Predictors of success in writing in English as a foreign language: reading, revision behavior, apprehension, and writing

College Student Journal, Dec, 2002 by Sy-Ying Lee, Stephen Krashen

Multiple regression analyses revealed the following predictors of grades in an elective class in English composition for university level students in Taiwan: reading in English on a regular basis (positive), writing apprehension (negative), and a focus on organization during revision (positive). Focus on content during revision was positively associated with grades and focus on grammar during revision was negatively associated with grades, but the relationship fell short of statistical significance. Amount of writing done outside of school had no relationship with grades, but very few students reported writing in English regularly outside of school.

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The goal of this investigation is to study the predictors of success in writing English as a foreign language for upper intermediate students at the university level. These students are at a crucial time in their English education. At this stage they are increasingly expected to write in acceptable academic English and many will soon be expected to write well in the public domain. An investigation of factors of success at this level is important if we are to provide students with the best preparation for these daunting tasks. Our hope is that once predictors can be identified, their efficacy can be further tested, both by the experiences of professionals and by controlled experiments.

In this study, we will consider success in an elective writing class (grades) as a measure of competence and attainment. Previous research provides several likely candidates as predictors of grades. Only a few studies have attempted to relate these predictors to grades, and no studies have considered their independent contributions.

Free Voluntary Reading

No studies have been done attempting to relate reading to grades in writing classes, but there is evidence that free voluntary reading improves writing. Children who participate in free reading programs in school write better than comparison students (Elley and Mangubhai, 1983) and adult students of English as a second language who report that they read more write better (Kaplan and Palhinda, 1981; Janopoulos, 1986). International students who read more on their own also do better on the TOEFL test (Gradman and Hanania, 1991; Constantino, Lee, Cho and Krashen, 1997). Lee and Krashen (1996) reported positive correlations between various measures of free voluntary reading in Chinese and scores on the composition section of the Senior High School Entrance Examination for high school students in Taiwan.

Writing Apprehension

Writing apprehension literally refers to anxiety about writing. We define it here operationally, as performance on the Writing Apprehension Scale (WAS), a questionnaire developed by Daly and Miller (1975). The questions on the WAS probe several anxiety-related factors. Included among the questions are several that refer to the fear of evaluation (e.g. 2,4,18,22,25), and some that refer to a fear of writing itself (1,5,7,13). Several items refer to enjoyment of writing, including the process (3,10,15, 17), the satisfaction in completing writing (6,9,19), and sharing writing with others (12,14,20). Other items refer to the writer's ease in writing (16,21,23).

Research has shown a consistent relationship between writing apprehension and a variety of measures of competence in English for native speakers of English. High apprehensives score lower on standardized tests of writing (Daly, 1985) and write essays that receive lower evaluations (Daly, 1985). Lee and Krashen (1997) reported that native speakers of Chinese in Taiwan with higher writing apprehension tended to receive lower evaluations on the composition section of the Senior High School Examination (r = -.21).

For native speakers of English, writing apprehension and grades are inconsistently related. Fowler and Kroll (1980) found no relationship between writing apprehension and grades in a college writing class and Fowler and Ross (1982) reported a modest correlation (r = -.20) between apprehension and grades, but this predictor did not survive the multiple regression analysis when measures of English competence were included. Powell (1984) reported a modest relationship (tau = -.27) between writing apprehension and performance of students in a variety of writing courses at the university level.

Aspects of the Composing Process

We focus here on one aspect of the composing process: revision behavior. Poor writers tend to focus on aspects of form during revision, better writers focus on content and organization. Sommers (1980) compared students and "experienced writers" (journalists, editors, scholars, etc.). For student writers, revision was basically rewording. For experienced writers, revision was an attempt to "find the line of the argument"; experienced writers continued to "create meaning" as they revised. Faigley and Witte (1981) reported that advanced college writers made more content revisions and delayed mechanical and word choice changes until "they had satisfactorily dealt with their subjects" (p. 409). Perl (1979) reported that for five "unskilled" college writers she studied, revising was essentially editing, the application of conscious rules to small points of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.