Writing Motivation of College Students in Basic Writing and First-Year Composition Classes: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Scales on Goals, Self-Efficacy, Beliefs, and Affect

The purpose of the study was to validate a writing motivation questionnaire that consists of four scales for first-year college writers including students with low writing skills in basic writing classes and students in typical first-year composition (FYC), to investigate differences between these two groups and to examine the relationship of motivational constructs with writing quality. Participants were 371 college students (142 in basic writing classes and 229 in FYC). Students completed a 49-item motivation questionnaire with scales for goal-orientation, self-efficacy, beliefs, and affect about writing and wrote an argumentative essay. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for the structural construct validity of all scales for both groups. Statistically significant differences between basic writers and FYC students were found on self-efficacy for grammar and strategies and on beliefs about the importance of substance and mechanics. Structural equation modeling found statistically significant positive relationships of essay quality with all three self-efficacy scales and belief about the importance of substance to good writing, as well as negative relationships with avoidance goal orientation and belief in the importance of mechanics. Limitations and implications for motivation and instruction of basic writing students and of adults with learning disabilities are discussed.

USING PEER COLLABORATION TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS' WRITING SKILL OF THE EIGHT GRADE OF SMP NEGERI 1 TONRA

Abstrack : The objective of this study to know the difference of students writing ability before and after being thought by related picture. Pre-experimental method was to find applied in this research with one sample group and two test, pre-test and pos-test. The population of this research was basic writing class VIII in SMP Negeri 1 Tonra Subdistrict of Tonra Bone Regency 2018-2019. The total sample of this research was 21 students from one class. Whereas, the result of computation showed that t-observed was 9,71 and t-critical was 2.086 (at 1c.=0.05). It meant that t­ observed was higher than t-critic (9,71 > 2.086). Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. It meant that there was a significant difference in students' writing ability before and after being taught by using related pictures. So it could be concluded that teaching writing by using related pictures gave better result in improving the students' writing ability of descriptive genre. There is a significant difference eight grade in students' of SMP Negeri 1 Tonra Subdistrict of Tonra Bone Regency writing ability before and after being taught by using related pictures.

Improving the Basic Writing Skills of Grade 7 Learners in Filipino: An Action Research in Filipino Language

This action research primarily aims to remediate the low level of basic writing skills (writing in cursive, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and paragraphing) of Grade 7 learners in Filipino class/subject in a government high school. The researcher conducted (1) assessment of learners’ writing competency through pre- and post-tests; (2) preparation/development of writing exercises; (3) activities emphasizing the conduct of writing activities in and out of the classroom; and (4) home visitations to reinforce the teacher’s and parents’ monitoring on the progress of their children. A five-point rating scale was utilized in assessing learners’ outputs. An increase of 1.56 was recorded in the general rating of pre- to post-test, which shows that 80% improvement is manifested among the learners’ basic writing competencies, proving that the intervention used is effective in achieving the target of the study. The study reveals the significant role of teachers in arousing learners’ interest in writing and making them realize its importance. The study holds true the importance of having learning activities and worksheets appropriate to the level of learners’ needs to improve/enhance the unique skills in writing of each learner. Just like other researchers, this study encourages the promptly remediate the classroom- and/or school-based problems through the conduct of research for a rational and systematic way of addressing it. With the aid of well a documented study in all research endeavors, this will guide other teachers and school heads to experience the same plight of addressing the gaps in schools effectively.

The many writing systems of Mansi: challenges in transcription and transliteration

The paper at hand presents the recently published COPIUS Orthographic Toolset’s Mansi module. This open-source software, part of the COPIUS drive to create necessary international infrastructures for teaching/learning and researching Uralic languages, allows for rule-based transcription between four basic writing systems historically used for Mansi: the Cyrillic alphabet, the Latin-based Unified Northern Alphabet (UNA), Finno-Ugric Transcription (FUT), and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The software aims to take variation in the usage of these respective writing systems into consideration as best possible in a purely rule-based approach currently lacking lexical support. Section 1 will give a short summary of the history of Mansi literacy and aims to elucidate how changing trends, both local and Russia-wide, influenced the manner in which Mansi was captured in writing by scientists and speakers throughout history. Section 2 will give an overview of (Northern) Mansi phonology and discuss how difficult aspects of it are handled in the writing systems under consideration. Finally, Section 3 will illustrate the transcription software, in its current version, in action, with a sample text transcribed from each of the four writing systems under consideration into the three other ones.

A Diary-Based Study of Language Use During Cognitive Decline

Although the effects of dementia on language have been examined in a variety of ways, there is relatively little data available showing longitudinal effects. In the present study, we examined the effect of cognitive decline on an individual’s language use over time (from age 60-91) by assessing daily diary entries. We focused on a linguistic phenomenon commonly associated with diaries and other informal registers, i.e. subject omission, as in “∅ Made cranberry muffins.” Quantitative analysis revealed a drastic decline in the use of this feature, which is correlated with the stages of the individual’s cognitive decline. We argue that the patterns reflect a systematic reduction in complexity that affects a writing style based on literacy and acquired at a later stage than more basic writing. This corroborates previous findings, showing later-acquired linguistic features are disproportionately affected in cognitive decline and highlights the importance of linguistic analysis in aging research.