Coupling text structure and self-regulated strategy instruction for ESL primary school students’ writing outcomes

Mark Feng Teng

doi:10.30827/portalin.v0i35.16861

Abstract

Enlightened by the implied potential of coupling text structure knowledge and self-regulated strategies to enhance writing, this study explored the possible effects of a onemonth multicomponent intervention combining text structure with self-regulation training on writing. Target participants consisted of 178 primary school sixth-grade students learning English as a second language (ESL). Among them, 45 students received text structure instruction plus self-regulation strategy development (TSI+SRSD), 45 received text structure instruction only (TSI), 45 received SRSD only, and 43 were in a control group. Dependent variables were learners’ abilities to summarize main ideas and write essays. As expected, TSI instruction or SRSD instruction resulted in better writing outcomes (i.e., summarizing main ideas and writing essays). This study contributes to research on self-regulated writing development by providing evidence that the TSI+SRSD intervention was particularly effective in enhancing primary school ESL students’ abilities to summarize main ideas and write essays. This instructional approach seems promising in ameliorating ESL young learners’ writing ability and minimizing struggling writers’ compositional difficulties. Relevant implications for language education are also discussed.

Highlights

English as a second language (ESL) students can experience writing-related challenges (Nation, 2008)
Enlightened by the implied potential of coupling text structure knowledge and self-regulated strategies to enhance writing, this study explored the possible effects of a onemonth multicomponent intervention combining text structure with self-regulation training on writing
The purpose of this study was to conduct a closer examination of the extent to which the interplay of text structure knowledge and self-regulated strategy development may lead to desired student writing outcomes

Summary

Introduction

English as a second language (ESL) students can experience writing-related challenges (Nation, 2008). The present study considered the effectiveness of writing outcomes, operationalized as students’ abilities to summarize main ideas and write essays. These tasks may be difficult for primary school ESL learners, who have been found to often ignore the roles of planning, organizing, monitoring, and evaluation in writing (Teng, 2019). A lack of self-regulation may explain why student writers tend to find the composition process challenging, when organizing and putting ideas into words or otherwise executing self-regulatory mechanisms to better control the writing process (Graham, Harris, & Mason, 2005). In an ESL writing context, learners’ abilities to transform their ideas into compositions and to devote effort to planning, monitoring, and evaluating the writing process by using metacognitive strategies are important (Reutzel, 2015; Teng & Huang, 2019)

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion