Flow experience in foreign language writing: Its effect on students’ writing process and writing performance

Abstract

This research investigates Chinese EFL students’ flow experience in academic writing and its effect on students’ writing performance. The research consists of two studies: (1) a preliminary study involving a survey of 162 college students immediately after their completion of a short English essay to examine whether and how intensely they experienced flow during their writing and whether their perceived levels of challenge of the writing task and their writing skills affected their flow experience, and (2) a main study including a survey of 216 different students at the end of a semester-long writing course to ascertain how frequently these students experienced flow during the course, whether their intrinsic writing motivation and attention control ability were significantly correlated with their flow experience, and whether their flow frequency had an effect on their performance in the writing course. Results of statistical tests (including Class Factor Analyses and regression analyses) of the data in the preliminary study revealed that a large majority (76%) of the students experienced a certain level of flow in their writing and their perceived levels of writing skills had a significant influence on their flow experience. The statistical test results of the main study indicated that (1) 66.4% of the students experienced flow with various frequency levels, while 33.6% of the students rarely or never experienced flow, (2) students’ level of motivation and attention control were significantly correlated with their level of flow frequency, and (3) students’ flow frequency had a significant influence on their writing course scores. Research and pedagogical implications of the study are also discussed.

An Investigation into the Challenges and Strategies Utilization in Academic Writing: A Case Study of Indonesian Postgraduate Students

“…According to the study's findings, postgraduate students should be urged to use the resources at their disposal to negotiate the challenges of EFL students writing a thesis successfully. Similarly, Liu et al (2022) andAlmatarneh et al (2018) researched to learn more about the students' experiences with writing in a foreign language. The researchers established a substantial parallel between the students' motivation and attentiveness levels and their academic writing performances, as well as a significant impact of the student's experience with academic writing fluency on their writing performance.…”

DEAL 2022: Challenges and Opportunities in Contemporary English Applied Linguistics

“…Not only artists but also people in their everyday lives seem to experience flow in various activities in which they engage , even when it comes to learning in formal/institutional contexts such as schools . For some time now, flow in academic contexts has been on the agenda for educational psychology research as well, and more recently, scholars have also begun investigating language learners' flow experiences (e.g., Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2022;Ibrahim & Al-Hoorie, 2019;Li et al, 2019;Liu et al, , 2022 in hope of delineating engaging activities in and outside the classroom that can ultimately foster successful language attainment.…”

Flow Experiences During Speaking Tasks in the Hungarian English as a Foreign Language High School Classroom

“…Not only artists but also people in their everyday lives seem to experience flow in various activities in which they engage (Csíkszentmihályi, 1997), even when it comes to learning in formal/institutional contexts such as schools (Shernoff & Csíkszentmihályi, 2009). For some time now, flow in academic contexts has been on the agenda for educational psychology research as well, and more recently, scholars have also begun investigating language learners' flow experiences (e.g., Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2022;Egbert, 2003;Hong et al, 2017;Ibrahim & Al-Hoorie, 2019;Li et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2021Liu et al, , 2022 in hope of delineating engaging activities in and outside the classroom that can ultimately foster successful language attainment.…”