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This paper has investigated the importance of explicit instruction and collaborative writing on (a) argumentative writing performance and (b) self-efficacy for writing of secondary school students. This intervention study additionally aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of alternating between individual and collaborative writing throughout the writing process (planning collaboratively, writing individually, revising collaboratively, and rewriting individually). A cluster randomized control trial (CRT) design was opted for. To investigate the effect of the intervention on secondary school students' writing performance and self-efficacy for writing, multilevel analyses were performed. It was found that the presence of explicit instruction in combination with collaborative writing is positively related to argumentative writing performance and self-efficacy for writing. Alternating between individual and collaborative writing was not significantly different from collaborating throughout all phases of the writing process. More in-depth research into the quality of collaboration is, however, needed to gain insight into the interaction processes and writing processes that take place during collaborative writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meta-analyses indicate that explicit writing instruction (EWI) is an effective method for improving student writing self-efficacy and writing performance. EWI relies on explicit instruction of writing strategies through modeling, scaffolding and self-regulation. Most EWI-based interventions have been conducted by researchers, generally with subgroups of students or on a one-on-one basis, and very few have been conducted in other languages than English. Our quasi-experimental study aims to address these limits by testing EWI's effects when teachers themselves intervene using peer feedback during the writing of opinion letters. We used practice-based professional development to teach teachers how to use EWI, and compared two experimental conditions (EWI with and without peer feedback) to a control group (Business as Usual). A total of 483 French-speaking 5th grade students participated in the study. Results from repeated measure analyses showed that, with or without peer feedback, the EWI intervention produced better writing performance and higher self-efficacy compared to the control group. We discuss the role of EWI for writing performance and self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational research has shown that a high ability to use effective strategies, a broad fount of metacognitive knowledge, and fostering of adaptive beliefs about writing lead to better text production performance. Explicit instruction enhances development in each of these areas. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of a writing intervention program (based on the strategies “POW” and “WWW”) on the quality and length of stories composed by Greek grade 5 and 6 English Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The study was conducted with 177 participants from two Greek elementary schools, who were identified as below average, average, and above average writers, and who were assigned to one of two groups: the experimental group was provided with explicit instruction on narrative writing, the control group received no direct teaching and followed the guidelines outlined by a traditional writing program. It was postulated that explicit instruction would have a positive impact on students’ writing skills. Data analysis yielded statistically significant differences between experimental and control conditions. The students in the experimental group outperformed the ones in the control group in all writing assessments (pertaining to text quality and length). They also revealed a significant improvement in their writing quality and length, whereas no meaningful changes appeared in the control group. In addition, the improvement of writing quality was obvious for the below average, as well as, for the average and the above average students, supporting the notion that there was an improvement irrespective of the students’ level. These results speak to the practical effectiveness of explicit writing instruction to improve the story composition skills in grade 5 and 6 EFL learners. It is postulated and may be the subject of future research that the positive impact on students’ L2 composing skills will be transferable to their L1. Conclusions and pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.

Kim, Sun-Young and Jiwon Paek. 2020. Explicit instruction in an EFL writing class: A process-genre perspective. Linguistic Research 37(Special Edition): 31-57. The present study examined the role of explicit writing instruction in an EFL college writing class from the perspective of a process-genre approach to teaching. To evaluate the effect of explicit instruction on writing improvement, a writing rubric was used, which measured the five areas of writing development such as ‘Purpose’, ‘Organization’, ‘Elaboration’, ‘Voice’, and ‘Grammar. L2 writing proficiency was used as a unit of analysis to evaluate writing development. Specifically, the students in two proficiency groups were required to perform the set of genre-writing tasks, Narrative and Argumentative essays, under pre-test and post-test conditions. The results showed that explicit instruction under the process-genre approach helped to improve students’ writing skills, but the relative effects differed according to L2 writing proficiency. More specifically, the more proficiency group showed the improvement in the four areas of the rubric measures except for ‘Grammar.’ On the other hand, the less proficiency group experienced the improvement only in two rubric measures, or ‘Organization’ and ‘Purpose.’ This indicates the important role of L2 writing proficiency in incorporating a process-genre approach into traditional writing classrooms. This paper argues that L2 proficiency should be considered an essential part of teaching practices under the process-genre approach to writing. (Mokpo National University · Daegu University). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temaet for denne artikkelen er skriveopplæring i grunnskolens barnetrinn. Artikkelen studerer en skriveprosess over to uker i sjangeren argumenterende tekst i en tredjeklasse hvor læreren kurses i den australske sjanger pedagogikken. Klassen har en stor andel av minoritetsspråklige elever og elever fra områder med sosioøkonomiske utfordringer. Intensjonen har vært å studere hvordan sjangerpedagogikkens skriveundervisning i fire faser gir unge elever et redskap for å skrive argumenterende tekster, og om sjangerskolens pedagogikk fører til utjevning mellom sterke og svake elever. Datamaterialet vårt er observasjoner av undervisning, lærerens modelltekst, klassens fellestekst, individuelle tekster, samt semistrukturert intervju med lærer. Fire elevtekster fra høytpresterende og lavtpresterende elever blir analysert. Analysen viser at elevene får godt utbytte av den systematiske undervisningen som sjangerpedagogikken tilbyr, og at det blir mindre forskjeller mellom elever som karakteriseres som høyt- eller lavtpresterende. Funnet samsvarer med andre internasjonale studier. Et interessant funn i denne studien er at selv om elevene bruker skriverammer og modelltekster, er hovedvekten av tekstene originale og selvstendige. Nøkkelord: sjangerpedagogikk, eksplisitt skriveundervisning, den australske sjangerskolen, Sydneyskolen, minoritetspedagogikk, argumenterende tekst, skriverammer, modelltekster Working with argumentative texts in 3rd grade. A partial study from the project Introducing genre pedagogy in three schools in Trondheim Abstract The topic of this article is writing development among primary school pupils through the use of the genre pedagogy approach developed by the Sydney School, Australia. The study presented here followed a third-grade class over two weeks, in which the class worked with the genre argumentative text. The teacher also received training in the use of genre pedagogy in writing instruction. Many of the pupils are of minority background, and many are from areas with socio-economic challenges. The purpose of the study was twofold: First of all, it intended to investigate how the four stages of genre pedagogy writing instruction provide pupils with a tool for writing argumentative texts, and secondly, whether using genre pedagogy contributes to minimizing the gap in writing competence between strong and weak pupils. Our data material comprise class observation notes, the teacher’s model text, the target text and the students’ individual texts, as well as semi-structured interviews with the teacher. Four texts written by high-performing and low-performing pupils are analyzed. The analysis reveals that the pupils benefit from the systematic writing instruction that the genre pedagogy approach provides, and that the gap in writing competence between high-performing and low-performing pupils becomes smaller. These findings reflect other international studies in the field. One interesting finding in this study is that even if the pupils use writing frames and model texts, the majority of their texts reveal authenticity and independence on the pupil writer’s part. Keywords: genre pedagogy, explicit writing instruction, the Australian school of genre pedagogy, the Sydney School, multicultural pedagogy, argumentative text, writing frames, target texts

• EI+PA is effective in improving upper-elementary students' writing performance. • There was no transfer effect of EI+PA to an uninstructed text genre. • EI+PA is effective in fostering upper-elementary students' self-efficacy for ideation. • EI+PA did not significantly promote upper-elementary students' motivation for writing. High-quality writing instruction is vital to supporting developing writers as they learn to plan, compose, and revise text. It is equally important that such instruction enhances students' self-efficacy for writing as well as their motivation to write. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the incremental effect of peer-assisted writing in an explicit writing instruction program on Flemish upper-elementary students' writing performance, self-efficacy for writing, and writing motivation. A randomized control design, using multilevel analyses, was conducted to determine the differential effectiveness of two experimental writing treatments (EI+PA and EI+IND) compared to a business as usual control condition (BAU). Both experimental writing treatments involved explicit instruction in writing, with students in one condition writing with a peer (EI+PA) and students in the other condition writing individually (EI+IND). Participating classes (N = 431 students, N = 20 teachers) were randomly assigned to the three conditions and students were assessed before and after instruction. EI+PA students outperformed both EI+IND and BAU students on the writing measure in the instructed genre but not in the uninstructed genre. Additionally, although EI+PA students were more confident as to their capability (self-efficacy) to generate ideas when compared to their EI+IND counterparts, EI+PA students' writing motivation, characterized by internal or external motives, was significantly lower than EI+IND students. The findings of the present study corroborate and extend the limited number of prior studies illustrating the surplus value of peer-assisted writing in explicit writing instruction programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]