The dimensions of written expression: Language group and gender differences

Babayiğit, Selma

Abstract

© 2014. This study compared the written expression of 159 English-speaking first (L1) and second language (L2) learners (Mage=9; 7 years, SD=3.63 months) in England The L1 learners outperformed their L2 peers on the four dimensions of written expression, namely holistic quality, written vocabulary, organisational quality, and compositional fluency. Girls also outperformed boys on all dimensions, except for organisation. The interaction between language group and gender was nonsignificant, but there was a trend for the language group differences to be larger for boys. Vocabulary, organisation, and compositional fluency made unique contributions to holistic quality in both language groups and the strength of these relations were relatively comparable across the L1 and L2 groups. Educational implications are discussed.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 12, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Sep 30, 2014
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 26, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 30, 2016
• Journal: Learning and Instruction
• Print ISSN: 0959-4752
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 35
• Pages: 33-41
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.08.006
• Keywords: English as an additional language, bilingual, text writing, vocabulary, compositional fluency, spelling, multigroup path analysis
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/838784
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.08.006
• Additional Information: Additional Information : NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Learning and Instruction. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Learning and Instruction, [35, (February 2015)] DOI: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.08.006
• Contract Date: Mar 2, 2016