Writing Strategies Used by Indonesian EFL Students with Different English Proficiency

Abstract

The present study investigates the writing strategies used by 135 Indonesian English Foreign Language undergraduate students with different English proficiency and the relationship between their English proficiency, indicated by students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge, and the quality of text they produced. The writing strategies questionnaire by Petrić and Czárl (2003) was used to analyze participants’ use of strategies in the three stages of writing: pre-writing, drafting, and revising. Each item in the questionnaire was rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The Vocabulary Size Test (Nation & Beglar, 2007) was used as an indicator of participants’ proficiency in English. The participants were also asked to write an essay in English, which was assessed using the ESL Composition Profile of Jacob et al. (1981). The results of the data analysis showed that most of the students applied 15 of the 38 strategies referred to in the questionnaire. Results also indicate no significant differences in the choice of strategies between students with high versus low English proficiency levels. However, participants’ vocabulary size had only a weak positive correlation with their writing quality. The findings aim primarily to inform Writing courses in English Education majors in Indonesia, though they may also be useful for other English learning contexts.