Effects of Fluency Training on the Application of Linguistic Operations in Writing

Abstract

In this article we report the results of a classroom experiment in grades 5 and 6 of primary education directed at improving children’s writing skills. Our theoretical assumption is that increased fluency in the use of linguistic operations facilitates students’ attention to the meaning level of their texts, resulting in better comprehensibility. We discriminated four conditions for improving linguistic fluency: (1) implicit instruction with attention to linguistic forms, (2) explicit instruction with attention to linguistic forms, (3) implicit instruction with attention to meaning, and (4) explicit instruction with attention to meaning. The experiment consisted of a post test-only design with randomised assignment to experimental groups within a classroom. Effects of instructional conditions on children’s ability to use linguistic operations were explored in writing tasks with less constraints (LCT) or more constraints (MCT) on the translation process. Results show that the students in the experimental conditions performed better in the semantic application of linguistic operations in the LCT task, but not in the MCT task, compared to the control group. This result supports our theoretical assumption that increased fluency results in a better control of the semantic consequences of linguistic operations and therefore in better writing.