TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying effective writing tasks for use in EFL write-to-learn language contexts
AU - McDonough, Kim
AU - Crawford, William J.
N1 - Funding Information:
for this study was provided by the Canada Research Chairs programme (950-221304). We would like to thank the instructors who graciously provided feedback about our tasks and facilitated data collection: Apinan Dechagan, Jindarat De Vleeschauwer, Suwinai Inmoon, Panadda Pananil and Korbua Tawitsri. We also thank the research assistants for their help with transcription and data analysis: Phung Dao, Alexandre Dion and Matt Fahy.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Association for Language Learning.
PY - 2020/7/3
Y1 - 2020/7/3
N2 - This study compared the effectiveness of two writing tasks at encouraging Thai EFL students (N = 67) to deploy their linguistic knowledge. Students were randomly assigned to respond to one of two writing tasks with different levels of topic familiarity, which was operationalised as ±personal experience. The students completed a Likert-scale questionnaire that elicited their perceptions about the writing task. The paragraphs were assessed using an analytic rubric and were coded for linguistic features relevant to the students’ EFL class: accuracy (errors/word), subordination (dependent clauses/independent clauses) and use of future verb forms (simple future, present continuous and going to). The +personal experience paragraphs had higher ratings, greater subordination and more target verb forms, but there were no differences in accuracy. Students reported that they were more able to use their linguistic knowledge when writing about the familiar topic, and there was a positive correlation between their perceptions and text features.
AB - This study compared the effectiveness of two writing tasks at encouraging Thai EFL students (N = 67) to deploy their linguistic knowledge. Students were randomly assigned to respond to one of two writing tasks with different levels of topic familiarity, which was operationalised as ±personal experience. The students completed a Likert-scale questionnaire that elicited their perceptions about the writing task. The paragraphs were assessed using an analytic rubric and were coded for linguistic features relevant to the students’ EFL class: accuracy (errors/word), subordination (dependent clauses/independent clauses) and use of future verb forms (simple future, present continuous and going to). The +personal experience paragraphs had higher ratings, greater subordination and more target verb forms, but there were no differences in accuracy. Students reported that they were more able to use their linguistic knowledge when writing about the familiar topic, and there was a positive correlation between their perceptions and text features.
KW - EFL
KW - Write to learn language
KW - accuracy
KW - subordination
KW - topic familiarity
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U2 - 10.1080/09571736.2018.1465990
DO - 10.1080/09571736.2018.1465990
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046466660
SN - 0957-1736
VL - 48
SP - 469
EP - 480
JO - Language Learning Journal
JF - Language Learning Journal
IS - 4
ER -