A structural equation model of second language writing strategies and their influence on anxiety, proficiency, and perceived benefits with online writing.

Abstract

Second language (L2) writing strategies are essential for successful learning outcomes in courses with a substantial writing component and this is especially true during emergency remote teaching (ERT) when online writing tasks help compensate for the missing offline communication. Online writing tasks are multimodal and interactive, and widely delivered through assignment modules, discussion forums, social media, and other online channels, yet little is known pertaining to L2 writing strategies and online writing beliefs. The current study investigates the types of L2 writing strategies students employed during ERT in the midst of Covid-19 and then used structural modeling to understand how strategies relate to online writing task perceptions, L2 writing anxiety, and L2 writing proficiency. The four L2 writing strategy categories are related to planning, monitoring, reviewing, and translating. Following a cross-sectional survey design, a total of 256 South Korean EFL students completed the study’s questionnaire administered during their second semester of ERT. Overall, students reported using planning and monitoring strategies the most while using moderate levels of translation and review strategies. Translation strategies produced a significant positive relationship with L2 writing anxiety, indicating effort-avoidance behavior among apprehensive writers. Contrarily, planning and review strategies were positively associated with increased levels of perceived benefits with online writing tasks. When added to the model, the statistically significant correlations among monitoring category and outcome variables vanished, indicating a mediation effect. Along with addressing future directions in L2 writing strategy research in the post-Covid era, some pedagogical implications for the evolving application of translation strategies are discussed.