he Effect of Gender and Proficiency Level on Writing Strategy Use among Iraqi High School Students

Abstract

This study aims to 1) explore the extent Iraqi high school students' use of writing strategies; 2) identify the contribution of proficiency level to writing strategy use; and 3) compare male and female students' writing strategy use. This study employed a quantitative approach, whereby a total of 132 high school students were randomly selected from the Karkh'sdistrict of Baghdad to constitute the sample of the study. A 30-item 3-point Likert scale questionnaire on writing strategy use that was adapted from Petrić&Czárl's (2003) writing strategy questionnaire served as the instrument of the study. The results of the study reveal that the frequency of strategy use was low among the participants. In addition, no significant difference was found between high and low proficiency students'strategy use. Finally, it was found that there is significant difference between female and male students' strategy use. Female students were found to use writing strategies more than males. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings.

Insight into Gender Effect on EFL Writing Strategies in the Narrative and Expository Genres: A Case Study of Multilingual College Students in Morocco

“…Females used codeswitching more frequently than males who rarely switched from one code to another. This finding is consistent with previous research like Guobing (2015) and Mutar & Nimehchisalem (2017) who found significant differences in the females' use of certain strategies compared to male students. In addition, females used codeswitching more frequently in the expository than the narrative genre, while male subjects used codeswitching more in the narrative.…”

“…In her study on individual differences and writing ability, Ong (2015) reported that Sunderland (2000) "identified gender as an extremely neglected factor in second language writing" (p. 129). The few existing published studies reported on male and female students' writing strategies in terms of the frequency of their occurrence (Mutar & Nimehchisalem, 2017;Bremner, 1999;Guobing, 2015), and the interaction of writing proficiency level and gender in overall language learning (Khalil, 2005). Khalil (2005) studied the effect of language proficiency and gender on Palestinian EFL learners' strategy use.…”

“…In a recent study, Mutar and Nimehchisalem (2017) investigated the effect of gender and proficiency on writing strategy use among Iraqi high schoolers. Using a writing strategy survey adapted from Petric andCzarl (2003, as cited in Mutar &Nimehchisalem, 2017), they found no significant difference between high and low proficiency students' strategy use. However, females used more strategies than the males.…”

“…Indeed, this variable of gender was overlooked in English as a second or a foreign language. As a matter of fact, many researchers have made serious recommendations to (a) conduct more studies investigating students' writing strategy use in interaction with gender (Khalil, 2005;Mallia, 2017;Hussain, 2017;Mutar & Nimehchisalem, 2017), and (b) use complementary data collection like think-aloud protocols and interviews (Khalil, 2005, p. 113). Thus, the present study intends to fill in this gap by studying the cognitive processes and writing strategies used by male and female multilinguals writing academic essays in the narrative and expository genres in English as a foreign language.…”

A Critical Review of Research on Language Learning Strategies used by Arab Learners of English

“…Shamis 2003, for example, attributed this finding to the fact that more proficient learners are likely to be more aware of their need to "process and revise internal models in order to receive and produce the language" (P. 23). However, Mutar and Nimehchisalem's (2017) study focusing on the contribution of proficiency level to Iraqi high school students' writing strategy use, indicated that there was no significant difference between high and low proficiency students' LLS use. Recognising the limitations of collecting data from questionnaire surveys in LLS research, some researchers (e.g., Abu-Radwan, 2011; El-Dib, 2004) have pointed out the importance of combining both quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection rather than using only survey tools.…”