The Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development on Writing Skill and Self-Regulated Learning of Thai High School Students

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the effects of self-regulated strategy development, an intervention designed to teach writing skills through six steps and four self-regulation skills, on academic English writing skills and self-regulated learning. Additionally, the aim is also to investigate attitudes towards the instruction. Mastering the skills of writing is a challenging task since it requires several integrated skills. There exist several complex difficulties in, for example, creating content, organizing structure, applying writing mechanics, and completing the revision process. Thus, the essential factor is writing instruction which helps learners improve their writing skills. The participants were eleven pre-intermediate students at a senior high school in Thailand who were explicitly taught by self-regulated strategy development instruction in a process consisting of six recursive stages and four self-regulation skill stages. To gather quantitative data, a pretest and posttest were employed. Moreover, to obtain qualitative data regarding the students’ attitudes toward the instruction, a semi-structured interview was used. The findings revealed that the academic writing ability and self-regulation skills of Thai high school students can be enhanced by self-regulated strategy development and that students show positive attitudes towards this type of instruction.