An Empirical Study of Writing Instruction Focusing on Cohesion and Coherence in Reference to Motivation for Learning English

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02811
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Asahikawa National College of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Tomoki 旭川工業高等専門学校, 一般人文科, 教授 (70342441)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 沢谷 佑輔 旭川工業高等専門学校, 一般人文科, 准教授 (10733438)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: ライティング / 動機づけ / cohesion / coherence / 個人差要因

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This longitudinal study explored the effects of writing instruction focusing on cohesion and coherence on the quality of novice EFL learners’ expository writing, in relation to individual learner differences such as motivation toward English learning, writing anxiety, writing strategy use, and L2 proficiency. The participants were 94 Grade 12 Kosen students attending a semi-writing-focused English course. The research instruments were questionnaires, a standardized proficiency test, and two take-home paragraph writing tasks, each of which was evaluated by three raters for its overall quality and coherence.
Contrary to expectations, the results showed no significant improvement in scales in motivation, overall quality, coherence, and writing anxiety. The only immediate effects observed were the participants’ more careful use of “global planning” and their improved self-efficacy in writing, the latter of which was supported by the answers to an open-ended retrospective survey.

Free Research Field

英語教育