Language Learners’ Writing Task Representation and Its Effect on Written Performance in an EFL Context

Abstract

The present study attempts to give an account of how students represent writing task in an EAP course. Further, the study is intended to discover if learners' mental representation of writing would contribute to their written performance. During a 16-week term, students were instructed to practice writing as a problem solving activity. At almost the end of the term, they were prompted to write on what they thought writing task was like and also an essay on an argumentative topic. The results revealed that students could conceptualize the instructed recursive model of writing as a process-based, multi-dimensional and integrated activity inducing self-direction and organization while holding in low regard the product view of writing. The findings also demonstrated that task representation was related to the students' writing performance, with process oriented students significantly outperforming the product-oriented ones. Also, it was found that task representation components (ideational, linguistic, textual, interpersonal) had a significant relationship with the written performance ([Formula: see text]; Sig.: 0.006). The study can have both theoretical and practical implications with regard to the factors involving the students' writing internal processes and their effects on written performance.

A review of research on student self-assessment in second / foreign language writing

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Effects of different methods of reflection on nurses' gaze and judgement in a task using a touch panel

“…Reflective writing has a learning effect in the medical education and clinical setting (Liu, Jawitz, Zheng, Gusberg, & Kim, ; Sukhato et al., ; Wald, Haramati, Bachner, & Urkin, ). It has been suggested that writing was an effective reflection method for the cognitive process and resulted in favourable outcomes both theoretically and practically (Zarei, Pourghasemian, & Jalali, ). Furthermore, in a study comparing discussion, writing and both as complements to active learning, test scores were significantly higher when writing was used as a complementary method (Linton, Pangle, Wyatt, Powell, & Sherwood, ).…”

Analysing literacy and other psychological tendencies using linguistic profile in English expressive writing: Are students able but unwilling to write?

“…On the first problem, we had to address the possibility that the task was irrelevant to the students; hence they weren't invested in answering it in detail. As we all know, task relevance is an important factor on individuals' actions (see Assor, Kaplan, & Roth, 2002; Copyright © 2018, IJAL, e-ISSN: 2502-6747, p-ISSN: 2301-9468 Zarei, Pourghasemian, & Jalali, 2016). For example, when a student does not feel that a particular class is relevant to their lives, they tend to lose interest and eventually become disengaged.…”