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

Because the relationship of apprehension and grades held even when amount of reading and revision behavior were controlled, our results suggest that aspects of apprehension unrelated to writing competence (gained through reading) and unrelated to aspects of the composing process (focus on form versus meaning in revision) are strongly related to grades.

Our results also confirmed that quantity of voluntary writing is not related to grades in composition classes, a result consistent with previous studies. The lack of relationship found here may be due to the fact that so few of our subjects reported writing outside of school. The fact, however, that so little writing takes place and yet students do attain considerable proficiency in written English is evidence that writing per se does not contribute a great deal to writing competence.

We do not wish to conclude, however, that writing itself makes no contribution. Krashen (1984) hypothesizes that actual writing does not contribute to competence, that is, mastery of the conventions of writing. Most of our knowledge of the written language is acquired from reading, and formal instruction also makes a small contribution. Actual writing, however, can lead to cognitive development: writing helps problem-solving and "makes you smarter" (e.g. Elbow, 1975). For this to happen there must be a real problem to be solved.

Pedagogical implications

We were able to account for about 40% of the variability in grades using only a small set of predictors. This suggests that we can have a substantial effect on the development of writing by focusing on increasing reading, teaching the basics of the composing process, and reducing apprehension. The results also suggest that increasing writing per se will not have a positive impact on writing development.

Research on reading suggests that a great deal of reading over a long period of time is necessary in order for reading to have a significant effect on writing (Krashen, 1993). It takes a great deal of input to absorb the conventions of writing. Thus, a few "model essays" will not have a substantial impact on writing quality.

Our results confirm suggestions that writers should delay issues of form until the final editing stage of the composing process. Perhaps the most important aspect of teaching writing is convincing students that revision is a powerful means of coming up with new ideas, that in writing, "meaning is not what you start out with but what you end up with" (Elbow, 1975, p. 15). When writers focus excessively and prematurely on grammar and word choice, and do not focus on matters of content and organization in revision, they miss the opportunity for new learning and new insights.

It is a safe recommendation that teachers should attempt to reduce anxiety, but it is unclear precisely what aspects of writing apprehension predict better performance in writing classes. A look at the questions in the writing apprehension questionnaire reveals some likely candidates: As noted earlier, several questions dealt with a fear of evaluation when writing in academic situations. This suggests that writing and evaluation of writing in school situations can place a great deal of pressure on student writers and can hurt their progress, a suggestion supported by Power, Cook and Meyer (1979), who reported an increase in writing apprehension among students after they took a composition class. At least some aspects of writing appear to improve when there is less pressure, e.g. the process of coming up with new ideas ("incubation"; see Krashen, 2001). As Smith (1994) notes, "composition is not enhanced by grim determination" (p. 131).