Aspects of writing knowledge and EFL students' writing quality

Writing knowledge pertaining to process, system, content, and genre plays an essential role to produce an intelligible composition. The purpose of the present study is twofold – to investigate the correlation between aspects of writing knowledge and quality of writing, and to investigate the contribution of the overall and individual aspects of writing knowledge to writing quality. The participants were 54 second-year ELT undergraduate students of a university in Indonesia. A writing test and multiple-choice test on writing knowledge were used as the instruments of data collection. The analysis employed Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. The result revealed a significant positive correlation between writing knowledge and writing quality. As a unit, the knowledge of process, system, content, and genre, indicates a significant contribution to the writing quality. Individually, however, only process knowledge significantly contributes to the writing quality. It provides additional pieces of evidence that process knowledge be given special attention, thus writing instruction should allow students to learn writing knowledge explicitly and implicitly.

ONLINE GRAMMAR CHECKERS VERSUS SELF-EDITING: AN INVESTIGATION OF ERROR CORRECTION RATES AND WRITING QUALITY

Background and Purpose: In order to compete with native speakers, EFL and ESL students are under more pressure to produce native-like academic papers. This has led to more reliance on online grammar checkers, but these can be ineffective with regards to identifying and giving feedback on particular grammatical forms, phrasing and issues relating to style. Language learners may not be effectively correcting these errors. Hence, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of one online grammar checker, grammarly.com, with that of self-editing. Methodology: This case study employed a descriptive approach to data analysis. 199 essays were collected from undergraduates at four universities in Kyushu, dated from April, 2019 to January, 2020. 99 essays were proofed by an online grammar checker, while 100 essays were self-edited. The English proficiency level of the participants was at the lower to intermediate range (i.e., TOEIC 300 to a TOEIC 500). The online grammar checker Grammarly was utilized by all participants to minimize issues relating to feedback. In the analysis of data, the complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of the essays was assessed in order to examine the significant changes between the first and other drafts, and the types of errors produced. Findings: Results showed that there were no significant differences found in terms of the methods of editing, although the participants who employed online grammar checkers had better results. It was also shown that there were no significant differences in terms of syntactical complexity with either method of editing. There were fewer errors committed by the participants who self-edited, but there were no significant differences in the edited drafts with regards to errors/100 ratios, error-free clauses, and error-free clause ratios. The study showed marginal differences between the two methods of proofing but indicated that online tools can be useful for identifying certain grammatical errors. Contributions: This paper argues that educators need to work more with EFL learners on the editorial and proofing process, but online grammar checkers may be a useful pedagogical tool to help low-proficient L2 learners. Keywords: Writing quality, editing, online grammar checkers, proofing, syntactical complexity. Cite as: Long, R. (2022). Online grammar checkers versus self-editing: An investigation of error correction rates and writing quality. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 441-458. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp441-458

Computer-mediated and face-to-face peer feedback in second language writing

<p>With the ongoing development and application of technology in the writing classroom, peer feedback through computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been increasingly practiced and researched in the past couple of decades. Researchers have been interested in examining how CMC peer feedback differs from the traditional pen and paper or face-to-face (F2F) peer feedback. Results of previous research have indicated that CMC and F2F each has its own merits, and simply replacing the latter with the former is not advisable (Guardado & Shi, 2007; Ho, 2015; Liu & Sadler, 2003). Instead, researchers have suggested using the two means of communication together; and when that is the case, written asynchronous computer-mediated communication (WACMC) and traditional oral F2F (OF2F) commenting are recommended. While some researchers have suggested that WACMC should come before OF2F commenting, others recommended putting WACMC after OF2F commenting. Though the field has seen numerous studies that compare CMC with F2F commenting, both in written and oral forms, little has been done to examine the effects of WACMC and OF2F peer feedback when they are used together. To address these gaps, this study investigates how WACMC in Google Docs and traditional OF2F peer feedback affect three aspects: student comments, revisions, and writing quality. It also examines whether WACMC followed by OF2F (WACMC–OF2F sequence, henceforth) or OF2F followed by WACMC (OF2F–WACMC sequence, henceforth) works better regarding the three aspects mentioned above. In order to achieve the above aims, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. A quantitative approach, descriptive statistics in particular, was employed to understand the outcomes of student feedback, revisions, and writing quality from the two feedback forms and sequences. A qualitative approach was used to examine attitudinal aspects and to support quantitative findings. By means of interviews, student opinions about the feedback forms and sequences, their review and revision strategies were explored. Thematic analyses were employed to process qualitative data and results were reported in themes. Data analysis yielded several major findings. First, the student participants typically offered feedback on grammar and vocabulary in the form of suggestions, and they revised at surface and word levels. Second, the students’ last drafts had higher scores than the first, suggesting the effectiveness of student revisions. Third, in terms of feedback forms, WACMC was used as the main feedback tool for both feedback and revisions. Fourth, regarding feedback sequences, the students made more quality comments, i.e., comments that were revision-oriented, on both local and global areas in the WACMC–OF2F sequence. Fifth, also in the WACMC–OF2F sequence, the students made more revisions at global level. Sixth, the students’ writing mean scores were higher in the WACMC–OF2F than in the OF2F–WACMC sequence. Finally, results of the end-of-study survey questionnaire and student opinions showed that a majority of the students found the WACMC–OF2F sequence to be more helpful because the WACMC step better prepared them for the OF2F step. This study explores the affordances of WACMC and OF2F peer feedback. The overall conclusion of the study is both WACMC and OF2F commenting should be used together, and when that is the case, WACMC should be followed by OF2F feedback. The study contributes to the existing literature on computer-assisted language learning in two regards: (1) it examines two feedback forms that are underexplored: the WACMC and traditional OF2F commenting, and (2) it confirms that the WACMC commenting followed by traditional OF2F commenting is more helpful to student writing.</p>

Computer-mediated and face-to-face peer feedback in second language writing

<p>With the ongoing development and application of technology in the writing classroom, peer feedback through computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been increasingly practiced and researched in the past couple of decades. Researchers have been interested in examining how CMC peer feedback differs from the traditional pen and paper or face-to-face (F2F) peer feedback. Results of previous research have indicated that CMC and F2F each has its own merits, and simply replacing the latter with the former is not advisable (Guardado & Shi, 2007; Ho, 2015; Liu & Sadler, 2003). Instead, researchers have suggested using the two means of communication together; and when that is the case, written asynchronous computer-mediated communication (WACMC) and traditional oral F2F (OF2F) commenting are recommended. While some researchers have suggested that WACMC should come before OF2F commenting, others recommended putting WACMC after OF2F commenting. Though the field has seen numerous studies that compare CMC with F2F commenting, both in written and oral forms, little has been done to examine the effects of WACMC and OF2F peer feedback when they are used together. To address these gaps, this study investigates how WACMC in Google Docs and traditional OF2F peer feedback affect three aspects: student comments, revisions, and writing quality. It also examines whether WACMC followed by OF2F (WACMC–OF2F sequence, henceforth) or OF2F followed by WACMC (OF2F–WACMC sequence, henceforth) works better regarding the three aspects mentioned above. In order to achieve the above aims, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. A quantitative approach, descriptive statistics in particular, was employed to understand the outcomes of student feedback, revisions, and writing quality from the two feedback forms and sequences. A qualitative approach was used to examine attitudinal aspects and to support quantitative findings. By means of interviews, student opinions about the feedback forms and sequences, their review and revision strategies were explored. Thematic analyses were employed to process qualitative data and results were reported in themes. Data analysis yielded several major findings. First, the student participants typically offered feedback on grammar and vocabulary in the form of suggestions, and they revised at surface and word levels. Second, the students’ last drafts had higher scores than the first, suggesting the effectiveness of student revisions. Third, in terms of feedback forms, WACMC was used as the main feedback tool for both feedback and revisions. Fourth, regarding feedback sequences, the students made more quality comments, i.e., comments that were revision-oriented, on both local and global areas in the WACMC–OF2F sequence. Fifth, also in the WACMC–OF2F sequence, the students made more revisions at global level. Sixth, the students’ writing mean scores were higher in the WACMC–OF2F than in the OF2F–WACMC sequence. Finally, results of the end-of-study survey questionnaire and student opinions showed that a majority of the students found the WACMC–OF2F sequence to be more helpful because the WACMC step better prepared them for the OF2F step. This study explores the affordances of WACMC and OF2F peer feedback. The overall conclusion of the study is both WACMC and OF2F commenting should be used together, and when that is the case, WACMC should be followed by OF2F feedback. The study contributes to the existing literature on computer-assisted language learning in two regards: (1) it examines two feedback forms that are underexplored: the WACMC and traditional OF2F commenting, and (2) it confirms that the WACMC commenting followed by traditional OF2F commenting is more helpful to student writing.</p>

Metadiscourse in postgraduate writing

<p>This thesis investigates metadiscourse in master’s theses and the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Metadiscourse has been a major research focus in various genres and contexts, but only a small proportion of this work has compared metadiscourse in postgraduate writing across educational contexts and disciplines. While previous studies of metadiscourse have reported a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and writing quality, all of these studies focused on undergraduate writing. Little is known about the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. This thesis includes two main studies to address the gaps in literature. Study 1 examined use of metadiscourse (i.e., frequencies, types, and functions) in master’s thesis discussion and conclusion chapters written in English by New Zealand and Thai postgraduates in the disciplines of English language teaching and business administration. Four subcorpora with a total of 116 thesis samples were compiled: 26 New Zealand students’ theses in English language teaching (NZ-ELT), 30 New Zealand students’ theses in business administration (NZ-BA), 30 Thai students’ theses in English language teaching (TH-ELT), and 30 Thai students’ theses in business administration (TH-BA). Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse taxonomy was adopted for this study. Study 2 explored the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Forty eight theses (twelve theses with highest and lowest frequencies of metadiscourse markers in each of the four subcorpora in Study 1) were selected for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty four disciplinary supervisors in New Zealand and Thailand in order to investigate supervisors’ attitudes towards and expectations of good thesis writing in their disciplines. This information was used to design a rating scale specifically for thesis quality assessment. Two New Zealand and Thai raters in English language teaching and business administration, four raters altogether, rated twenty four discussion and conclusion chapters in their own disciplines. The findings of Study 1 reveal a higher frequency of metadiscourse in New Zealand theses than Thai theses. While both New Zealand and Thai students use more textual metadiscourse than interpersonal metadiscourse, New Zealand students show a greater reliance on the use of interpersonal metadiscourse (all interpersonal subcategories, except for boosters) than Thai students. By contrast, Thai students show a greater reliance on the use of textual metadiscourse (especially transition markers and frame markers) than New Zealand students. With regard to disciplinary variation, English language teaching students use more metadiscourse than business administration students, in both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse categories. Transition markers and hedges are the most prominent metadiscourse features, contributing the preponderance of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse in this study. Despite palpable differences in frequencies, the analysis of individual types across the four subcorpora reveals similarities of New Zealand and Thai students in the two disciplines. They use similar markers, rely heavily on a small cluster of high frequency markers, and make scarce use of lower frequency ones in all subcategories. The functional analysis indicates that there are six subcategories whose functions contribute to differences between New Zealand and Thai theses, namely transition markers, frame markers, evidentials, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions. The findings of Study 2 reveal a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and thesis quality scores in both English language teaching and business administration disciplines. However, a major difference between the two disciplines is that in business administration, the frequency of textual metadiscourse is more highly related to the quality scores when compared to interpersonal metadiscourse. In English language teaching, the frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse is more closely related to the quality scores. In the comparison of quality scores between high and low frequency groups, a statistically significant difference is found in business administration, but not in English language teaching. Insights gained from this study are that (1) business administration raters are likely to focus more on textual features which directly affect readers’ comprehension, while English language teaching raters seem to have more expectations towards interactional features (e.g., explicit expression of students’ attitudes towards their own research propositions), (2) not all metadiscourse subcategories affect thesis quality scores, and (3) apart from frequencies, factors such as appropriate use of a wide variety of markers in different subcategories may contribute to better quality scores. Based on these findings, this thesis also provides theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications, laying out a framework for postgraduate writing instructors in developing English for Postgraduate Academic Writing lessons and materials based on actual language use and expectations of members in specific disciplinary communities and educational contexts in order to improve postgraduate writing quality.</p>

Metadiscourse in postgraduate writing

<p>This thesis investigates metadiscourse in master’s theses and the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Metadiscourse has been a major research focus in various genres and contexts, but only a small proportion of this work has compared metadiscourse in postgraduate writing across educational contexts and disciplines. While previous studies of metadiscourse have reported a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and writing quality, all of these studies focused on undergraduate writing. Little is known about the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. This thesis includes two main studies to address the gaps in literature. Study 1 examined use of metadiscourse (i.e., frequencies, types, and functions) in master’s thesis discussion and conclusion chapters written in English by New Zealand and Thai postgraduates in the disciplines of English language teaching and business administration. Four subcorpora with a total of 116 thesis samples were compiled: 26 New Zealand students’ theses in English language teaching (NZ-ELT), 30 New Zealand students’ theses in business administration (NZ-BA), 30 Thai students’ theses in English language teaching (TH-ELT), and 30 Thai students’ theses in business administration (TH-BA). Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse taxonomy was adopted for this study. Study 2 explored the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Forty eight theses (twelve theses with highest and lowest frequencies of metadiscourse markers in each of the four subcorpora in Study 1) were selected for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty four disciplinary supervisors in New Zealand and Thailand in order to investigate supervisors’ attitudes towards and expectations of good thesis writing in their disciplines. This information was used to design a rating scale specifically for thesis quality assessment. Two New Zealand and Thai raters in English language teaching and business administration, four raters altogether, rated twenty four discussion and conclusion chapters in their own disciplines. The findings of Study 1 reveal a higher frequency of metadiscourse in New Zealand theses than Thai theses. While both New Zealand and Thai students use more textual metadiscourse than interpersonal metadiscourse, New Zealand students show a greater reliance on the use of interpersonal metadiscourse (all interpersonal subcategories, except for boosters) than Thai students. By contrast, Thai students show a greater reliance on the use of textual metadiscourse (especially transition markers and frame markers) than New Zealand students. With regard to disciplinary variation, English language teaching students use more metadiscourse than business administration students, in both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse categories. Transition markers and hedges are the most prominent metadiscourse features, contributing the preponderance of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse in this study. Despite palpable differences in frequencies, the analysis of individual types across the four subcorpora reveals similarities of New Zealand and Thai students in the two disciplines. They use similar markers, rely heavily on a small cluster of high frequency markers, and make scarce use of lower frequency ones in all subcategories. The functional analysis indicates that there are six subcategories whose functions contribute to differences between New Zealand and Thai theses, namely transition markers, frame markers, evidentials, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions. The findings of Study 2 reveal a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and thesis quality scores in both English language teaching and business administration disciplines. However, a major difference between the two disciplines is that in business administration, the frequency of textual metadiscourse is more highly related to the quality scores when compared to interpersonal metadiscourse. In English language teaching, the frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse is more closely related to the quality scores. In the comparison of quality scores between high and low frequency groups, a statistically significant difference is found in business administration, but not in English language teaching. Insights gained from this study are that (1) business administration raters are likely to focus more on textual features which directly affect readers’ comprehension, while English language teaching raters seem to have more expectations towards interactional features (e.g., explicit expression of students’ attitudes towards their own research propositions), (2) not all metadiscourse subcategories affect thesis quality scores, and (3) apart from frequencies, factors such as appropriate use of a wide variety of markers in different subcategories may contribute to better quality scores. Based on these findings, this thesis also provides theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications, laying out a framework for postgraduate writing instructors in developing English for Postgraduate Academic Writing lessons and materials based on actual language use and expectations of members in specific disciplinary communities and educational contexts in order to improve postgraduate writing quality.</p>

Training Graduate Students in Multiple Genres of Public and Academic Science Writing: An Assessment Using an Adaptable, Interdisciplinary Rubric

There is an urgent need for scientists to improve their communication skills with the public, especially for those involved in applying science to solve conservation or human health problems. However, little research has assessed the effectiveness of science communication training for applied scientists. We responded to this gap by developing a new, interdisciplinary training model, “SciWrite,” based on three central tenets from scholarship in writing and rhetoric: 1) habitual writing, 2) multiple genres for multiple audiences, and 3) frequent review and created an interdisciplinary rubric based on these tenets to evaluate a variety of writing products across genres. We used this rubric to assess three different genres written by 12 SciWrite-trained graduate science students and 74 non-SciWrite-trained graduate science students at the same institution. We found that written work from SciWrite students scored higher than those from non-SciWrite students in all three genres, and most notably thesis/dissertation proposals were higher quality. The rubric results also suggest that the variation in writing quality was best explained by the ability of graduate students to grasp higher-order writing skills (e.g., thinking about audience needs and expectations, clearly describing research goals, and making an argument for the significance of their research). Future programs would benefit from adopting similar training activities and goals as well as assessment tools that take a rhetorically informed approach.