Transitional Problems in Iranian EFL Learners' Writing Process: A Think-Aloud Protocol Study
الموضوعات : نشریه زبان و ترجمهHajar Shahhoseini 1 , Reza Rezvani 2 , Saeed Yazdani 3 , Mohammad Behroozi 4 , Akbar Molaei 5
1 - Department of Foreign Languages, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
2 - Department of English Languages, Department of Foreign Languages, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
3 - Department of Foreign Languages, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
4 - Department of Educational Sciences, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
5 - Department of English Language, Department of Foreign Languages, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
الکلمات المفتاحية: Linking words, Cohesion, Transition problems, Think aloud, EFL learners,
ملخص المقالة :
The current study aimed to examine the process of choosing linking words and solving transitional problems in written tasks. To this end, 30 EFL learners (15 males and 15 females) from one language institute in Bushehr were selected for this study. They were asked to write an argumentative and a narrative task. To collect the data, Articulated Thoughts in a Simulated Situation (ATSS), as a think-aloud protocol, was employed. The participants' verbalizations were first recorded, then transcribed and analyzed to examine the cognitive process they engaged in during the completion of their tasks. The results of qualitative data analysis revealed that EFL learners often tended to organize their ideas and have a general plan for the written tasks. More specifically, they differed in terms of attention to different stages of writing, hesitations to monitor the information and various strategies for choosing linking words and problem-solving. This study discusses the results and implications for EFL learners and teachers.
Aguieb, F., & Bouaziz, S. (2017). Investigating EFL students’ problems in using coherent and cohesive devices in academic writing from a discourse analysis perspective. Education Journal (LICEJ), 1(4), 211-221.
Alhaisoni, E. (2012). A think-aloud protocols investigation of Saudi English major students writing revision strategies in L1 (Arabic) and L2 (English). English Language Teaching, 5(9), 144-154.
Al Khazraji, A. (2019). Analysis of discourse markers in essay writing in ESL classroom. International Journal of Instruction, 12(2), 559–572. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2019.12235a
Alkhatnai, M. (2016). Use of think-aloud protocols: Investigating the writing Habits of Saudi EFL/ESL learners. International Journal of Linguistics, 8(4), 1-5.
Alkhatnai, M. (2016). Use of think-aloud protocols: Investigating the writing Habits of Saudi EFL/ESL learners. International Journal of Linguistics, 8(4), 1-5.
Alkhatnai, M. (2016). Use of think-aloud protocols: Investigating the writing Habits of Saudi EFL/ESL learners. International Journal of Linguistics, 8(4), 1-5.
Alkhatnai, M. (2016). Use of think-aloud protocols: Investigating the writing Habits of Saudi EFL/ESL learners. International Journal of Linguistics, 8(4), 1-5.
Al Mughrabi, F. M. (2017). Arab learners of English and the use of discourse markers in writing. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(4), 715-721. http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0804.10
Al-Sawalha, A. M. S., & Chow, T. V. V. (2012). The effects of writing apprehension in English on the writing process of Jordanian EFL students at Yarmouk University. International Interdisciplinary Journal of Education, 1(1), 6-14.
Arifin, S., (2020). The Exploration of Skilled and Less-Skilled EFL Graduate Students' on L1 and L2 Writing Strategies. Jurnal Pendidikan Indonesia, 9(3),51-67. https://doi.org/10.23887/jpi-undiksha.v9i3.28496
Aripin, N., & Rahmat, N. H. (2019). Exploring Metacognitive Writing Strategies in the Writing Process using Think aloud Protocol: A Study across Gender. American Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 4(1), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.20448/801.41.178.187
Asassfeh, S. (2014). Corrective Feedback (CF) and English-Major EFL Learners’ Ability in Grammatical Error Detection and Correction. Language Teaching Research, 6(8),85-94. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt. v6n8p85
Azizi, M., A. Nemati and N. Estahbanati, 2017. Meta-cognitive awareness of writing strategy uses among Iranian EFL learners and its impact on their writing performance. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 5(1), 42-51.
Bakry, M. S., & Alsamadani, H. A. (2015). Improving the persuasive essay writing of students of Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL): Effects of self-regulated strategy development. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 182, 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.742
Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad & E. Finegan. (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman.
Boland, R.J. (193). “The information of information systems”, in Boland, R.J. and Hirschheim, R.A., Eds. Critical Issues in Information Systems Research. Oxford University Press.
Bosher, S. (1998). The composing processes of three southeast Asian writers at the post-secondary level: An exploratory study. Journal of second language writing,7 (2), 205-241.
Brown, H. D. (2004). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. New York, US: Pearson Longman.
Bulqiyah, S. Mahbub, M.A. & Nugraheni, D.A. (2021). Investigating writing difficulties in essay writing: Tertiary students’ perspectives. English Language Teaching Educational Journal, 4(1), 61-73. https://doi.org/10.12928/eltej.v4i1.2371
Chao, J. (2007). Student Project Collaboration Using Wikis. Proceedings of the 20th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T). Dublin, Ireland, pp. 255-261. IEEE Press
Chanyoo, N. (2018). Cohesive Devices and Academic Writing Quality of Thai Undergraduate Students. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. 9(5). 9-19. https://doi.org 10.17507/jltr.0905.13
Davison, G. C., Vogel, R. S., & Coffman, S. G. (1997). Think-aloud approaches to cognitive assessment and the articulated thoughts in simulated situations paradigm. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 65(6), 950-958.
Davison, G. C., Robins, C., & Johnson, M. K. (1983). Articulated thoughts during simulated situations: A paradigm for studying cognition in emotion and behavior. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 7(1), 17-39.
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (Eds.). (1993). Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data. Cambridge University Press.
Fadda, H. (2012). Difficulties in Academic Writing: From the Perspective of King Saud University Postgraduate Students. English Language Teaching,5(3), 31-37 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n3p123
Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2004). Coping: Pitfalls and promises. Annual Review of Psychology, 55(4), 745–774.
Ginting, S. A. (2019). Lexical formation error in the descriptive writing of Indonesian tertiary EFL learners. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Translation, 2(1), 5-16 https://doi.org/10.32996/ijllt.2019.2.1.11
Goctu, R. (2017). Metacognitive strategies in academic writing. Journal of Education in Black Sea Region, 2(2), 82-96.
Granger, S &Tyson, S. (1996) Connector Usage in the English Essay Writing of Native and Non-Native EFL Speakers of English. World Englishes, 15(1),17 – 27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.1996.tb00089.x
Halliday, M. A. K., Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. Longman.
Hinkel, E. (2001). Building awareness and practical skills for cross-cultural communication in ESL/EFL. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed., pp. 443-458). Random House.
Jennifer, J.M. and R.J. Ponniah. (2017). Investigating the levels, types, and causes of second language writing anxiety among Indian freshmen. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 14(3), 557-563. https://doi.org/10.18823/asiatefl.2017.14.3.13.557.
Jordan, R.R. (1990). Academic writing course. Wiley Blackwell.
Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and language teaching. Oxford University Press.
Kalajahi, A.R,&Abdullah, A. N. (2015) Discourse connectors and cohesion in writing. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences,6(3),21-32. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss. 2015.v6n3s2p441
Karaata, C., Çepik, Ş., & Çetin, Y. (2012). Enhancing the use of discourse markers in academic writing: The combination of incidental acquisition and explicit instruction. Electronic Journal of Social Sciences, 11(40), 35-42.
Khongput, S. (2020). Metastrategies Used by EFL Students in Learning English Writing: LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network Journal, 13(2), 93–104.
Khongput, S. (2020). Metastrategies Used by EFL Students in Learning English Writing: LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network Journal, 13(2), 93–104.
Khongput, S. (2020). Meta strategies used by EFL students in learning English writing: LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network Journal, 13(2), 93–104.
Kopriva, R. (2001). ELL validity research designs for state academic assessments: An outline of five research designs evaluating the validity of large-scale assessments for English language learners and other test takers. De Gruyter.
Kuo, C. H. (1995). Cohesion and coherence in academic writing: From lexical choice to the organization. RELC Journal, 26(1), 47-62.
Liao, X. (2020). Secondary school students’ discourse synthesis performance on Chinese (L1) and English (L2) Integrated Reading and Writing,34(5),49–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10065-xwriting assessments. Vol.:(0123456789)
Lai, Y. (2008). A Corpus-based Investigation of Conjunctive Use in the Taiwanese students’ writing. Ming Chuan University.
Macaro, E. (2006). Strategies for language learning and for language use: Revising the theoretical framework. The Modern Language Journal, 90(3), 320-337
Macaro, E. (2006). Strategies for language learning and language use: Revising the theoretical framework. The Modern Language Journal, 90(3), 320-337.
Maharani, S., Fauziatiet al, E., & Supriyadi,S (2018). An investigation of writing strategies used by the students from the perspective of language proficiency and gender International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 5(5),185. https://doi.org 10.18415/ijmmu. v5i5.364
Mahendra, M. W., & Dewi, N. P. R. P. (2017). The Use of Transition Signals in Efl Academic Writing Context: a Corpus Study. Jurnal Bahasa Lingua Scientia, 9(1), 87–100. https://doi.org/10.21274/ls.2017.9.1.87-100
Mastan, M.E.B., N. Maarof and M.A. Embi, 2017. The effect of writing strategy instruction on ESL intermediate proficiency learners‟ writing performance. Journal of Educational Research and Review, 5(5), 71-78.
McNamara, D. S., & Allen, L. K. (2018). Toward an integrated perspective of writing as a discourse process. In M. Schober, A. Britt, & D. N. Rapp (Eds.), Handbook of discourse processes (2nd ed.). Routledge.
O’Malley M & A U Chamot. (1994). The CALLA handbook: Implementing the cognitive academic language learning approach. N.J: Addison-Wesley, Reading MA. Longman.
Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006) Writing Academic English, Level 4, 4th ed. The Longman Academic Writing Series. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Oxford, R. (2003). Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House, 284-297.
Penningroth, S. L., & Rosenberg, S. (2008). Effects of a high information-processing load on the writing process and the story written. Applied Psycholinguistics, 16(5), 189-210.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Longman
Sadighi, F., & Heydari, P. (2012). Cohesion analysis of L2 writing: The case of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 557-573.
Sadighi, F., & Heydari, P. (2012). Cohesion analysis of L2 writing: The case of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 557-573.
Rabbitt, P. M. (1968). Channel capacity, intelligibility, and immediate memory. The Quarterly Journal of experimental psychology, 20(3), 241-248.
Ramadhanti, D., & Mana, L. A. (2018). Comparison of Brainstorming and Mind Mapping Techniques in Argumentation Writing Learning. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 3(3), 159–171. https://doi.org/10.22216/jcc.2018.v3i3.2024.Learning, 3(3), 159–171. https://doi.org/10.22216/jcc.2018.v3i3.2024
Raoofi, S., Binandeh, M.,& Rahmani, S.( 2017) An Investigation into Writing Strategies and Writing Proficiency of University Students. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(1),19-31. https://doi.org /10.17507/jltr.0801.24
Richards, J.C., Schmidt, R. (2002). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, third ed. Pearson Education
Robinson, P. (2001). Task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: A triadic framework for examining task influences on SLA. Cognition and second language instruction, 27(1), 287-318.
Sadighi, F., & Heydari, P. (2012). Cohesion analysis of L2 writing: The case of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5 (7) 557-573.
Sanchez, S. (2019). Needs analysis on developing EFL paragraph writing materials for Kalimantan L2 learners. Canadian Center of Science and Education, 12(1),5-19 https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v12n1p186
Sloan, G. (1983). Transitions: Relationships among T-Units. College Composition and Communication. Free Press.
Smith, R. E., Leffingwell, T. R., & Ptacek, J. T. (1999). Can people remember how they coped? Factors associated with discordance between same-day and retrospective reports. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(6), 10-50.
Stone, A., Schwartz, J., Neale, J., Shiffman, S., Marco, C., Hickcox, M., Paty, J., Porter, L., & Cruise, L. (1998). A comparison of coping assessed by ecological momentary analysis and retrospective recall. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1670–1680.
Suwandi, S. (2016). Coherence and cohesion: An analysis of the final project abstracts of the undergraduate students of PGRI Semarang. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics,9(2), 23-35. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v5i2.1349
Tabari, M.A. (2019). Differential effects of strategic planning and task structure on L2 writing outcomes. Reading & Writing Quarterly. 10(7), 320-338. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2019.1637310
Thongchalerm, S., & Jarunthawatchai, W. (2020). The Impact of Genre-Based Instruction on EFL Learners' Writing Development. International Journal of Instruction, 13(1),1-16. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2020.1311a
Toba, R., Noor, W. N., & Sanu, L. O. (2019). The current issues of Indonesian EFL students’ writing skills: Ability, problem, and reason in writing comparison and contrast essays. Dinamika Ilmu, 19(1), 57–73. https://doi.org/10.21093/di.v19i1.1506
Varier, D., Zumbrunn, S., Conklin, S., Marrs, S., Stringer, J. K., & Furman, J. (2020). Getting stuck in writing: exploring elementary students’ writing self-regulation strategies. Educational Studies, 1(4),11-20.
Winarto, A. E. (2015). Training of learning strategies in writing essays. JEELS (Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies), 2(2), 17-27. https://doi.org/10.30762/jeels.v2i2.96
Zanov, M. V., & Davison, G. C. (2010). A conceptual and empirical review of 25 years of cognitive assessment using the articulated thoughts in simulated situations (ATSS) think-aloud paradigm. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 34(3), 282-291.
