Second Language Writers’ Strategy Use and Performance on an Integrated Reading‐Listening‐Writing Task

Abstract

Integrated writing tasks that involve different language modalities such as reading and listening have increasingly been used as means to assess academic writing. Thus, there is a need for understanding how test-takers coordinate different skills to complete these tasks. This study explored second language writers' strategy use and its relationship to test performance on an integrated reading-listeningwriting test task using a structural equation modeling approach. The results reveal that integrated writing strategy use was a multifaceted construct consisting of three factors: self-regulatory strategy use (SELFS), discourse synthesis strategy use (DSS), and "test-wiseness" strategy use (TWS). SELFS had an executive control over other types of strategy use. DSS had a direct, positive impact on test performance, and TWS had a direct, negative impact on test performance. The study suggests that the task requires not only comprehension and production abilities, but also regulation skills for managing reading, listening, and writing interactions. The findings provide insight into the nature of integrated reading-listening-writing tasks and contribute to validity arguments for the test. The study has implications for second language academic writing assessment, learning, and instruction.

Causal Relationships between Integrative Motivation, Self-Efficacy, Strategy Use and English Language Achievement

“…This finding is supported by a large number of studies conducted previously (Cesur 2011, Dreyer & Oxford 1996, Yang & Plakans 2012. Therefore, using learning strategies should be encouraged in L2 classes.…”

“…Using learning strategies influences how well students learn another language and helps to promote language achievement (Hsaio & Oxford 2002). In their studies on the effect of language learning strategy use on students' English achievement, Cesur (2011), Dreyer and Oxford (1996) and Yang and Plakans (2012) concluded that compared with less proficient students, more proficient ones utilised more learning strategies. Hence, it is hypothesised in this study that strategy use has a direct effect on English achievement.…”

Evaluation by Native and Non-Native English Teacher-Raters of Japanese Students’ Summaries

“…Among these skills, paraphrasing is commonly quite difficult for EFL learners, although it has received little attention as a research topic. L2 summary writing has been investigated from various perspectives, such as by examining the use of strategies (Johns, 1985), the role of constructs (Asención-Delaney, 2008;Baba, 2009), composition processes (Plakans, 2008), and the relationship between strategy use and the end product in summary writing (Yang & Plakans, 2012). Some empirical studies have also been published that address paraphrasing among NNESs (e.g., Keck, 2006Keck, , 2014.…”

An investigation of integrative and independent listening test tasks in a computerised academic English test

“…test takers tend to demonstrate high-level cognitive processes, such as reformulating and reproducing information (Frost, Elder & Wigglesworth, 2012), and other regulation skills for managing reading, listening, and writing interactions (Yang & Plakans, 2012). In investigating the two types of computerized PTE Academic integrative skills tasks, Rukthong and Brunfaut (2015) also found that their participants had reported more 'lower-level processes' (input decoding and syntactic parsing) than 'higher-level processes' (such as structural building and integrating/linking pieces of information).…”