ESL EFL Writing Research

Studies of the 80’s

As Humes Ann (1983) points out, writing researches of the present day have undergone a transformation.  He discusses the methodologies employed in recent research concerned with the composing process.  Studies of the 80’s are more concerned with analysing the compositions of successful writers to find out ways of effective instructions for teaching communicative writing and devising reliable and valid tests which go beyond the mechanical aspects of writing.

Some of the significant studies of the 80’s are summarised and discussed under different heads.

a.         Research on writing and their application.

Dominic, Joseph F (1989) examines the range of relationships between research on writing and its applications to classroom instructions.  He discusses different approaches to the study of writing instruction, collaborative interactive research on instruction, the process approach to writing instruction and writing as a cognitive process.  Human Ann (1983) also discusses different methodologies employed in a number of case studies of the composing process, naturalistic studies, quasi product studies that interpret result in terms of the process, and studies that use unique procedures.  The results are presented in terms of the processes and of the sub-processes of writing - planning, translating, reviewing and revising.

Stephen P Writte (1980) proposes a conceptual framework or model for conducting and evaluating research in written composition, a framework or model from which may be derived ‘an adequate understanding of the term composition’.  This conceptual framework attempts to do four things:

It tries to accommodate the entire field of written composition and, at the same time, indicates the boundaries of that field.

It can be used as a tool for classifying empirical research in written composition, research already completed and research yet to be completed.

It provides a basis for testing or validating theories which attempt to explain all or part of the field of written composition

It is useful as a heuristic device for generating basic research questions.  The model provided by Stephen Witte includes four components:          

The production of written texts, The written product, The decoding of writing texts, Pedagogy

He suggests that for these four components a common denominator exists consisting of six rhetorical features of discourse: the writer, the audience, the purpose, the subject matter, the discourse mode and the discourse medium.  The four kinds of questions that can be asked about these six shared concerns are the situational or cultural context, semantics, syntactic and supersentencial operations or structures of the discourse.

b.         Features of Written Expression

Bruce B, Collins A, & Rubin A D (1982) explore the process of writing from three perspectives: writing as a communicative act, writing as a taxonomy of communicative acts and writing as a decomposable process whose product must still fulfil an overall communicative function.   In the first perspective, the observation that to write is to communicate has major implications for a theory of writing.  It forces one to focus on the active role of the reader and leads to an emphasis on the audience in choosing tasks for beginning writers.  In terms of the second perspective the difference between writing and participating in a conversation and theoretical and practical implications of these differences are discussed.  From the third perspective various sub-processes of writing – discovering, manipulating ideas, and generating text at different structural levels  - are discussed.

Spikes W C & Spikes L A (1983) attempted to identify the skills necessary to write a successful essay.  Learners preparing to take an essay test received instruction for sixteen to eighteen days in development, rhetoric, and mechanics of writing.  The data simply that instruction in concepts, skills, and relationships in essay writing, considered in conjunction with learners’ diagnosed needs can result in improvement.

Hull, Glynda (1983) tested the effects of interrupting visual feedback on writing in two groups of subjects by preventing them rereading as they produced written texts.  They performed two tasks, one in visible and the other in invisible ink. Their texts were then analysed for error, syntax, overall quality and sentence connectedness by four raters.  While both groups were able to produce relatively well-formed sentences when they could not reread, both were hindered at the level of discourse production.

c.         Teaching writing

A number of studies deal with the actual teaching of writing, the various activities that can be carried out in class, and how much teacher intervention should be there to facilitate writing.

Cognitive psychologists conducted a number of research studies to find out what writing actually involves and how it can be taught.  They have investigated the effects of teaching what Scardamalia and Bereiter (1981) called ‘Procedural facilitators’.  Procedural facilitators can range from such simple strategies as asking the writer to ‘say more’ to presenting the writer with complex models of syntactic patterns to imitate in the revision.  The results of using these facilitators showed increase in length and quality of the writing.  This research suggests that instruction focuses on two parts – the actual text, and the various mental representations of the text – from graphical presentation to plans for a whole text.  This mental representation is meant to affect not only the immediate task but also the representation in the next task.

Bereiter and his associates have shown that young beginning writers, from age eleven onwards can be helped to plan and evaluate their compositions if they are provided with procedural facilitation.  Children are given procedural cues without giving any hints as to the context.  They are helped in making rhetorical decisions.  In these way learners potential is utilized.

According to Bereiter the two main problems of composition are - relative shortness, and low judged quality.  These problems arise because of slower speed and mechanical constraints associated with writing.  According to the Bereiter group when learners are prompted to write more, they often can double or triple the quantity of composition which tend to be judged better than dictated texts.

This line of research suggests the efficacy of an approach that combines phase instruction – which stresses on the various stages of writing – and variable product instruction which stresses on appropriacy.  This research also establishes that instruction in general procedure rather strict rules has an effect on learners’ performance.

The testing of efficacy of instruction in ‘general procedures’ as opposed to other approaches needs further study.  At present efforts have been made only to define the general procedures.  The instructional techniques are not yet fully developed.

Giordano Gerard (1983) discusses seven remedial exercises that constitute a model communicative writing programme: copying, automatic writing, restoration, outlining, paraphrasing, projection and correspondence. The exercises are communicative because they embody the transmission of meaningful information to attentive readers.  Each exercise emphasises a precise writing skill that can be complemented with one or more reading skill.

Grinnell P C & Burrie N A (1983) uses the process of differentiation, negotiation and revision to trace the graphic communication process in young learners as it emerges spontaneously and through formal instruction.  Even after they learn to write, drawings continue to contribute to the communicating process by helping the learners think about what they want to write and by expressing information too difficult to put into words.  Sinatra, Richard  (1983) employs a visual / spatial technique to teach writing which has three components; pictures, model sentence configurations, and function words.  The first components suggests the ideas to be expressed in a new sentence; a visual pattern illustrates the required form or configuration of the new sentence; the third component function words and correct punctuation for each particular type of sentence are visibly displayed in the visual pattern.  As learners compose new sentence that follow the model patterns, they learn to comprehend meaning and construct new sentence on their own.

Shaw Robert (1983) presents guideline for the planning of teacher’s interventions during a wring lesson that enable the teacher to overcome the constraints that hamper efforts to teach writing -i.e. administrative procedures, standardised testing, commercial textbooks and the lack of resources for training teachers in writing instructions.  In particular, four facilitative activities - reviewing, orienting, evaluating and writing – provide a framework for making practical divisions about response to problems learners encounter as they write.

d.         Integrating writing skill with other skills

A number of studies establish the fact that when writing skill is integrated with other skills there would be significant improvement in learners’ ability to communicate through writing.

Noyce, Ruth M S (1983) research findings support S Stotsky’s (1975) contention that experiences that integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing promote in reading and written composition.

Markham (1984) in his work  ‘Assisting speakers of Black English as they begin to write’ says that the strategies for facilitating the success of young black writers are the same as these appropriate for any beginning writers.  A good deal of classroom time should be spent on oral activities to develop the ability to communicate ideas clearly.  Reading to the learners provides models of syntax and form of the written language and also expands their knowledge of the world. In teaching writing, learners should be helped with both ideas and the mechanics nor should the teacher correct too frequently or without consideration to the learners feelings.

Barenbaum E M (1983) presents a survey of the relationship between writing to the content area of reading and oral language.  He devises instructional strategies for promoting writing which include the establishment of a safe environment motivation, the provision of an audience and a purpose, conference for revision and developing an oral language base.

e.         Testing writing

The research studies of the testing writing mainly deal with scoring systems for direct writing assessments or with comparing different types of tests.

The studies of Quellmalz (1980), Chapman, Fyans & Korin (1984) Quellmalz (1984), and Mullis (1984) deal with the preparation of rating scales, while the studies of Hinofotie (1980), Bachman (1982), Brown (1983), Edith Hanania and May Shikani (1986) deal with the preparation and administration of cloze procedure.

Quellmalz (1984) discusses large – scale writing assessment with regard to features of successful writing assessments, what is being tested, developing writing prompts, rating criteria, training and scoring, and assessment validation and follow through.

Chapman, Fyans & Kerin (1984) describe a writing assessment programme in lllinois designed to annually assess the knowledge and skills of learners in developing convincing points of view, events or ideas in functional writhing.  The assessment uses and analytic scoring system, and a rating guide for functional writing and provides score categories that describe increasing levels of writing skill development.  The guide measures five areas of functional writing: focus, support, organisation, mechanics and overall effectiveness.

Mullis (1984) describes three scoring systems for direct writing assessments that are based on score point values; holistic scoring, primary trait scoring, and analytic scoring.  Holistic scoring provides information on overall writing quality, primary trait scoring focuses on whether the writing communicates necessary information effectively, and analytic scoring rates prominent characteristic of writing according to quality.  It is concluded that it is best to use several systems of scoring whenever possible due to the varying strengthen and weaknesses of the individual systems.

Edith Hanania and May Shikani (1986) tested the ‘Interrelationship among three tests of language proficiency: standardized ESL, cloze and writing’ which is reported in the TESOL quarterly (Vol. No.20).  They tried to find if cloze could be used as an alternative to a written composition test, as cloze combines the advantages of integrative testing and objective scoring.  The research was carried out at the American University of Beirut (AUB).  The main purpose of the work was to study the interrelationship among three types of measures:

i.                   A standardized ESL test of two hindered multiple choice items distributed over four sections – structure, vocabulary, reading comprehension and miscellaneous abilities.

ii.                   A Cloze test of carefully selected four passages dealing with a general theme that did not require specialized knowledge to comprehend, with fifty systematically spaced blanks, to be scored by exact word method.

iii.                   A composition test of different topics that were related to the learners‘ general experience and interest, requiring the learners to write about 250 words choosing one of the two given topics.  Each composition was graded by two experienced teachers, who using the general impression method considered grammar, mechanics and rhetorical aspects.

The results of the study were as follows:

$               The close and composition writing provided additional information about proficiency beyond that   provided by the ESL test.               

$               The combination of any two of the three tests improved the predictability of the third.

According to the authors the task involved in a Close test is integrative in nature, tapping overall abilities similar to those required in communicative language use. The incorporation of a close procedure can be expected to promote communicate language teaching in classrooms.

Implications for Teaching and Testing Writing

Studies of 80’s are more helpful in enabling us to draw implications for teaching and testing writing as they are concerned with finding out ways of imparting instructions for teaching communicative writing and devising reliable and valid tests which tap the overall abilities of the learner thereby going beyond the mechanical aspects of writing.

A series of tasks could be devised keeping in mind the level of the learners.  These tasks should focus on the communicative act of writing, which enables the learner to think of the intended message from the point of view of the reader.  Learners could also be given practice in the ‘Language content’ needed for the completion of the tasks by means of activities where they transmit meaningful information to attentive readers.

Integrating writing with listening, speaking and reading should be thought of to improve the learners’ ability to communicate through writing.  The instructional strategies worked out by Barcnbaum E M (1983) and Marcham (1984) could be adapted to suit the learners involved in the present study.  Thus ways of providing a safe environment, increasing learners’ motivation, providing an audience helping them with both ideas and mechanics of writing, as well as strategies of revising and editing their work could be thought of.

For testing writing the type of cloze-test tried by Edith Hanania & May Shikani (1986) could be used.  A simple story suited to the level of the learners could be selected that does not require specialized knowledge of any kind.  Fifteen to Eighteen systematically spaced blanks could be given to be scored by the method of contextual appropriateness.