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Morphological awareness is the metalinguistic realization that words consist of meaningful roots and affixes that can be isolated and manipulated. Learners at different proficiency levels use various forms of background knowledge such as cultural knowledge, technical knowledge, religious knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and contextual visuals. The purpose of this research was to see whether morphological awareness and background knowledge affected the fluency and accuracy of Turkish EFL learners. The participants consisted of 80 Turkish EFL students. At first, participants were homogenized to select samples and eliminate outliers, then a pretest was used to assess participants' writing fluency and accuracy prior to treatment. During the treatment phase, materials were presented to participants, and at the end, a posttest was used to assess the effect of treatment on participants' writing fluency and accuracy. According to the result of the data analysis, there was a significant difference in morphological awareness of EFL learners' writing performance in terms of accuracy from the pre- to posttests. Furthermore, the findings revealed a similar amount of progress in participants' writing fluency.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has the potential to help language learners; however, it has received scant attention. Collingwood (2001), NLP is a technique to investigate the relationship between how our mind works (Neuro), how we communicant verbally and nonverbally (linguistic), and our patterns of behavior and feeling(program). The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of NLP techniques on the writing ability of English as a Foreign Language. To achieve this goal, two intact classes of students were selected to form an experimental group (n=15) and a control group (n=15). A writing ability pre-test (based on the course content) was given to all participants. The participants in the experimental group were familiarized with NLP techniques to be able to implement these techniques in their writing. In the control group, the conventional approach to teaching was used. Comparing the results of the post-test results through ANCOVA, it was found that implementation of NLP techniques can significantly affect EFL learners' writing ability. Therefore, NLP can improve writing ability by improving various processes such as communication and information processing. Teachers, trainers and syllabus design can use it.

In this work, we explore the use of digital technologies and statistical analysis to monitor how Italian secondary school students' writing changes over time and how comparisons can be made across different high school types. We analyzed more than 2,000 exam essays written by Italian high school students over 13 years and in five different school types. Four indicators of writing characteristics were considered--text length, text complexity, and two indicators of source use, all extracted using natural language processing tools--which provided insights into students' citation practices over time and in different school contexts. In particular, we measured the portion of students' essays that included text from source material as well as the amount of copied text that was not properly referenced. We found that student essays became shorter in length over time while also getting more complex. We also found that the tendency to copy uncited text in the essay decreased. High school curricula predict different writing strategies: essays written by students attending scientific and humanistic high schools are longer and less subject to incorrect citations. We argue that such text analysis enables the study of writing features in high school classes and supports the evaluation of curricula.

Background: As a group, autistic children with high support needs (with adaptive functioning in the range of an intellectual disability) are at risk of significant literacy difficulties. We investigated the parent-reported home literacy environment of this group of children. Method: Sixty-two parents of autistic children (4.5 to 18.25 years) attending an autism-specific school completed a home literacy survey reporting on their child's: (1) alphabet knowledge, (2) interest in reading, (3) activities/interactions around books, (4) reading ability, and (5) writing ability. Results: We found significant positive correlations between parent-reported child interest in reading and literacy-related interactions and skills, but not with child age. Children using spoken words to communicate obtained significantly greater scores on four home-literacy subscales, but not on reading interest. Conclusions: A better understanding of the home literacy activities of autistic children with high-support needs is needed to inform educational practices aimed at promoting literacy development in this vulnerable population.

Preservice teacher candidates acquire and develop numerous competencies in their teaching programs, including how to teach writing. Effective writing instruction is critical across all ages and content areas, especially when working with students with and at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders, making it an important aspect of teacher preparation. This article outlines what preservice teachers should know about writing instruction at the conclusion of their program, including resources and ideas for advocating for professional development.

This study is an outcome of the Project Preparation Course project II for graduate students in the field of Educational Sciences conducted within the framework of the TUBITAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) 2237-A program to support scientific educational activities. In this course, training is integrated to student-centred and work-integrated learning was conducted. The study group consists of a total of 24 students, studying at 17 different universities. The research is structured in the form of a one-group pre-test post-test experimental design. Data collection tools are the project-based virtual learning competencies scale and the structured interview form. At the end of the project, it was found that participants expressed positive opinions about all the processes involved in the project. At the end of the project, work integrated learning based online course was found to positively impact the participants' project based virtual learning competencies.

English is the main "lingua franca" among the various ethnolinguistic groups in Fiji. This results in a sociocultural problem when students enter universities from different high school backgrounds. To this end, this study analysed the level of difference in writing abilities at the beginning of the first year of study and at the end of the first-year program of undergraduate students. The goal was to generate new insights that could inform ongoing efforts towards ameliorating academic English language proficiency in Fiji. The study took place at a university in Fiji where 120 students were sampled at the beginning of the first year and at the end of their first year of university program. This study used the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to evaluate student writing skills and for the development of curricula to meet students' needs. The study employed quantitative research design to a longitudinal language testing research context. The CEFR was successful in gauging the student's preparedness for university study and work life. Out of the 120 students, it was observed that from the 62 students who were at the A1 level at the end beginning of the year progressed to levels B1 and B2. Out of 62, 21 moved to B1 where 41 moved to B2. Further, 49 students from A2 level also progressed as 44 of these students had B2 and another 5 made substantial improvement by moving up to C1 level. The findings of this study can be used in improving support systems to enhance the smooth transition of multilingual students from high school through university and into the workforce. The analyses have the potential to provide insights into how Fijian undergraduate students are performing compared to students in other countries and how the EFL curriculum might be adapted to students' needs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of learning-oriented assessment (LOA) on the academic writing ability of EFL students (N:40) during a 12-week in the semester of 2019-2020 academic year in the context of a higher education. Within a pretest-posttest intact group design, the experimental group received instruction following the principles of LOA, and the comparison group received routine procedures for academic writing. This is a quantitative experimental design. The test of normality, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney Tests and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test were administered in order to see the significance of the intervention the data for this study included scores of a pretest, several assessments, and a posttest at the beginning, during, and at the end of instruction, respectively. The prompt for both pre and post-tests required participants to write argumentative essays. To rate the writing tasks, we followed the rubrics developed by the testing office of the institution. The findings revealed that the experimental group outscored the comparison group indicating the effectiveness of LOA procedures in student learning. Further, the findings indicated that implementing LOA could have significant implications and applications for EFL writing education.

Writing is one of the most crucial skills for EFL students and also one of the most difficult to acquire. Many students face difficulties when it comes to writing in English. To address this challenge, this study examined whether or not combining inquiry-based learning with visual literacy could enhance EFL students' writing proficiency in four areas: content, organization, grammatical structures, and vocabulary. An intact group of 20 secondary school students from a private school in northeastern Thailand participated in this mixed-methods study, and data were collected using writing tests, student portfolios, and focus group interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Results of the Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed a significant improvement in students' writing scores (Z = -3.946*, p < 0.05) with a medium effect size after implementing the inquiry-based learning with visual literacy model. Qualitative analysis revealed that students actively engaged in the learning process, which helped enhance their writing ability. The study findings suggest that an inquiry-based learning with visual literacy model had a positive impact on EFL students' writing ability, as evidenced by the improved quality of their written texts. This study contributes to the existing literature on the use of inquiry-based learning to enhance EFL writing ability and emphasizes the importance of visual literacy in promoting student engagement and learning outcomes.

Previous research has revealed that students typically struggle with analytical writing, particularly if it deviates from the commonly taught "writing structure" (Murphree, 2014). This struggle is frequently coupled with a lack of understanding of course content materials, or the often-ambiguous nature of analysis in writing, which students typically do not encounter in a structured, standards-based classroom. The pressure surrounding these writing struggles is seemingly amplified in a rigorous, high-performing dual-enrollment high school setting where students are required to demonstrate proficiency in analytical ability and argumentative writing prior to their 10th grade year. This study aims to develop a more comprehensive model to teaching analytical writing by implementing a combination of a skills-based approach and an approach that promotes self-efficacy and meta-cognitive reflection. This combination seeks to not only alleviate anxiety and lack of confidence in the writing process, but also equip students with tools that can increase the accuracy of self-assessment and overall writing scores. The effect of metacognitive tools on student analytical writing in this study is measured primarily through student performance on a series of AP World History-style Document Based Question (DBQ) essays and academic confidence self-evaluation surveys. Data consists of outcomes from one baseline DBQ (prior to supplemental instruction) and outcomes from two DBQ essays after direct instruction of three metacognitive tools and the introduction of a series of surveys designed to promote self-efficacy. Each measure was cross analyzed based on the introduction of a series of three metacognitive strategies to aid in writing DBQs (Pre-write Graphic Organizer, Formatting Guide, and Peer Evaluation Tool) and compared to the baseline scores collected after the pre-intervention DBQ Assessment. Preliminary results indicate that average student confidence, as measured by self-efficacy surveys prior to each DBQ writing assignment, rose over time, with content-based confidence and overall DBQ scoring confidence exhibiting the greatest change. Students initially demonstrated a period of "false confidence" during their baseline assessment, followed by a dip (lack of confidence) and rise (increasing confidence) correlating with increased accuracy in scoring as time progressed. Students' ability to accurately predict their success on the DBQ rubric increased over time. However, the greatest improvement in this metacognitive skill can be observed in areas related to content knowledge.

Despite the widespread use of Learner-Oriented Assessment (LOA) in (English as a Foreign Language EFL classes, concerns persist regarding its suitability for contexts such as Iran. Drawing on Carless's (SHE, 31:219-233, 2006) criteria for LOA, the present study examined the effectiveness of peer and teacher feedback in an academic writing course. To this aim, a total of 124 intermediate language learners who were homogenized in terms of language proficiency, based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. A 12-session writing instruction course with specific writing tasks was developed. One group received feedback from peers, while the other group received feedback from the teacher. Findings revealed that peer feedback resulted in better writing in terms of language, content, and organization. It was also found that the peer feedback group could retain their learning in the long run. These findings underscore the effectiveness of peer feedback within the framework of LOA, particularly in teacher-directed settings.

This study combines link grammar (LG) detector with N-grammar model to analyze and evaluate grammar in compositions. And then the composition level is judged through information entropy. Finally, the composition score is calculated based on the overall composition level and grammar weight. The experimental results show that the combined weight of recall and accuracy of the proposed method in this study is 89.9%, which is 26.6% higher than LG and 9.7% higher than Grammarly. In the performance test of scoring the entire essay, the proportion of error between the proposed method and manual evaluation is 87.29%, with a lower overall mean square error of only 3.08 and a shorter average running time of only 22.69 seconds. The method proposed in this study has a high accuracy and strong applicability in the evaluation of English compositions for middle school students, providing a new approach for teaching English writing for middle school students.

The advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has ignited an increase in discussions about generative AI tools in education. In this study, a human-centered learning and teaching framework that uses generative AI tools for self-regulated learning development through domain knowledge learning was proposed to catalyze changes in educational practices. The framework illustrates how generative AI tools can revolutionize educational practices and transform the processes of teaching and learning to become human-centered. It emphasizes the evolving roles of teachers, who increasingly become skillful facilitators and humanistic storytellers who craft differentiated instructions and attempt to develop students' individualized learning. Drawing upon insights from neuroscience, the framework guides students to employ generative AI tools to augment their attentiveness, stimulate active engagement in learning, receive immediate feedback, and encourage self-reflection. The pedagogical approach is also reimagined; teachers equipped with generative AI tools and AI literacy can refine their teaching strategies to better equip students to meet future challenges. The practical application of the framework is demonstrated in a case study involving the development of Chinese language writing ability among primary students within a K-12 educational context. This article also reports the results of a 60-h development programme for teachers. Specifically, providing in-service teachers with cases involving uses of the proposed framework helped them to better understand the generative AI concepts and integrate them into their teaching and learning and increased their perceived ability to design AI-integrated courses that would enhance students' attention, engagement, confidence, and satisfaction.

Choosing a writing topic poses a particularly serious challenge for young learners. Topic selection affects all other steps of the writing process. Therefore, the writing topic should be related to a subject that the student knows about, is interested in, and can produce content on. Basing writing on students' immediate environment and experiences will contribute positively to their writing process. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of writing activities based on immediate environment and experiences on the development of narrative and informative text writing skills. The study is designed as a multiple probe model, which is one of the single-subject research designs. The study group consists of two primary school students (one girl and one boy). A 14-week program was implemented that required writing based on immediate environment and experiences. The data of the study were collected using "the Story Elements Evaluation Scale" and "the Informative Text Rating Scale". The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, graphical representation, and effect size calculation method. According to the results obtained, writing activities based on the immediate environment and experiences have a significant effect on improving the students' ability to write narrative and informative texts, as well as their development of story elements and informative text elements. However, it was also concluded that it does not affect the external structure of the text and its language and expression. Considering these results, writing teachers are strongly encouraged to conduct writing activities related to their students' immediate environment and experiences.

Writing is a fundamental skill linked closely with academic achievement, day-to-day communication, formal negotiations, and more. However, due to their lack of contextual experience, learning to write has been a demanding and complex cognitive process for most learners. As a result, learners struggle to exhibit positive learning behaviours and cognitive engagement in writing, let alone embrace deep and autonomous learning. To solve these problems, in the present study, a spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) learning environment is developed to provide students with a contextual learning experience. Moreover, a peer feedback strategy is used to guide students in deep learning in writing. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. A total of 79 students from one primary school in southeast China were recruited. The students were assigned to either the experimental group (EG) exposed to the peer-feedback-based SVVR (PF-SVVR) approach or the control group (CG) exposed to the conventional SVVR (C-SVVR) approach. The results show that PF-SVVR had more positive effects than C-SVVR in terms of students' writing performance, cognitive engagement and autonomous learning tendency. In addition, the PF-SVVR approach was found to be more beneficial for triggering deep learning in writing than the C-SVVR approach. This study further found that students in the PF-SVVR group tended to exhibit less disorderly behaviours than those in the C-SVVR group. Our study contributes to the prior literature by exploring the educational potential of the PF approach in the context of SVVR-enabled writing learning.

Many studies have explored how Language-Minority Bilingual Children (LMBC) read and comprehend, while the way they learn to spell and write has received less attention. This study aimed to assess a comprehensive profile of spelling and writing skills in LMBC, comparing performances of 4th and 5th grade bilingual (n = 74) and monolingual (n = 131) children in word and nonword reading and multilevel spelling and writing tasks (word, nonword and passage dictation, and written narrative production). Furthermore, we explored the role of linguistic and cognitive predictors (nonverbal Intellectual Quotient, verbal knowledge, morphosyntactic comprehension, nonword repetition) in spelling and writing outcomes. Our findings showed that, overall, LMBC did not reach a monolingual-like proficiency in spelling by the end of primary school, while they were similar to monolinguals in reading tasks and were able to produce written narratives with adequate macrostructure, syntactic complexity, and lexical variety. Moreover, morphosyntactic comprehension predicted spelling in both groups. Nonverbal intelligence and verbal knowledge predicted spelling skills only for the bilingual group. With regards to writing skills, morphosyntactic comprehension emerged as a predictor exclusively in the bilingual group. These results are discussed with reference to educational and clinical implications.

Language learning has increasingly benefited from Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) technologies, especially with Artificial Intelligence involved in recent years. CALL in writing learning acknowledged as the core of language learning is being realized by technologies like Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE), and Automated Essay Scoring (AES), which have developed considerably in both computer and language education fields. AWE has effectively enhanced EFL students' writing performance to some extent, but such technology can only provide an evaluation in the form of scores, the majority of which are based on holistic scoring, resulting in the inability to provide comprehensive and detailed content-based feedback. In order to provide not only the writing multiple trait-specific evaluation scores, but also detailed writing feedback, we proposed a computer-assisted EFL writing learning system incorporating the neural network models and a couple of semantic-based NLP techniques, MsCAEWL, which fully meets the requirements of writing feedback theory, i.e., multiple, continuous, timely, clear, and multi-aspect guidance interactive feedback. The results of comparison experiments with the AWE baseline models and human raters demonstrated the superiority and the high correlation contained by the proposed system. The independent-sample t-test and paired-sample t-test results of the experiments on MsCAEWL effect validation suggested the significant impact of our proposed system in enhancing students' EFL writing proficiency.

Background: The increasing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) language models, exemplified by ChatGPT, has sparked inquiries into their influence on creative writing skills in educational contexts. This study aims to quantitatively investigate whether ChatGPT's use negatively affects university students' creative writing abilities, focusing on originality, content presentation, accuracy, and elaboration in essays. The research adopts an experimental approach to shed light on this concern. Objective: This study aims to quantitatively investigate whether the utilization of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, adversely affects specific dimensions of creative writing skills among university students, with an emphasis on originality, content presentation, accuracy, and elaboration. Method: The experimental study involves 600 students from 10 universities, divided into a control and an experimental group (EGp). The EGp incorporates ChatGPT in their creative writing process as an intervention. The study evaluates originality, content presentation, accuracy, and elaboration, utilizing the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test for analysis. Results and Conclusion: The findings reveal a detrimental association between ChatGPT use and university students' creative writing abilities. Analysing both machine-based and human-based assessments substantiates earlier qualitative observations regarding ChatGPT's adverse impact on creative writing. This study highlights the necessity of approaching AI integration, particularly in creative writing disciplines, with caution. While AI tools have merits, their integration should be thoughtful, considering the potential drawbacks. These insights inform future research and educational practices, guiding the effective incorporation of AI while nurturing students' writing skills.

Assessing text quality as an indication of underlying skills still remains challenging; irrespective of the approach, many studies struggle with reliability or validity problems. If writing is considered problem-solving, a report must make the reader understand the described situation and call for its mental reconstruction. Therefore, text quality may not only comprise linguistic aspects but also the cognitive-functional power of a text. The presented study aims at exploring the functionality of students' reporting texts in relation to general text-quality measures, using a corpus of accident reports written by German fifth- and ninth-graders (n = 277) prompted by a pictorial stimulus of a bike accident scenario. An online tool was developed in which 277 university students graphically reenacted the situation from one respective text according to the existence, position, and color of the involved elements. Thereafter, the match of the resulting spatial reconstructions with the original situation was assessed by two raters. While most subscales showed sufficiently high interrater reliabilities, the aggregated functionality score ([alpha] = 0.74) had medium-high correlations with other text-quality ratings and was comparably dependent on grade, education level, and linguistic family background. However, the correlational pattern, regression analysis, and factor analysis showed that the functionality score also contributed unique portions of variance to the assessment of writing skill that were not represented by rating measures. Moreover, the direct indication of whether a text allows for the reader's adequate cognitive representation is evident. Altogether, the approach of indicating text functionality through practical understanding offers a sound, though empirically laborious, alternative for text-quality measurement. Results are discussed with regard to the didactical strategy according to which students can improve their writing when they observe whether others can make use of their texts.

Students with emotional and behavioral challenges often struggle with writing. Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is an assessment used for a variety of purposes including screening, progress monitoring, and data-based individualization. However, little research has examined technical properties of writing CBM data and supported inferences. This study examined criterion validity of two CBM tasks with the Test of Written Language-4 and whether writing fluency was affected by writing prompt type. Thirty-eight students in 7th-12th grades with emotional and behavioral challenges completed a descriptive writing task and a narrative writing task. Writing samples were scored for the number of words written, words spelled correctly, correct word sequences, and correct minus incorrect word sequences. Across all scoring procedures, associations between the descriptive prompt and the Test of Written Language-4 (number of words written, r = 0.27 [-0.12, 0.58], words spelled correctly, r = 0.33 [-0.05, 0.62]; correct word sequences, r = 0.38 [01, 0.65]; and correct minus incorrect word sequences, r = 0.44 [0.08, 0.69] were stronger than associations between the narrative prompt and criterion measure.

One aim of this article is to shift mindsets from the traditional identification of written language abilities that are "missing" in students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) to writing assessment as the discovery of more complex language strengths foundational to success across disciplines. The multiple language-levels (MLL) perspective is grounded on identifying strengths in written language that may be present in students' responses to classroom writing activities. We used MLL to examine the compositions of 19 students in grades 4-9 who were classified with SLDs and struggled with academic writing. Their writing assignment was to explain how astronauts wrote about space exploration. The MLL approach revealed hidden strengths at the big picture (global or thematic) and close-up (local) levels of composing. Patterns of strengths discovered at the global and local levels are described with four case examples and instructional implications are noted. Suggestions for treatment are also provided.

Although colleges have offered academic writing courses, many students still struggle with this writing ability. Their poor writing skills are also associated with a lack of teacher guidance The tasks given by teachers are sometimes beyond their capabilities. Students are not accustomed to writing long academic papers. As a result, they do not enjoy writing essays, and they are not confident in their writing skills. This research is intended to collect and analyze articles related to Academic Writing Courses and the teaching of academic writing at colleges. The design used is a literature review, articles are collected using search engines such as JStore, Academic One file, Sciencedirect, and Proquest. The criteria for the articles used are those published in 2008-2021. Based on the articles collected the result is that academic writing centers (AWC) does not guarantee better grades for the students. Instead, it is time to help them fulfill their needs: i) Becoming self-directed; ii) Independent writers; iii) Building the confidence of writers; and iv) Helping writers with advanced writing tasks.

In this review, we examine studies of writing self-efficacy conducted with postsecondary students published between 1984 and 2021. We aimed to inventory the methodological choices, writing contexts, and types of pedagogies explored in studies of writing self-efficacy with postsecondary students, and summarize the practical implications noted across the included studies. A total of 50 studies met eligibility criteria. All studies used quantitative methods, were conducted in English language settings, focused on undergraduate or graduate students, and included at least one writing self-efficacy measure. Across the 50 studies, the two variables most commonly appearing alongside writing self-efficacy were writing performance and writing apprehension. Many studies also assessed change in writing self-efficacy over time. Writing contexts and measures of writing self-efficacy varied across the included studies. Common practical implications noted across studies included students' tendency to overinflate their writing self-efficacy, recognition of the developmental nature of writing ability, the importance of teacher attitudes and instructional climate, the influence of feedback on writing self-efficacy, and approaches to teaching and guiding writing. Based on this review, we see several directions for future research including a need for longitudinal studies, consideration of situated approaches, identification of diversity impacts, and attention to consistent use of strong multidimensional measures of writing self-efficacy.

Students' writing ability has become an essential element for student success and may be influenced by the student and teachers skills; therefore, the subject has garnered the attention of regulators and researchers alike. Thus, the current research investigates the role of student critical thinking skills and teachers' intellectual skills on students' writing ability across private universities in Indonesia. The researchers also investigate the mediating impact of student learning among the nexus of student critical thinking skills, teachers' intellectual skills and student writing ability in the context of private universities in Indonesia. The present study has used primary data collection methods and employs the survey questionnaires for data collection. The current research also use the primary data analysis tools such as smart-PLS to test the study hypotheses as well as the items' validity and reliability. The results reveal that student critical thinking skills and teachers' intellectual skills have a positive influence on student writing ability in private universities in Indonesia. The results also show that student learning significantly mediates between the association of student critical thinking skills, teachers' intellectual skills and student writing ability of private universities in Indonesia. This study is meaningful for future researchers who want to investigate this area in a more in-depth manner in the future and provides the guideline to the regulating and developing authorities while formulting policies related to students' writing ability in the universities of Indonesia.

English writing plays a vital role in language teaching and learning and is compulsory in Chinese secondary education. Chinese EFL junior high school students need to master English writing. However, in the process of English writing teaching and learning, the Chinese EFL students still face problems in writing ability and self-efficacy even though they receive corrective feedback from teachers. In this regard, the authors believe peer feedback as a formative evaluation method also significantly promotes students' writing performance. So, the purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of peer feedback on Chinese EFL junior high school students' writing ability and self-efficacy. The participants in this study were 100 grade 9 EFL students in a Chinese public junior high school, divided into experimental and control classes. Both teacher feedback and peer feedback were used in the experimental class, while only teacher feedback was used in the control class. Data were collected using the quasi-experimental and survey questionnaire methods, and data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. The findings revealed that peer feedback positively impacts students' writing ability in content, organization, and grammar. Additionally, students have more positive attitudes toward peer feedback which is more conducive to improving the students' writing self-efficacy in motivation and confidence. Therefore, it can be considered that peer feedback has a positive impact on Chinese EFL junior high school students' writing ability and self-efficacy. The author also proposed the recommendations and implications for EFL writing instruction, policies, and future research.

We studied the compositional written skills and spelling competence of individuals with a severe hearing impairment, examining qualitative and quantitative characteristics of their texts, the psycholinguistic variables modulating their productions, and writing errors following a fine-grained analysis. Sixteen deaf young adults, educated in bilingual settings, were examined and compared to a group of control hearing subjects matched for gender, age, and education. Writing skills were examined through both written composition and written picture-naming tasks. Concerning compositional skills, deaf participants produced shorter and less informative texts, with fewer adjectives and subordinates, and were qualitatively worse with respect to texts produced by hearing controls. Words produced by deaf participants were those acquired earlier and facilitated by a higher lexical neighbourhood. Errors were mainly semantic, morphological, and syntactic errors, reflecting general linguistic weakness. Spelling errors were few, with phonologically nonplausible misspellings relative to controls, and with phonologically plausible ones being quite rare. In the picture-naming task, deaf people had a greater number of all types of errors with respect to their text, including semantic and morphological errors. Their spelling performance featured mainly phonologically nonplausible misspellings, while phonologically plausible ones were relatively few and comparable to controls. Overall, the writing of deaf adults reveal limitations in grammar and lexical-sematic linguistic competence. This was associated with spelling deficits characterized mainly by the poorer use of phonological sublexical spelling procedures. However, in an ecologic context, their spelling deficits appear not so important as has been claimed in the literature.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs of students to improve their ability in writing essays in English. One hundred and three students were surveyed after three months after starting classes on fall semester of 2020. A qualitative research approach based on Grounded Theory was used throughout the research process. The data analysis gave rise to a process leading to a core category which shows how students can reach a higher level of writing ability as a skill. Three different categories were identified as being important for gaining a writing ability as a skill, namely, the teacher pedagogy skills, questioning strategies and individual characteristics. Instructors should organize lessons in small steps to achieve a learning goal. At the same time, they have to make sure students comprehend not only directions of learning activities but also the concepts they are working on. In addition, educators must support and encourage to each student by showing warm feelings and focusing on helping student to maintain a satisfying flow of communicative competency. If these requirements were met, students' ability in writing essays would be increased. Writing as a skill can be reached when students feel that they are treated fairly, with patience and attention. Instructors should be aware of these needs and should treat students as individuals and thus to help them to achieve higher levels of competency.

This study was an attempt to find out the impact of Montessori teaching method on EFL learners' writing achievement. To fulfill the purpose of the study, out of 150 students, 95 male and female students were selected randomly to participate in this study. All of them were given a pretest to find out their level of proficiency. They had no background knowledge of English and they had not studied English before. They were also divided randomly into two groups namely experimental and control. The experimental group consisted of 23 male and 27 female learners while the control group consisted of 21 male and 24 female learners. Experimental group members were instructed based on Montessori teaching method and their instruction was based on different Montessori materials. The control group members had a routine teaching process. Each group was a mixture of both male and female learners with the age range of 5-6. After 12 sessions, writing posttest was given to both groups to evaluate whether there is any significant difference between these two groups or not. The obtained data were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially. The data were analyzed by statistical tests such as one-way ANCOVA and one-sample t-test. The statistical analyses revealed that there was significant statistical differences between two groups mean scores on the writing posttest. Therefore, it can be argued that Montessori teaching method had significant impact on learners' writing skill.

Writing is a skill that has increased in significance for both researchers and classroom teachers due to changes in recent standards. Currently, many high school English Learners (ELs) are struggling to master this priority skill. A strategy that has been shown to be effective for adolescent writers is Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). Although this strategy has been researched, it has yet to be studied with EL high school students. However, the most effective method for providing feedback is not clear. This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of SRSD with vocabulary enhancement compared to business as usual comparison group on quality and accuracy measures for EL adolescents. This study used an experimental, randomized control design using both researcher created and standardized measures. Results indicated that students in the treatment group significantly improved over the business as usual control group on all quality measures. A small effect (g = 0.35) for accuracy (i.e., grammar, punctuation, sentence level errors) was found for proximal measures of grammar, punctuation, and reduction of sentence level errors using a researcher created measure. A moderator analysis also indicated there was a statistically significant interaction between the treatment grouping variable and receptive vocabulary on accuracy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects and social validity of Read STOP Write, a text structure intervention for reading and writing, in grades four and five. In a cluster randomized trial, 11 teachers in three elementary schools were randomly assigned to deliver Read STOP Write or RARE Reading & Writing, an alternative treatment focused on question answering. In total, 160 students received Read STOP Write, and 191 students received RARE Reading & Writing. Data included pretest and posttest measures of students' informational text structure identification, reading comprehension, and writing quality, and interviews to understand teachers' perceptions of the social validity of the interventions. Student measures were analyzed using three-level hierarchical linear modeling. Teacher interviews were analyzed qualitatively using typological analysis. Results indicated that students who received Read STOP Write outperformed students who received RARE Reading & Writing on a researcher-developed measure of informational writing quality with promising effects on measures of informational text structure identification and reading comprehension skills but no effects on standardized measures of general reading comprehension or writing quality. Teacher interviews revealed that teachers perceived the goals, procedures, and effects of both interventions as socially valid. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Knowledge building occurs when students work together and participate in idea-centred discussions where they share information and create knowledge collectively. This research explores whether knowledge building in knowledge forums using English as the "lingua franca" can facilitate in foreign language learning. An analysis was done on how Catalan students in secondary schools worked together on collaborative writing tasks in such forums using appropriate scaffolding to organize their thoughts and facilitate the discussion. The students were participating in the Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP), which is based on the concept that students can learn while working together in computer-assisted learning environments. This study applied methods using data triangulation and method triangulation where the students were observed throughout the knowledge building process, and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed for evidence of foreign language learning. The quantitative data was collected through a pre-test and a post-test, while the qualitative data was collected through observation and a digital questionnaire. The results show an increase overall in the performance of the foreign language. In particular, the analysis determined that the comprehension of the subject matter and writing abilities in the L2 showed an increase at high confidence levels.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difficulties pre-service teachers experience in conducting and writing research projects. A concurrent mixed research design was utilized to identify the primary difficulties. To collect the data, the study employed a questionnaire and document analysis. A closed-end questionnaire was administered to natural science candidates of Teacher Education College. The questionnaire data were analyzed using statistical procedures like frequencies and percentages. For document analysis, nine research papers were selected and analyzed by setting evaluation criteria. Two coding cycles (in vivo and axial) were used to evaluate the quality of the papers, and the results were embedded in the quantitative questionnaire. Contrary to the previous findings, the most challenging area candidates struggled with when conducting research was found to be a lack of knowledge and skills in analyzing, organizing, and interpreting data. It was also found that the candidates lacked primarily procedural knowledge and also epistemic knowledge to accomplish research projects. Thus, it was suggested that courses and delivery strategies should include high-level knowledge such as procedural and epistemic knowledge to promote students' problem-solving skills.

This study explores Chinese English-major students' intertextual competence and factors shaping their ability to paraphrase in academic writing. Multiple instruments were employed to collect data from 212 English-major students at different academic levels from nine universities in mainland China. The data were analyzed to determine how a range of personal and contextual variables related to their ability to paraphrase an academic text. Two groups of variables were found to be associated with their performance on the paraphrasing task. The first group comprised knowledge and attitudinal variables, including previous training on plagiarism, knowledge of blatant plagiarism, inability to recognize plagiarized texts, and condemnatory attitudes toward plagiarism. The second group consisted of ability measures or their proxy variables, namely English proficiency, instructional context and inadequate academic ability as a perceived cause of plagiarism. The observed relationship between the two groups of variables indicated that the effects of knowledge and attitudinal variables depended on or were mediated by the ability variables. These findings call for a multipronged and coordinated pedagogical approach to developing students' intertextual competence.

The quality of undergraduate student writing is cause for concern among academics and industry professionals alike. Because writing apprehension is thought to be a contributing factor in the current deficit of undergraduate writing proficiency, the Writing Apprehension Test (WAT) was administered to parks, recreation, and tourism students to determine change in self-reported levels of writing apprehension as a result of a writing intervention program. The writing intervention program centered on the use of graduate writing mentorship and scaffolded, authentic writing assignments. Differences in pre- and post-WAT scores indicated lowered levels of writing apprehension for the intervention group. Additional analyses were conducted by deconstructing items included in the WAT into four subsets (e.g., enjoyment of writing, confident in ability, self-esteem, evaluation of writing), furthering empirical research on the WAT itself. Findings suggest that mentorship and authentic writing assignments within the discipline may be a viable avenue for improvement in undergraduate writing ability.

Machines have a long-demonstrated ability to find statistical relationships between qualities of texts and surface-level linguistic indicators of writing. More recently, unlocked by artificial intelligence, the potential of using machines to identify content-related writing trait criteria has been uncovered. This development is significant, especially in formative assessment contexts where feedback is key. Yet the extent to which writing traits can be validly scored by machines remains under-researched, especially in the K-12 context. The present study investigated the validity of machine learning (ML) models designed for students in grades 3-6 to score three writing traits: task fulfillment, organization and coherence, and vocabulary and expression. The study utilized an argument-based approach, focusing on two primary inferences: evaluation and explanation. The evaluation inference investigated human-machine score alignment, the ability for the models to detect off-topic and gibberish responses, and the consistency of human-machine score alignment across grades and language backgrounds. The explanation inference investigated the relevance of features used in the models. Results indicated that human-machine score alignment was sufficient for all writing traits; however, validity concerns were raised regarding the models' performances detecting off-topic and gibberish responses and the consistency across sub-groups. Implications for language assessment professionals and other educators were discussed.

Middle school learners with disabilities, particularly learning disabilities, struggle with organizing their thoughts, expressing their ideas, spelling, the use of content vocabulary, the mechanics of writing, fluency, and overall, the primary elements of written expression (Graham et al., 2015). While writing complicates learning for students with disabilities across the K--12 environment, middle school years are particularly problematic. McMaster and colleagues (2020) suggested bimonthly 3-minute progress monitoring (PM) assessments are required to achieve teacher understanding of student need and align the respective instructional practice (McKeown et al., 2019). The purpose of this article is to introduce a technology-supported PM tool that offers periodic formative feedback on student writing. Developed to be used FtF and across the continuum of various online, hybrid, and virtual learning environments, the progress monitoring tool assesses middle school students, specifically those identified with writing challenges.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have contributed significantly to the advancement of society. In recent years, AI-powered writing assistants have received increasing attention among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) communities. However, most of these digital writing tools focus on the revision and editing stages. Few digital tools are developed to help users during the writing process, such as assisting users in formulating or translating their ideas into writing. Wordtune is an AI-powered writing assistant that understands the writer's ideas and suggests options for rewriting them using different tones (e.g. casual, formal) and lengths (e.g. shorten, expand). This tool can help EFL writers maintain a continuous flow and learn useful ways to express their ideas in written English. This tech review aims to provide an overview of Wordtune and its affordance in English writing for EFL writers, while also addressing the benefits and limitations of this technology.

Research suggests that when young children have many opportunities to write they start believing they are the sort of people who can write for intellectual, academic, and social purposes. They also learn foundational reading skills. Project-like compositional writing involving design, strategies, and problem solving versus functional writing or shorter writing episodes, promises even more benefits. A question for teachers is how might we motivate young children toward complex projects when they are still learning basic literacy concepts. We take up this problem by focusing on the conditions under which young children might be motivated to write, specifically through the lenses of self-determination theory and engagement. We suggest that making books, a complex compositional activity, linked to shared reading and study of multimodal picture books, combine for a vigorous social practice where children's motivational needs can be met. We offer practical recommendations for facilitating motivated, engaged writing in a classroom.

This paper explores the literature on AWE feedback, particularly its perceived impact on enhancing EFL student writing proficiency. Prior research highlighted the contribution of AWE in fostering learner autonomy and alleviating teacher workloads, with a substantial focus on student engagement with AWE feedback. This review strives to illuminate these facets and offer critical insights on AWE effectiveness, feedback quality, reliability, and usefulness. Guided by the research questions, 16 studies were selected, adopting specific inclusion criteria to assess the effectiveness of AWE in enhancing EFL learner writing performance. Recommendations and implications from the reviewed articles regarding AWE implementation were synthesized and discussed. The review concludes that AWE can improve EFL student writing skills, with varying effectiveness based on student proficiency levels. AWE provides quality feedback and can be a reliable and valuable tool. However, despite its effectiveness, human intervention is essential to maximize its outcomes and mitigate limitations.

This paper investigates the various roles found in the EFL classroom, such as native English-speaking teachers, learners' parents, and study habits outside of the classroom. During the study, the development of learners' reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing ability was measured over the course of one semester in a weekly 2-hour English class taught by a native English speaker. Results of the change in the twenty learners' performance on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing ability, are drawn from pre-tests and post-tests. In both the pre and post-tests, the frequently occurring errors included articles, spelling errors, the use of fragments and run-on sentences, as well as a lack of overall coherence in the writing portion of the pre and post-tests. The study finds the learner's struggled to express their ideas properly in and academic way in both the pre and post-tests writing ability section. Based on the findings in the pre and post-tests performance of the learners, it is concluded that the role of a native English-speaking teacher in the development of learners' reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills may not be as important a factor as perceived by students and parents of English language in China.

Funded by a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grant from a University in western Canada, this paper reports on findings from an educational design research study (McKenney & Reeves, 2012) investigating the ways, and the extent to which, particular technological supports and other interventions impacted the acquisition of academic writing skills for Bachelor of Education students working within a blended learning environment. Among the various findings, students emphasized the importance of integrating writing interventions in coordination with one another, as well as introducing a variety of effective pedagogical practices tailored to meet the needs of specific course assignments. Instructors found that by incorporating student feedback into the design and then redesigning the course, they were able to improve students' academic writing abilities without sacrificing course content.

Data were collected for this study early in the school year to analyze the direct and indirect effects of word-level literacy skills (word recognition, spelling, and written vocabulary use) and handwriting fluency on writing quality across three genres of typewritten papers. We further explored whether typing fluency and text generation fluency mediated the effects. Finally, we examined whether there was any difference in the effects across three writing genres. Fourth and fifth graders (N = 175) from 21 typical classrooms in 12 different Midwestern U.S. schools participated. Regression path analyses were employed and revealed that word-level literacy skills had both significant direct and serial indirect effects on quality, via typing fluency and then text generation fluency (text length) when controlling for handwriting fluency. Further, handwriting fluency had no direct effect when controlling for word-level literacy skills but did have a significant serial indirect effect on writing quality via typing fluency then text generation fluency. Results indicate that handwriting fluency matters, even when composing on the computer. Stronger transcription fluency, particularly by hand, leads to higher quality writing, likely because less cognitive effort is devoted to transcription. This study adds to limited research on the cross-modal effects of transcription on writing quality.

Grammatical complexity constitutes an indispensable subconstruct of L2 writing ability. Nonetheless, rating scale descriptors for grammatical complexity have heavily relied on degree modifiers or adjectives. Thus, this study attempts to explore the potential for the use of nominal modifiers as discriminators for adjacent levels of L2 writers in the context of an English Placement Test. This study analyzed 374 argumentative essays written by international undergraduates. Seven nominal modifiers in the developmental stages of grammatical complexity were examined and a cumulative ordinal logistic regression model with proportional odds was fitted to explore the relative effects of those grammar features on placement decisions. Four nominal modifiers were found to be positively associated with placement decisions, after adjusting for the effects of other variables. One educational implication is for the use of nominal modifiers to be incorporated into rating scale descriptors as discriminators for L2 writers who are not advanced enough to be exempted from an English Placement Test.

This study attempted to investigate the impact of extensive reading (ER) on the writing ability of Iranian EFL students. The study also took a further step to explore the effect of adding group work activity to the extensive reading program to find its possible positive effect on improving writing ability. The present study had two experimental groups with no control group. Participants were 35 students majoring in English Literature as ER plus GW (group work) group and 30 students majoring in English Language Teaching as ER group both taking the course of reading comprehension(II) in the University of Mazandaran. Participants were first given a reading comprehension test taken from TOEFL from which 24 students were chosen as the participants of this study according to their marks. The ER plus GW group read one graded reader each week at home, discussed the summary or related topic in the groups of five or six. The group members took notes on each other's talk including new vocabulary and language structure. At home, they wrote a summary of the book. ER group, on the other hand, read one book each week and wrote its summary at home without any discussion. Both groups were asked to write about a common topic one before and one at the end of the program as their pre/post test. Their summary examined in terms of four writing aspects including: run-on sentences, vocabulary errors (word choice and word form), and overall accuracy. The results of t-test revealed that adding group work to ER was almost effective in improving overall accuracy, run-on sentences, word choice but not in word form errors. Keywords: extensive reading, writing ability, group work, English literature, research.