-writing tasks) provides a reasonable explanation for differences in writing performance among students. The trait effects are central while the method effects peripheral and inconsistent. A higher-order factor explains the correlations among the four primary factors, whose uniqueness is retained even while removing the effect of the general factor. This research expands our understanding of writing performance in the following unique aspects: models of writing with the four traits and the two tasks across two languages, largely unverified aspects of writing in prior factorial studies; a CFA-correlated-uniqueness approach for trait-method investigation.

Verbal, visual, and spatial working memory demands during text composition

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2008
APPL PSYCHOLINGUIST

Two experiments examined whether text composition engages verbal, visual, and spatial working memory to different degrees. In Experiment 1, undergraduate students composed by longhand a persuasive text while performing a verbal, visual, or spatial concurrent task that was presented visually. In Experiment 2, participants performed a verbal or spatial concurrent task that was aurally presented. Writing performance was not disrupted differentially across the three tasks. Performance on all concurrent tasks showed fewer correct responses and longer RTs relative to single-task, baseline data. However, the demands on visual working memory were as high as those on verbal working memory, whereas demands on spatial working memory were minimal. The findings help to delineate the roles of the verbal, visual, and spatial working memory in written composition.

Estimating the reliability, validity, and invalidity of essay ratings

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2005
J EDUC MEAS

Henk Blok

In an essay rating study multiple ratings may be obtained by having different raters judge essays or by having the same rater(s) repeat the judging of essays. An important question in the analysis of essay ratings is whether multiple ratings, however obtained, may be assumed to represent the same true scores. When different raters judge the same essays only once, it is impossible to answer this question. In this study 16 raters judged 105 essays on two occasions; hence, it was possible to test assumptions about true scores within the framework of linear structural equation models. It emerged that the ratings of a given rater on the two occasions represented the same true scores. However, the ratings of different raters did not represent the same true scores. The estimated intercorrelations of the true scores of different raters ranged from .415 to .910. Parameters of the best fitting model were used to compute coefficients of reliability, validity, and invalidity. The implications of these coefficients are discussed.

Paving a clear path in a thick forest: A conceptual analysis of a metacognitive component

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2009

The concept of metacognition refers to one’s knowledge and control of one’s own cognitive system. However, despite being widely used, this concept is confusing because of several reasons. First, sometimes it is not at all clear what is cognitive and what is metacognitive. Second, researchers often use the same term, namely, “metacognition” even when they refer to very different aspects of this complex concept. Alternatively, researchers may use different terms to indicate the same metacognitive elements. Another foggy matter is the interrelationships among the various components of metacognition discussed in the literature. This conceptual confusion regarding the concept of metacognition and its sub-components calls for in-depth theoretical and conceptual clarifications. The goal of this article is to portray a detailed example of a conceptual analysis of meta-strategic knowledge (MSK) which is one specific component of metacognition. This specific example is used to draw a general model for conceptual analyses of additional metacognitive components. The approach suggested here is to begin with a clear definition of the target sub component of metacognition, followed by a systematic examination of this sub component according to several dimensions that are relevant to metacognition in general and to that sub component in particular. The examination should include an analysis of how the details of the definition of the target sub-component refer to: (a) general theoretical metacognitive issues raised by prominent scholars; (b) definitions formulated and issues raised by other researchers who have investigated the same (or a similar) sub-component and, (c) empirical findings pertaining to that sub-component. Finally, it should be noted that since metacognition is a relational rather than a definite concept it is important to situate the context within which the conceptual analysis takes place.

Process Execution of Writing and Reading: Considering Text Quality, Learner and Task Characteristics

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2009

We have conducted systematic reflections, data reanalyses, and incorporated results from several studies to promote discussion, enhance understanding, and build theory. Two models guide our research and analyses: The Descriptive Interactive Process (DIP) model (Fig. 20.1, left), and the Experimental Interactive Process (EIP) model (Fig. 20.1, right). In the DIP model, the main idea is to study processes: What happens during task execution, and how does the process change accordingly? The complexity can be illustrated by adding three components to the model: (a) quality of the output—what variation in processes is related to variation in output quality?; (b) task characteristics—what degree do processes vary with task features (e.g., computer versus pen-and-paper writing)?; and (c) learner characteristics—what degree doesthe way skilled versus unskilled writers adjust their process to tasks vary? In the EIP model (Fig. 20.1, right), the general aim is to detect the effect of interventions on processes: Do different instructional variables affect thetarget process differently? This model can be extended by adding the product variable—Do instructional variables affect the target process differently, and does the product quality vary accordingly?—and learner characteristics: Does the way instructional variables affect the target process vary with regard to learner characteristics? Do good writers profit as much from the experimental instruction as poor writers? Does the experimental instruction change the processes carried out while writing in the same way for good and poor writers?

The writing strategies of graduate research students in the social sciences

Article

Full-text available

Apr 1994

A 35-item questionnaire concerning writing habits, experiences of writing and productivity was sent to 228 full-time, U.K. domiciled, social science research students. One hundred and one complete responses were received. Cluster analysis was used to identify three distinct groups of students in terms of the strategies they used when writing: “Planners”, who planned extensively and then made few revisions, “Revisers”, who developed content and structure through extensive revision, and “Mixed Strategy” writers, who both planned before starting to write and revised extensively as part of their writing processes. The Planners reponed higher productivity than both the Revisers and Mixed Strategy Writers. Planners and Revisers did not differ significantly in how difficult they found writing to be; Planners found writing less difficult than did the Mixed Strategy Writers. We conclude that working from a plan can be an effective writing strategy for some, but that planning is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for writing success.

Identifying the organization of writing processes

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 1980

Relations Between Writing Processes and Text Quality: When and How?

Article

Full-text available

Jun 1994

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between cognitive activities and text quality: Are qualitatively different texts preceded by different distributions of cognitive activities? The main assumption was that the same cognitive activity might have a different impact, depending on the moment it is engaged in during the writing process. The research material consisted of 40 compositions on two themes, written by 20 ninth-grade students. Thinking-aloud protocols were recorded to assess the writing processes underlying the production of these texts. Data were analyzed by means of multilevel analyses of variance. It appeared that frequency of cognitive activities was not distributed at random over text production. Some cognitive activities appeared to be relatively restricted to the first part of the writing process, whereas others dominated at later stages. The relations between text quality and cognitive activities seemed to depend on the stage in the writing process at which a cognitive activity was employed; the same cognitive activity that showed a positive effect on text quality during one episode showed either a negative effect during another phase or no effect at all. Including time as a variable proved to make results clearer and more specific; the effect of activities having different signs, depending on the episode, would have been absent if the time variable had not been included in the analysis.

Statistical Analysis of Sets of Congeneric Tests

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1971
PSYCHOMETRIKA

Karl G. Jöreskog

Various models for sets of congeneric tests are considered, including models appropriate for the analysis of multitrait-multimethod data. All models are illustrated with real data. The special cases when two or more tests within a set are tau-equivalent or parallel are also considered. All data analyses are done within the framework of a general model by Jöreskog [1970].

Children's composing: A study into the relationship between writing processes, cognitive and linguistic skill and text quality

Book

Nov 1997

José van der Hoeven

The relations between the ongoing writing process, text quality and writing skills in 12-year old students were studied. Qualitative different texts were preceded by diffferent cognitive activities, which could be influenced by cognitive and linguistic skills. The importance of the time factor in the writing process was thus shown, and the importance of genre knowledge, linguistic and cognitive skills was discussed.

Teaching writing to ESL graduate students: A model and an illustration

Article

Jan 1999

What We Don't Know about the Evaluation of Writing

Article

Dec 1982
Coll Compos Comm

James C. Raymond

Assessing Writing

Article

Jan 2001

Sara Cushing Weigle

Relationships between Language Skills and Task Effects

Article

Apr 1998

The data from a national language assessment in secondary education in The Netherlands were reanalysed to examine the correlational structure of language skills. On the basis of an hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis, it was concluded that skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing can be differentiated, although their interrelationships were rather high. Further, the measurement of language skills was strongly influenced by task effects. Finally, the data suggested that the across-task generalizability of performance-based assessments is much lower than it is for tests with fixed responses.

The Design and Analysis of Longitudinal Studies: Their Role in the Measurement of Change

Article

Mar 1981

Toward an Understanding of the Distinct Nature of L2 Writing: The ESL Research and Its Implications

Article

Dec 1993
TESOL QUART

TONY SILVA

Dealing effectively with L2 writers requires a clear understanding of the nature of L2 writing. In an attempt to develop such an understanding, 72 reports of empirical research comparing L1 and L2 writing were examined. The findings of this research indicate a number of salient differences between L1 and L2 writing with regard to both composing processes (and subprocesses: planning, transcribing, and reviewing) and features of written texts (fluency, accuracy, quality, and structure, i.e., discoursal, morphosyntactic, and lexicosemantic). Implications of the findings for L2 and L1 writing theory; future comparative writing research; and the practical concerns of assessment, placement, staffing, and instruction are discussed.

A Method of Estimating Rater Reliability

Article

Mar 1989
J EDUC MEAS

A method for assessing rater reliability by means of a design of overlapping rater teams is presented. The products to be rated are split randomly into m disjoint subsamples, m equaling the number of raters. Each rater rates at least two subsamples according to a prefixed design. The covariances or correlations of the ratings can be analyzed with LISREL models, resulting in estimates of the rater reliabilities. Models in which the rater reliabilities are congeneric, tauequivalent, or parallel can be tested. We address problems concerning the identification and the degrees of freedom of the models and present two examples based on essay ratings.

Relation between intellectual ability and metacognitive skillfulness as predictors of learning performance of young students performing tasks in different domains

Article

Dec 2008
LEARN INDIVID DIFFER

The first objective of this study was to establish the relation between intellectual ability and metacognitive skillfulness as predictors of learning performance in young students (aged 12 years). Furthermore, the generality vs. domain-specificity of metacognitive skillfulness was investigated. Thirty-two first-year secondary-school students participated in this study. While thinking aloud they performed two different tasks representing two different domains: A text-studying task for history and a problem-solving task for mathematics. Participants' intelligence, metacognitive skillfulness and learning performance were assessed. Results show that metacognitive skillfulness contributed to learning performance (partly) independent of intellectual ability. Results also show that metacognitive skills predominantly appear to be general. Domain-specific metacognitive skills, however, played a substantial, but minor role as well.

Teaching and Assessing Writing

Article

Oct 1986
TEACH SOCIOL

Edward M White

Generalizability of writing scores. An application of structural equation modeling

Article

Jan 2005
Lang Test

Rob Schoonen

The assessment of writing ability is notoriously difficult. Different facets of the assessment seem to influence its outcome. Besides the writer's writing proficiency, the topic of the assignment, the features or traits scored (e.g., content or language use) and even the way in which these traits are scored (e.g., holistically or analytically) may contribute to the writer's score. In this article, the effect of these facets is estimated in a generalizability study using variance analytic techniques. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is used to estimate the variance components in the writing scores. Eighty-nine grade 6 students (aged 11-12 years) wrote four essays, each of which was scored by five raters using two scoring methods (i.e., holistically and analytically) for two traits (i.e., Content and Organization, and Language Use). Analyses of these ratings showed that the generalizability of writing scores and the effects of raters and topics are very much dependent on the way the essays are scored and the trait that is scored. The overall picture is that writing tasks contribute more to the score variance than raters do.

The dynamics of composing: Making plans and juggling constraints

Article

Jan 1980

Score generalizability of academic writing tasks: Does one test method fit it all?

Article

Oct 2009
Lang Test

Atta Gebril

Generalizability of writing scores has always been a longstanding concern in L2 writing assessment. A number of studies have been conducted to investigate this topic during the last two decades. However, with the introduction of new test methods, such as reading-to-write tasks, generalizability studies need to focus on the score accuracy of different task types. The current study attempts to examine how reading-to-write tasks are compara ble to independent tasks in terms of score generalizability. To look into this issue, 115 Egyptian university students were asked to write on two independent tasks and two reading-to-write tasks. The essays were holistica lly scored by three raters, who received training prior to scoring. The study design followed a fully crossed univariate design (p × t × r), and consequently GENOVA (Crock & Brennan, 1983) was used to analyze the results. Results showed that the reading-to-write tasks yielded as reliable scores as independent tasks. In addition, the result indicated that score generalizability is very low when using one writing task due to the large (pt) variance component. Implications and limitations of the study are presented.

Fluency in Writing: Generating Text in L1 and L2

Article

Jan 2001
WRIT COMMUN

This study explores the relation between fluency in writing and linguistic experience and provides information about the processes involved in written text composition. The authors conducted a think-aloud protocol study with native speakers of English who were learning French or German. Analysis reveals that as the writer's experience with the language increases, fluency (as measured by words written per minute) increases, the average length of strings of words proposed between pauses or revision episodes increases, the number of revision episodes decreases, and more of the words that are proposed as candidate text get accepted. To account for these results, the authors propose a model of written language production and hypothesize that the effect of linguistic experience on written fluency is mediated primarily by two internal processes called the translator and the reviser.

Metacognition and Cognitive Monitoring: A New Area of Cognitive-Developmental Inquiry

Article

Oct 1979

John H. Flavell

Studies suggest that young children are quite limited in their knowledge about cognitive phenomena—or in their metacognition—and do relatively little monitoring of their own memory, comprehension, and other cognitive enterprises. Metacognitive knowledge is one's stored knowledge or beliefs about oneself and others as cognitive agents, about tasks, about actions or strategies, and about how all these interact to affect the outcomes of any sort of intellectual enterprise. Metacognitive experiences are conscious cognitive or affective experiences that occur during the enterprise and concern any aspect of it—often, how well it is going. Research is needed to describe and explain spontaneous developmental acquisitions in this area and find effective ways of teaching metacognitive knowledge and cognitive monitoring skills. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The dynamics of composing - An agenda for research into an interactive compensatory model of writing: Many questions, some answers

Article

Jan 1996

propose a research agenda for a new generation of writing process studies in which time is a key variable / [suggest that] task adaptations are essential for problem-solving processes in general and for writing in particular, because of the developing text, and in some task situations the changing sources for writing / demonstrate how some of the questions can be answered, using data from original research time as a key variable in writing process studies: a basic model [flexibility as a key-feature, 7 implications for writing process research] / central questions in writing process research / some answers: 4 demonstrations / research materials [demonstration 1: general pattern, demonstration 2: interindividual curves, demonstration 3: relations between cognitive activities, demonstration 4: relations between patterns and text quality] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Individual differences in the writing behaviour of undergraduate students

Article

Dec 1999
BRIT J EDUC PSYCHOL

Background. Writing is an important skill required in all graduate employment but we lack information on the most effective ways to write, and how to foster writing expertise in students. It is widely held that writers evolve characteristic patterns of working (strategies), and that these strategies are important for writing success and efficiency. Most of the available data on the writing strategies of expert writers, however, consist of questionnaire responses produced some time after writing itself, and it would be helpful to have more direct information on writing strategies and their effects.Aims. To establish whether student writers develop stable writing strategies, and to examine the relation, if any, between writing strategy and writing success.Sample. Twenty-five first year undergraduate students studying for a degree in psychology.Methods. Records of their writing activities were completed by students concurrently with writing each of two essays (term papers).Results. Analysis of the records identified patterns of working which differed across individuals. Nearly three-quarters of the students displayed the same pattern of writing behaviour (strategy) for both their essays. The strategies identified from the activity records were broadly consistent with the descriptions of writing behaviour derived from previous questionnaire studies. There was, however, no significant association between writing strategy and essay mark.Conclusion. Many students evolve stable writing strategies, which may differ across students. Most of these strategies seem adequately effective in terms of producing course essays. Consequently, unless a student complains of writing difficulties, then tolerance of a range of approaches may be desirable in writing instruction.

On validity of essay tests of achievement

Article

Sep 2005
J EDUC MEAS

William E. Coffman

Flexibility in reading literary texts; Differences between weak and strong adolescent readers

Article

Jan 2009

In this paper we examine whether weak and strong adolescent readers can be identified by differences in flexibility of their reading processes. Flexible readers, in our view, are readers who are able to adaptively change the configuration of text processing activities (e.g., inferencing, analyzing, evaluating), both within a single text and between different texts. We hypothesized that successful literature readers would be more flexible in their processing of short literary stories than less-successful readers. 19 Dutch tenth-grade students from eight classes participated in a 'known group validity' study. Ten participants were known to be strong readers and nine participants were known to be weak readers of literature. Each student read five different short stories under think aloud conditions. 92 Think aloud sessions were transcribed, segmented and coded. Multilevel analyses were applied to examine the distribution of reading activities over the reading process, and to compare weak and strong readers' patterns of response. Results confirmed the flexibility hypothesis: strong readers more often changed their reading activities over the course of the reading process. For instance, strong readers' emotional responses fluctuated significantly during reading, whereas weak readers' emotional responses remained unchanged. Moreover, strong readers adapted their processing activities to different stories, whereas weak readers tended to use monotonous patterns of response.

First Language and Second Language Writing: The Role of Linguistic Knowledge, Speed of Processing, and Metacognitive Knowledge

Article

Mar 2003
LANG LEARN

In this study the relative importance of linguistic knowledge, metacognitive knowledge, and fluency or accessibility of this linguistic knowledge in both first language (L1; Dutch) and second language (L2; English) writing was explored. Data were collected from 281 grade 8 students. Using structural equation modeling, the relative importance of the three components was studied and compared across L1 and L2 writing. The results showed that the fluency measures were correlated with overall writing performance in both L1 and L2. However, when compared to linguistic knowledge resources, these fluency measures turned out to have no additional value in predicting L1 or L2 writing performance. L2 writing proficiency turned out to be highly correlated with L1 writing proficiency, more than with either L2 linguistic knowledge or the accessibility of this knowledge.

Teaching writing to ESL graduate students: A model and an illustration.British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 293-306

Article

Sep 1999
BRIT J EDUC PSYCHOL

Background. Graduate students, especially those writing in a second language, have specific writing needs. Previous research suggests that intervention might be more didactic than writing instruction frequently is. Aims. 1. To adapt a knowledge x levels x process model of writing (Biggs & Moore, 1993) to conceptualise the writing needs of graduate students. Students need to know certain rhetorical knowledge, and to apply cognitive space-saving strategies at the appropriate place and level of ideation during writing. The model integrates the didactic and eclectic elements of Torrance, Thomas & Robinson's (1993) interventions with graduate students’ writing. 2. To develop and trial a workshop based on the model, addressing the writing needs of graduate students to whom English is a second language. Samples. Eighteen students from science-related disciplines, and 16 from nonscience, participated in the workshop. All were enrolled in research higher degrees in a Hong Kong university where English is the required medium for the dissertation. Method. The workshops ran for 2 1/2 days each, focusing on dissertation writing, and writing for an academic journal. Before/after measures were taken on the Inventory of Processes in College Composition (IPIC) (Lavelle, 1993), and students completed an open-ended questionnaire at the end of the workshop. Results. Three IPIC scales showed significant pre-/post-change: lower procedural and spontaneous/impulsive scores (surface-related), higher elaborationist (deep-related). Open-ended feedback supported the view that

Using the Computer to Compare Foreign and Native Language Writing Processes: A Statistical and Case Study Approach

Article

Jun 2000
MOD LANG J

Helga Thorson

Writing process research has attracted significant attention in English composition studies. However, much less research exists on the relationship between foreign language (FL) and first language (L1) writing processes. This study focuses on whether university students studying a FL (in this case German) at an American university use the same processes and writing strategies in FL and L1 writing in two different genres (letter and article). Using a computerized tracking device, individual writing sessions were analyzed through statistical techniques and individual case studies. Statistical results provided evidence that students wrote less, but revised more, when writing in the FL than in the L1. In their L1, students tended to revise less in the letter genre than when writing an article. The author advocates using the computer for writing process research, given that it is an unobtrusive and efficient method of data collection and because it provides researchers with an easy way to replicate research and to share data.

Explanatory Variables for EFL Students' Expository Writing

Article

Mar 1996
LANG LEARN

This study investigated factors that might influence Japanese university students’ expository writing in English. We examined 70 students of low- to high-intermediate English proficiency along a variety of dimensions, namely, second language (L2) proficiency, first language (L1) writing ability, writing strategies in L1 and L2, metaknowledge of L2 expository writing, past writing experiences, and instructional background. We considered these multiple factors as possible explanatory variables for L2 writing.Quantitative analysis revealed that (a) students’ L2 proficiency, L1 writing ability, and metaknowledge were all significant in explaining the L2 writing ability variance; (b) among these 3 independent variables, L2 proficiency explained the largest portion (52%) of the L2 writing ability variance, L1 writing ability the second largest (18%), and metaknowledge the smallest (11%); and (c) there were significant correlations among these independent variables. Qualitative analysis indicated that good writers were significantly different from weak writers in that good writers (a) paid more attention to overall organization while writing in L1 and L2; (b) wrote more fluently in L1 and L2; (c) exhibited greater confidence in L2 writing for academic purposes; and (d) had regularly written more than one English paragraph while in high school. There was no significant difference between good and weak writers for other writing strategies and experiences. On the basis of these results, we propose an explanatory model for EFL writing ability.

Investigating the Relationship Between Vocabulary Knowledge and Academic Reading Performance: An Assessment Perspective

Article

Sep 2002
LANG LEARN

David D Qian

The present study was conducted in the context of Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) 2000 research to conceptually validate the roles of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension in academic settings and to empirically evaluate a test measuring three elements of the depth dimension of vocabulary knowledge, namely, synonymy, polysemy, and collocation. A vocabulary size measure and a TOEFL vocabulary measure were also tested. The study found that the dimension of vocabulary depth is as important as that of vocabulary size in predicting performance on academic reading and that scores on the three vocabulary measures tested are similarly useful in predicting performance on the reading comprehension measure used as the criterion. The study confirms the importance of the vocabulary factor in reading assessment.

A Temporal Analysis of Formulation Processes in L1 and L2 Writing

Article

Sep 2001
LANG LEARN

This cross-sectional study used verbal protocol analysis to compare the temporal distribution of formulation processes of Spanish EFL writers composing L1 and L2 argumentative texts. We studied three groups at different levels of L2 proficiency. Results showed the same total formulation time regardless of whether participants wrote in L1 or L2. L2 proficiency, however, affected times. Higher-proficiency participants devoted less time to formulation, concentrated formulation in the central stages of composing, and increased the interaction between formulation and other subprocesses. Fluent formulation was twice as common as problem-solving formulation when writing in L2 and five times as common in L1; these ratios appeared to be invariant across proficiency. Theoretical and methodological implications for the study of L2 writing processes are discussed.

Testing Vocabulary Knowledge: Size, Strength, and Computer Adaptiveness

Article

Sep 2004
LANG LEARN

In this article, we describe the development and trial of a bilingual computerized test of vocabulary size, the number of words the learner knows, and strength, a combination of four aspects of knowledge of meaning that are assumed to constitute a hierarchy of difficulty: passive recognition (easiest), active recognition, passive recall, and active recall (hardest). The participants were 435 learners of English as a second language. We investigated whether the above hierarchy was valid and which strength modality correlated best with classroom language performance. Results showed that the hypothesized hierarchy was present at all word frequency levels, that passive recall was the best predictor of classroom language performance, and that growth in vocabulary knowledge was different for the different strength modalities.

Writing as a learning tool: Testing the role of students’ writing strategies

Article

Mar 2006
EUR J PSYCHOL EDUC

The claim that writing facilitates students’ learning, although widely accepted, has little support from empirical research. A possible explanation for the lack of empirical evidence is that writing-to-learn research has disregarded that students use different writing strategies. The purpose of the present experimental study is to test whether it is effective to adapt writing-to-learn tasks to different writing strategies when teaching literature. A course “Learning to write argumentative texts about literature” was developed in two different versions: one adapted to a planning writing strategy, the other to a revising writing strategy. Participants were 113 tenth-grade high school students in the Netherlands. Our hypothesis is an adaptation hypothesis: we expect that the more a student will use a planning writing strategy, the more the student will profit from the lessons in the planning condition, and that the more a student uses a revising writing strategy, the more beneficial the revising condition will be. However, results show that for improving literary interpretation skill, a course adapted to the planning writing strategy is more effective for almost all students.

Self-report of reading comprehension strategies: What are we measuring?

Article

Dec 2006

Proficient readers engage in a wide range of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and both developmental and classroom intervention researchers are in need of high-quality measures of strategy use. Several researchers have recently called into question the validity of the most common type of measures of strategy use in reading, self-report or introspective measures (i.e., the participant must report on his or her cognitive activity while not actually engaged in the activity). We administered three parallel strategy use measures to a sample of 30 ninth-grade students: a prospective self-report measure, a concurrent multiple-choice measure which required students to apply the strategies to specific passages, and a text on which we asked students to think aloud. We also collected two measures of reading comprehension—a standardized measure and free recall scores. Consistent with Veenman’s (2005) conclusions based on a literature review, the concurrent multiple-choice and think-aloud data were both significantly correlated with both of the comprehension scores and with each other, whereas the prospective self-report data had non-significant correlations with all of the other measures. We conclude by recommending concurrent measures for researchers who wish to study strategy use in reading comprehension.

Individual differences in undergraduate essay-writing strategies: A longitudinal study

Article

Mar 2000

Analysis of questionnaire responses describing thewriting processes associated with a total of 715essays (term papers) produced by undergraduatepsychology students identified four distinct patternsof writing behaviour: a minimal-drafting strategywhich typically involved the production of one or atmost two drafts; an outline-and-develop strategy whichentailed content development both prior to and duringdrafting; a detailed-planning strategy which involvedthe use of content-development methods (mindmapping,brainstorming or rough drafting) in addition tooutlining, and a ``think-then-do'''' strategy which,unlike the other three strategies, did not involve theproduction of a written outline. The minimal-draftingand outline-and-develop strategies appeared to producethe poorest results, with the latter being more timeconsuming. The detailed-planning and ``think-then-do''''strategies both appeared to result in better qualityessays, although differences were small. We analysedthe writing strategies for a subset of these essaysproduced by a cohort of 48 students followed throughthe three years of their degree course. We found someevidence of within-student consistency in strategy usewith on average two out of every three of a student''sessays being written using the same type of strategy.There was no evidence of systematic change in writingstrategy from year to year.

A capacity theory of writing: Working memory in composition. Educational Psychology Review 8, 299-325

Article

Sep 1996

Deborah Mccutchen

The review examines ways in which working memory contributes to individual and particularly to developmental differences in writing skill. It begins with a brief definition of working memory and then summarizes current debates regarding working memory and capacity theories in the field of reading. It is argued that a capacity theory of writing can provide a framework within which to consider the development of writing skill, and relevant data are discussed. Effects of capacity limitations are documented in all three component writing processes: planning, translating, and reviewing.

Comparing L1 and L2 organizational patterns in the argumentative writing of Japanese EFL students

Article

May 2003
J SECOND LANG WRIT

Keiko Hirose

The relationship between first language (L1) and second language (L2) writing has attracted the attention of L2 writing researchers. Recent studies have pointed to not only differences but also similarities between L1 and L2 writing. The present study compared L1 (Japanese) and L2 (English) organizational patterns in the argumentative writing of Japanese EFL student-writers. The study made within-subject comparisons of L1 and L2 compositions in terms of organizational patterns, organization scores, and overall quality. Student perceptions of L1 and L2 organization were also investigated by incorporating their comparisons of their own L1/L2 compositions into the analysis. The results revealed that (a) a majority of students employed deductive type organizational patterns in both L1 and L2; (b) despite similarities between L1 and L2 organizational patterns, L2 organization scores were not significantly correlated with L1 organization scores; (c) L2 composition total and organization scores differed significantly from those of L1; and (d) some students evidenced problems in organizing both L1 and L2 texts. Possible implications of the results are discussed as they pertain to research, pedagogy, and the dispelling of stereotypes about Japanese and English rhetoric.

Writing in first and second language: Empirical studies on text quality and writing processes

Abstract

No full-text available