Does Prewriting Planning Positively Impact English L2 Students’ Integrated Writing Performance?

Abstract

This study compared English L2 writers’ (N = 111) performance on an integrated writing task from the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Assessment under three prewriting planning conditions: required self-timed planning required fixed time planning, and suggested (i.e., optional) planning. The participants’ integrated essays were scored according to the CAEL writing bands by raters at Paragon Testing Inc. The effect of planning condition on the participants' planning time, writing time, and integrated writing scores were analyzed using MANOVA. The student interviews were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The results indicated that planning time was the only variable impacted by planning condition, with students in the required self-timed planning condition taking more time to plan before beginning to write. Students’ perceptions about prewriting planning are discussed in terms of implications for the teaching and assessment of L2 integrated writing.

Experienced and Novice L2 Raters’ Cognitive Processes while Rating Integrated and Independent Writing Tasks

“…However, if test takers' cognitive processes rather than their writing performance are investigated while they complete independent and integrated tasks, differences may be found as it was the case regarding the raters' cognitive processes while they rated these two types of writing tasks in this study. Moreover, the results of this study were in contrast to Michel et al (2020) and Uludag et al (2021) who found that integrated writing tasks are more challenging for test takers and elicit more dynamic and varied behaviors and cognitive processes in test takers. This contradiction might be due to the nature of the participants in Michel et al's and Uludag et al's studies who were test takers versus the participants in this study who were raters.…”

“…The findings on the first research question corroborated some previous studies (Allen, 2004;Wolfersberger, 2007) but partially contradicted several others (Ahmadi & Mansoordehghan, 2015;Michel et al, 2020;Plakans, 2010;Uludag et al, 2021). The results of the first research question did not match those of Ahmadi and Mansoordehghan (2015) since in contrast to this study, they found that task type (independent vs. integrated) did not have a significant effect on the students' writing performance.…”

“…It is a common belief that integrated writing tasks are more contextualized and authentic (Ahmadi & Mansoordehghan, 2015). However, except few studies such as Michel et al (2020) and Uludag et al (2021), not much research has been done to cross-examine the L2 learners' performance on independent and integrated writing tasks or to analyze L2 raters' cognitive processes when they rate either of these tasks. Since performance on these two tasks requires different cognitive engagement (relying on one's own knowledge in independent tasks versus incorporating information from other sources in integrated tasks), it was presumed that L2 raters' cognitive processes may also differ when rating these two types of tasks.…”

Les tâches intégrées plurilingues nécessitant la compréhension en anglais dans des universités non anglophones : les perceptions et les pratiques déclarées d’étudiants ayant des profils académiques et langagiers variés

“…De nos jours, les liens entre la lecture et l'écriture (ou encore entre l'oral, la lecture et l'écriture) sont bien connus des universitaires ou des apprenants de langue pour des objectifs spécifiques telles les études universitaires dans une langue additionnelle (Hirvela et Belcher, 2016;Zhao et Hirvela, 2015). La relation symbiotique entre la lecture et l'écriture est, jusqu'à présent, principalement explorée à des fins d'évaluation de compétence langagière ou pour soutenir l'intégration académique de ces apprenants (English for Academic Purposes) (Plakans, 2010(Plakans, , 2015Plakans et Gebril, 2017;Uludag et al, 2021). Les tâches ou les tests utilisés dans ces deux domaines sont connus sous différentes appellations, notamment integrated reading-writing task, reading-to-write task, integrated writing tasks.…”

“…Jusqu'à présent, les chercheurs s'intéressant aux tâches intégrées ont travaillé avec des apprenants de la langue de l'université (souvent, des étudiants non anglophones qui étudient ou veulent étudier dans des universités ayant l'anglais comme langue d'usage) (Li et Flowerdew, 2020;Uludag et al, 2021). Pourtant, ce profil ne tient pas compte des expériences variées des personnes qui n'ont pas l'anglais comme langue première mais qui développent une littératie académique nécessitant l'anglais.…”