Investigating the Effects of Scaffolding Genre Knowledge and Metacognitive Strategy Use on EFL Learners’ Academic Writing Skills: A Mixed-methods Study

Subject Areas : آموزش زبان انگلیسی

Masomeh Aghaalikhani ¹ , Karim Nazari Bagha ² , Shima Ahmadi Azad ³

1 - English Language Department, Islamic Azad University, Sarab Baranch, Sarab, Iran
2 - English Language Department, Islamic Azad University, Astara Baranch, Astara, Iran
3 - English Language Department, Islamic Azad University, Sarab Baranch, Sarab, IranTabriz Azad University

Received: 2023-10-01 Accepted : 2024-01-07 Published : 2024-01-17

Keywords: metacognitive strategy, scaffolding, academic writing skills, Genre Knowledge,

Abstract :

This study aimed to investigate the effects of scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ academic writing skills. The initial population was 100 EFL students from M.A. English language teaching (ELT) students who took academic writing course at Islamic Azad University, Tehran and Alborz branches. To homogenize the sample, Oxford placement test (OPT) was administered, and based on its results, 75 advanced learners were selected for the purpose of the study. After that, they were divided into 3 groups, namely the experimental group A (scaffolding genre knowledge), the experimental group B (metacognitive strategy use), and the control group. IELTS academic writing task 2 was administered as the pretest and posttest. The treatments lasted for 16 sessions. To explore the learners’ perceptions regarding the instructions qualitatively, the semi-structured individual interviews were administered to 20 students who were chosen from the experimental groups. The results showed that scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use had significant impacts on the Iranian EFL learners’ academic writing skill. In addition, the findings indicated that there was a significant difference between the effects of scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use on the Iranian EFL academic writing skill in which scaffolding genre knowledge had more significant effects on Iranian EFL academic writing skill than metacognitive strategy use. Furthermore, the qualitative findings showed that the learners adopted positive views towards scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use in developing their academic writing skill.

References:

Ackert, P. & Lee, L. (2005). Reading and vocabulary development: Concepts and comments. (3rded.). Masschusetts: Thomson Heinle.
Adams, Sh. M. (1995). An investigation to establish whether specific prewriting activities have any effect on the content and organization of the written product. (Master’s thesis). University of Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10722/28712
Adil Karim, H. (2010). The use of L1 and L2 in prewriting discussions in EFL writing and students’ attitudes towards L1 and L2 use in prewriting discussions. (Master’s thesis). Bilkent University, Ankara. Retrieved from http://www.thesis.bilkent.edu.tr/0003963.pdf
Ammon, O. (1985). Helping children learn to write in English as a second language: Some observations and some hypotheses. In S. W. Freedman (Ed.).The acquisition of written language (pp. 65-84). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Armani, A. (1988). Reading as prewriting: The effect of the use of literature on writing. (Education and Human Development Master’s Thesis). Paper 91. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/91
Arju, S. (2017). Impact of an intervention program on pre-writing strategies in fostering writing achievement of Bangladeshi EFL students. KSJ 5(1), 117-134. doi: 10.30438/ksj/2017.5.1.5
Blanchard, J. (1988). Plausible stories: A creative writing and story prediction activity. Reading Research and Instruction, 1, 60-65. Retrieved from www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19388078809557959
Brodney, B., Reeves, C., & Kazelskis, R. (1999). Selected prewriting treatments: Effects on expository compositions written by fifth-grade students. The Journal of Experimental Education, 68(1), 5-20. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20152612
Brookfield, S. D., & Pereskill, S. (1999). Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for University Teachers. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
Brown, G. T. L., Glasswell, K., & Harland, D (2004). Accuracy in the scoring of writing: Studies of reliability and validity using a New Zealand writing assessment system. Assessing Writing, 9 (2), 105–121. doi:10.1016/j.asw.2004.07.001
Brown, H. Douglas (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education Company.
Chastain, K. (1988). Developing second language skills: theory and practice. (3rded.). Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Cooney, A., Darcy, E., & Casey, D. (2018). Integrating reading and writing: supporting students’ writing from source. Journal of University Teaching & learning Practice, 15(5), 1-20. doi:10.53761/1.15.5.3
Daniels, R. R., Kasnic, M. J., & McCluskey, D. (1988).Individualized instruction utilizing the structure of intellect and language experience in reading programs. Reading Improvement, 25, 237-241. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ383784
Davis, S. (2020). 6 creative prewriting activities for academic writing. Retrieved from https://www.academicwritingsuccess.com
Edelsky, C. (1982). Writing in a bilingual program: the relation of L1 and L2 texts. TESOL Quarterly, 16, 211-228. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3586793
Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007).Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools – A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York.Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Giesen, L. (2001). Activities for integrating reading and writing in the language classroom. (Master’s thesis). School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/ipp_collection/456/
Go, A. S. (1994). Prewriting activities: focus on the process of writing. A Practicum Report. Department of Arts and Letters, VISCA, Baybay, Leyte. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. (ED 369257)
Grabe, W., & Zhang, C. (2013). Reading and writing together: A critical component of English for academic purposes teaching and learning. TESOL Journal, 4(1), 9-24. doi: 10.1002/tesj.65
Hassannejad, E. (2012). Developing ESL students’ writing. International Scholarly and Scientific Research and innovation, 6(1), 656-663. Retrieved from https://academia.edu/11415128/
Hawthorne, S. (2008).Students’ beliefs about barriers to engagement with writing in secondary school English: A focus group study. Australian journal of language and literacy, 31(1), 30-42. Retrieved from http://web.nmsu.edu/~jalmjeld/EmpiricalResearch/PDFs/focus_grp_10th_graders.pdf
Hiblenbrand, J. (1985). Carmen: A case study of an ESL writer. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Columbia University Teaches College.
Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
Joaquin, A., Kim, S. H., & Shin, S. (2016). Examining prewriting strategies in L2 writing: Do they really work? Asian EFL Journal, 18(2), 156-189. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303994574
Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437-447. Retrieved from http://doi.apa.org/journals/edu/80/4/437.pdf
Larson, B.E. (2000). Classroom discussion: A method of instruction and a curriculum outcome. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 661-677. doi: 10.1016/S0742-051X (00)00013-5
Liao, J. (2010). The impact of interactive discussions on L2 Chinese composition writing. (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of Iowa.
Mahnam, L., & Nejadansari, D. (2012). The effects of different pre-writing strategies on Iranian EFL writing achievement. International Education Studies, 5(1), 154-160. doi:org/10.5539/ies.v5n1p154
Marshi, M. & Hematabadi, S. (2011). Using teacher and student developed graphic organizers as a writing tool. Journal of Language and Translation, 2(1), 79-88.
Mirzaei, A. & Eslami, Z. R. (2013). ZPD-activated languaging and collaborative L2 writing. Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology, 35, 2-25. doi:10.1080/01443410.2013.814198
Moghaddas, B, & Zakariazadeh, A. (2011). The effect of pre-writing activities on the Indian ESL learners’ composition skills. ELT Voices India, 1(4 & 5), 88-95.
Mostowski, J. (2013). The use of storytelling and oral communication in the pre-writing stage. Journal of Classroom Research in Literacy, 6, 36-45. Retrieved from http://jcrl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/jcrl/article/view/18841
Naghavi, M. & Nakhleh, M. (2019). The effect of collaborative prewriting discussions on L2 writing: Complexity, accuracy & fluency (CAF). Language Testing in Focus, 1, 18-30.
Nguyen, P. N. T., Admiraal, W., Janssen, T., & Rijlaarsdam, G. (2018). Learning to write: the effect of pre-writing tasks on English writings of Vietnamese students. Asian EFL Journal, 20(9.1), 57-74.
Nunan, D. (1999). Second language teaching & learning. Boston, Massachusetts: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.
Nurjanah, S. (2012). Improving writing skills of tenth grade students of SMA N 1 PRAMBANAN by using picture series in the academic year of 2011/2012. (Master’s thesis). State University of Yogyakarta. Retrieved from http://eprints.uny.ac.id/8464/
Qin, J. & Liu, Y. (2021). The influence of reading texts on L2 reading-to-write argumentative writing. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-6. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.655601
Rau, P., & Sebrechts, M. (1996). How initial plans mediate the expansion and resolution of optionsin writing. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49, 616–638. Retrieved from:www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713755642
Shi, L. (1998). Effects of prewriting discussions on adult ESL students' compositions. Journal of Second Language Writing, 7(3), 319-345. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1060-3743(98)90020-0
Sweigart, W. (1991). Classroom Talk, Knowledge Development, and Writing. Research in the Teaching of English, 25(4), 469-496. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40171205
Tabatabaei, O., & Amin Ali, H. (2012).The effect of reading-based pre-writing activities on the writing performance in an EFL setting. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2(2), 371-382. doi:10.5901/jesr.2012.v2n2.371
Tahmouresi, M. (2014). Enhancing content knowledge in essay writing classes: A multimedia package for Iranian EFL learners. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 5(2), 87-95. Doi: 10.7575/aiac.alls.v.5n.2p.87
Talebinezhad, M. R., & Negari, G. M. (2009). The effect of explicit teaching of concept mapping in expository writing on EFL Students’ Self-regulation. Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji, 49, 85-108. Retrieved from http://jor.ut.ac.ir/pdf_27675_0e55bb9a2f8e2cace065e42ee533130d.html
Tierney, R.J., & Leys, M. (1984). What is the value of connecting reading and writing? (Reading Education Report No. 55). Urbana, IL: Centre for the Study of Reading.
Weigle, S. C. (2002). Assessing writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Xianwei, P. (2009). Effects of prewriting discussion on the language quality of argumentative writings. CELEA Journal, 32(5), 16-24. Retrieved from http://www.celea.org.cn/teic/87/87-16.pdf
Zaid, M. A. (2011). Effects of web-based pre-writing activities on college EFL students’ writing performance and their writing apprehension. Journal of King Saud University – Language and Translation, 23(2), 77-85. doi: 10.1016/j.jksult.2011.04.003
Zainal, Z., & Mohamed Husin, S. H. (2011). A study on the effects of reading on writing performance among faculty of civil engineering students. Unpublished manuscript, Institutional Repository, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Retrieved from http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/11872/
Zamel, V. (1983). The composing process of advanced ESL students: six case studies. TESOL Quarterly, 17, 165-187. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3586647