Promoting confidence in writing in a course of english for specific purposes for library information science students

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(1)PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. Faculty of Education English Language Department. Promoting Confidence in Writing in a Course of English for Specific Purposes for Library Information Science Students An Action Research Project. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Teaching English as a Foreign Language By Marcela Palominos Ancamil Thesis Tutor: Stephen Darwin. Universidad Alberto Hurtado. January, 2017. |1.

(2) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |2. Abstract The intended research project is to be undertaken at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, a private university located in Santiago, Chile. The project focuses on one course of English for Specific Purposes in the area of Library Information Science. This piece of work specifically explores writing in an EFL university context, addressing an issue related to confidence faced by a group of students in a course of English when developing writing tasks. In order to promote students’ confidence in their writing skills, a use of a formative assessment strategy was be introduced as an intervention. Research data that informed the process of action research was generated by a survey, collection of students’ written artefacts, and observation field notes. Outcomes of the intervention indicated that learners’ confidence in their writing skills play a key role in their sense of achievement, and determines the actions learners follow to complete a writing task. In order to address the issue, an intervention was designed that followed three stages. First, a strategy of free writing was included, in which learners developed a paragraph responding to a prompt given, followed by an instance of sharing learners work and receiving comments. Next, learners’ were required to reflect on the comments and correct and complete their work. After limitations encountered, further conclusions of the study include recommendations for further actions on future courses of the same program. Keywords: self-efficacy, action research, English for Specific Purposes, Library Information Science, writing, English as a Foreign Language,.

(3) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |3. Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………2 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………..3 a. Statement of the Problem…………………………………………………………………….5 b. Research Context…………………………………………………………………………….6 c. Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………………………7 Research Question……………………………………………………………………………………8 Description of the Research Approach……………………………………………………………….8 Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………………….9 Methods Employed……………………………………………………………………………….....14 a. Participants…………………………………………………………………………………..14 b. Data Collection……………………………………………………………………………....14 Results……………………………………………………………………………………………….17 a. Data Results and Analysis…………………………………………………………………...17 Intervention…………………………………………………………………………………………..22 a. Design of Intervention……………………………………………………………………….22 Results of Intervention……………………………………………………………………………....24 a. Stage 1……………………………………………………………………………………….24 b. Stage 2…………………………………………………………………………………….....24 c. Stage 3……………………………………………………………………………………….25 d. Limitations…………………………………………………………………………………..25 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………..26 a. Conclusions and Recommendations………………………………………………………...26 References…………………………………………………………………………………………..28.

(4) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS Appendices………………………………………………………………………………………….29. |4.

(5) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |5. Introduction a. Statement of the problem Learners in Library Information Science program at Universidad Alberto Hurtado manifested difficulties and anxiety when faced with writing tasks. According to Weigle (2002), there is a variety of situations for which second or foreign language learners might need to use an L2 to write, and mostly adult traditional foreign language learners tend to aim at the need to have academic language skills for educational and/or job enhancement or interest (Weigle, 2002). In this sense, developing learners’ productive skills (especially writing) is essentially significant to complete their professional training as information specialists, since their profession is not only framed in international standards of information management, but it also requires them to be able to communicate either orally or in writing with other international institutions related to their area for different purposes, according to the Library Information Science program description available at Universidad Alberto Hurtado’s website (Gestión de Información, n. d.). However, the difficulties faced by learners were manifested through negative attitudes towards writing tasks and persistent discouragement to write. In addition, the researcher (who was also their teacher) observed that learners would have constant L1 (Spanish) interference in their writings (i.e. Spanish written structures instead of English written structures, e.g using a noun followed by an adjective). Moreover, there was a tendency on behalf of the learners to write drafts in L1 to then use translation techniques, either mentally or using online resources in order to complete the task. On these grounds, Newson (1988) suggests that using translation might be detrimental when learning a language, and mentions four disadvantages: a. learners tend to think in L1 and encourages transfer to L2, b. it is detrimental for both instructor and learner since they cannot work with only one language, c. it creates a misconception about how languages work, creating a belief that they accurately correlate to each other, and d. it complicates achievement in communicative language learning general terms..

(6) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |6. Translation, then, was perceived as yet another sign of the difficulties experienced by the learners. Within feedback sessions, students would comment on how difficult it was for them to write in English; for the researcher, this was very confusing to understand since the learners were about to undertake their last course of English in their program, and they had previously approved three courses, for which it was considered that learners had reached a somewhat low-intermediate level of English. For this reason, it was highly interesting to explore the reasons hindering learners’ performance, and how they could be dealt with. At the time, learners were almost finishing their penultimate course of English. At the beginning of the following course (English IV), the problem arose again, providing the researcher the opportunity to further explore the problem through an action research project. Therefore, developing writing for Library Information Science learners at Universidad Alberto Hurtado follow specific academic or job-related purposes. b. Research Context The context for this research project was one in which English is taught as a foreign language. Specifically, the project took place at Universidad Alberto Hurtado (UAH), a private university located in Santiago, Chile. The institution has recognized the relevance and benefits of learning English at a tertiary level due to the fact that key learning sources in the areas of Social Sciences, Business and Economics, among others are mostly available in the English language. Furthermore, benefits of learning a foreign language at a tertiary level are linked to possible better job opportunities and further professional development are widely mentioned at most exit profiles of the institution. For this reason, UAH has developed a program within the English Department, which designs courses of TEFL from an English for Specific Purposes approach (ESP). These courses are designed for a variety of programs at the university; according to its webpage (Facultades y Carreras Universidad Alberto Hurtado, 2017), 9 study programs have at least one mandatory English course in their curricular plans, among them: Antropología, Arqueología, Geografía, Gestión de Información Bibliotecológica y Archivística,.

(7) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |7. Ingeniería Comercial, Educación Básica, Educación Parvularia, Pedagogía en Biología, Pedagogía en Matemáticas. From the aforementioned programs, the researcher of this project was the teacher of the course English IV in Gestión de Información Bibliotecológica y Archivística (also referred to as Library Information Science in the following sections), for which the study focuses on issues identified in that particular context. The course was held for the period of three months. c. Purpose of The Study Exploring the topic of writing at a tertiary level in courses of English for Specific Purposes can be of benefit for the learning community in which this study takes place, given that the ESP program has been under constant development and innovation, without the opportunity to generate studies about pedagogical issues in its own context. It was therefore seen as potentially fruitful to generate evidence of the problems and possible courses of action in one of the courses of English taught by this program. Additionally, teachers who are part of the ESP Program and students undertaking other courses of ESP could benefit from the results of the study, given that the development of writing skills at a tertiary level has been raising constant concerns in the broader institutional context and the ESP Program specifically. Developing writing is one of the key learning objectives of most courses of English held at the university. This is due to the fact that most study programs at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, who take courses of ESP, consider English as a tool for their future professionals. According to the Program the participants belonged to, for example, it is expected from them to manage an intermediate level of English by the end of their undergraduate studies (Gestión de Información, n. d.), for which they have four courses of English included in their curricular plan..

(8) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |8. Research Question The action research project reported here sought to respond to the following questions: a) what specific problems do learners encounter while developing writing tasks, and b) what specific writing strategies could be used to promote and develop students’ writing? These questions seek to focus on an emergent concern in learners’ attitudes when developing writing tasks, and exploring if there is a specific strategy that could address the most relevant problem faced by learners, in order to contribute to their language learning in an EFL context. It is relevant to note that the research question generates a null hypothesis: implementing a strategy to promote learners confidence will not necessarily promote writing skill. Description of the Research Approach This work was designed as an action research. There are many definitions of action research, but this study will follow the one put forward by Cohen and Manion’s, (as cited in Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2005, p. 244 ), where they define action research as “a small scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an intervention”. Additionally, it is relevant to mention that this type of research “involves practitioners in studying their own professional practice and framing their own questions. Their research has the immediate goal to assess, develop or improve their practice.” (Zeni, 1998, p. 13). This approach might differ from other types of research yet it might share characteristics from quantitative and qualitative research (Tomal, 2003). Thus, an action research approach enables professionals –in this case teachers- to generate inquiries about their own practice, about topics that emerge from such context, in order to make interventions that might contribute to the improvement of such practices. Simply stated, it provides the opportunity to blend theory and practice by –in this case, educational- practitioners to focus on developing issues..

(9) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |9. Following this approach, data was collected using a survey, observation field notes, and artefacts in order to identify what specific difficulties learners perceived in writing tasks. The survey was analysed descriptively, and observations field notes along with artefacts were analysed thematically. These were triangulated to ensure a further sense making of the data. Participants of the study are a teacher –who is also the researcher-, and 23 students from Library Information Science, undertaking a course of English for Specific Purposes, at Universidad Alberto Hurtado. From the results of the data generated, an action plan was designed and implemented and discussed. Ethical concerns were considered, given that the study implies gathering data from people within an educational institution. Therefore, following indications established by the University in regards to ethics, a letter –in Spanish- requesting permission to conduct this action research was handed in to the Director of the English for Specific Purposes Program, which was successfully approved (see Appendix 1). Next, it was utterly important to ask students for their informed consent regarding their involvement in the study. Accordingly, a letter was written in Spanish informing participants of the aim of the research, their voluntary participation and anonymity during the course of the study, data collection and the confidential characteristics of it, and ensuring their rights to abandon the study voluntarily at any time (see Appendix 2). Literature Review In order to contextualize the present action research proposal, it is relevant to make a reference and characterize literature on English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is significant to have a common ground on what ESP is, since this has framed the current context in which the participants are immersed in. Hutchinson & Waters (1987) attempted to define ESP courses as “an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning” (p. 19). Similarly, Crystal (2003) observes that ESP can be understood as ‘a course whose.

(10) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |10. content is determined by the professional needs of the learner’. Therefore, it can be concluded that ESP courses are usually designed to address the specific question of why does the learner need to learn the foreign language. Consequently, ESP will take into consideration the specific needs of the learners, the contents, and the assessment accordingly. Generally, in ESP courses students have a limited time devoted to their learning of the target language, so they should be provided of as much learning opportunities as possible. In the current context, the present course in which the study is framed has been designed from this approach, having learners develop their language skills according to what their Program needs. Thus, the writing skill is of relevant importance to the students given that they will have to face instances of preparing written texts in their area of expertise, as noted in the previous statement of the problem. Writing in a foreign language is considered part of the outcome that comes from learning English at different levels, and allows for independence in the target language, and further communication within speakers. According to the Council of Europe (2001), students should be able to produce clear and detailed written texts at an A2-B1 level. Writing is of paramount importance to students involved in this study, given that their profession implies communication with libraries around the world, which will indeed allow them to be better prepared to overcome different challenges in their area. In addition, achieving an intermediate level of English proficiency is a requirement on their program. According to Nation (2009), there are principles that can be followed to make sure that students have enough opportunities for learning and producing writing tasks in ESL/EFL contexts. One of these is meaning-focused input, in which the learner can better make sense of writing if personal experience and knowledge is brought to writing tasks. Another principle is meaning-focused output, in which learners are expected to experience different types of writing with different conventions, and the output learners produce should be based on and encourage their interests or related significance. A third.

(11) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |11. principle is language-focused learning, in which learners should be aware of the different process in writing, and plenty of feedback should be provided. This principle is relevant given that learners can benefit from identifying weaknesses or strengths in their progress if they are drawn to them. A following principle is fluency development, which basically refers to the fact that learners should develop a speed of writing through repetitive tasks. Confidence in writing is a rather abstract theme to explore, given that it deals with variable notions and perceptions of individuals. However, confidence has been explored cognitively in social sciences as well as its relation to ones’ attitudes or sense of achievement, and it is referred to as selfefficacy. The concept of self-efficacy comes from Bandura’s social cognitive theory, in which is defined as the beliefs of a person in regards to his or her ability to complete a task and the level of competence at the time of performing a task (Bandura, 1977) Thus, self-efficacy can define the way in which a person commonly think, feels and self-motivate to behave. The feeling of being able to complete a task trusting our own skills permeates every learning experience, allowing us to believe we can face challenges and overcome them. Self-efficacy, then, can have an impact of facilitating or hindering learning processes (Bandura, 1984). Within English language learning, it is of paramount importance for the learner to have a sense of achievement in order to develop his or her language skills, since writing is considered a process for which there are different models both that look at internal and external aspects of the writer (Weigle, 2002); following what has been described earlier on selfefficacy, internal aspects play a key role in learners’ sense of achievement. For example, if we look at Krashen’s (1988) affective filter hypothesis, there are variables that play relevant roles of facilitating learning in second language acquisition. These variables include motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety, for which he claims that having these variables with positive attributes, learners may have better opportunities for success in language learning (Krashen, 1988). Bandura (1997) emphasises that self-efficacy beliefs are stronger and more influential in predicting academic success than the abilities.

(12) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |12. the person actually has. In other words, these ideas help us understand that in EFL contexts, if learners have a high sense of believing that they will fulfil different tasks, then they will be able to do it in spite of the amount of mistakes they can make to achieve it. In order to promote a sense of self-efficacy, Bandura’s (1977) suggests that four sources of information should be understood: vicarious experiences (through others’ performance, a person can develop high or low sense of self-efficacy), physiological states (anxiety, fatigue, stress, among other physiological or affective can derive in positive or negative reaction influencing self-efficacy), performance outcomes (how a person interprets past experiences can influence positively or negatively in current performance), and verbal persuasion (the way in which a person interprets appraisals) (Bandura, 1977). In light of what has been explained of self-efficacy and teaching writing, within teaching there is a core element that helps scaffolding processes and enable teachers to assess what a learner is producing. This element is called assessment. This project aims at finding strategies through which learners’ confidence in writing can be promoted; strategies are better understood from the perspective of formative assessment, for which it is pertinent to this study, given that it enables different instances of development at different stages of the learning process, allowing learners to familiarize with their competences through time. Following, I will further explain what assessment is and how can be considered to this study. Assessment has been defined by Bachman (2004) as “a process of collecting information about something that we are interested in, according to procedures that are systematic and substantially grounded”. Such procedure helps teachers understand the reality of classroom in several ways, depending on the purpose of the assessment, which could be namely knowing if students are achieving the objectives, if the teaching methods used in the classroom are appropriate for learners, if students are facing difficulties with a specific issue regarding language, to name but a few. Generally, institutions focus on specific summative assessment, in order to identify students’ accomplishment;.

(13) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |13. such type of assessment is often employed to compare and contrast students’ proficiency in regards to the target language among them. However, formative assessment enables to use assessment procedures that support the construction of a wide variety of learning opportunities for students to truly understand the process by which they are going through, and identify which are the difficulties they face that are hindering or impeding their learning. According to the Council of Chief State School Officers (2008) “formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes” (p. 3). In other words, assessments become formative once the teacher interprets and uses the evidence provided by students to adjust what is being done in the classroom so as to increase learning possibilities for students and meeting their particular needs. It has been demonstrated that formative assessment can, undeniably, contribute to an increase in students’ learning. Within the present study, formative assessment opportunities seem to be beneficial to the development of self-efficacy, given that it allows students to go through processes without academic achievement pressures..

(14) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |14. Methods Employed a. Participants As noted in the introduction, this action research project reported here was conducted at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, located in Santiago, Chile. The respondents involved were a teacher, who was at the same time the researcher, and 23 Chilean students enrolled in Gestión de Información Bibliotecológica y Archivística program at Universidad Alberto Hurtado. The researcher teacher had been teaching at the University for three years, being part of the English for Specific Purposes Program (which is in charge of designing courses of English for different programs at the University), and had taught English courses to students from the aforementioned program 5 times. At the time of the study, all of the students were taking a course of English which corresponds to the last course of the whole study program, being four in total (English I, English II, English III, English IV). The course lasted only three months, and it was scheduled to start on August 2016, having two consecutive modules per week (2 hours and 40 minutes in total per week) on the same day (Tuesday). Their program lasts 10 semesters (5 years in total). English courses are taught from first to fourth semester. Therefore, the majority of the students listed in this course were taking their fourth semester of their program, yet there were 5 who were on their eight semester, as an exception. Thus, respondents’ age ranged from 18 to 22 years old. The participants came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, and they managed a low-intermediate level of English, having approved three courses of English of English in their curricular plan. b. Data collection Based on the research question of the study, the first step was to identify in what stage of the writing process learners from ESP English IV course were experiencing difficulties at the time of participating in writing tasks. Therefore, three data sources were considered..

(15) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |15. First, learners’ perspective of the problem was gathered through a group survey, using an instrument which consisted of a questionnaire of 27 closed-ended questions (see Appendix 3), applied at the middle of the course period, for a period of two and a half weeks. The survey would help to narrow down specific difficulties encountered by the group of learners, shedding lights on learners’ problems in such process. Consequently, the survey was divided into four sections. The first section included questions related to general aspects that explored attitudes towards English and writing tasks in the course. The second section included questions that aimed at identify before writing actions, which dealt with small steps the student does or does not follow before writing. The third section included questions aiming at while writing actions in order to explore what the student does at the time of writing an assignment. The final section was “after writing actions”, that dealt with actions students might do or not after they had finished their written assignments. Tomal (2003), refers to surveys as one of the most common and advantageous methods used in action research, given that they allow to gather answers, which mostly relate to opinions or beliefs and facts. Unlike focus groups, a survey would permit to collect answers of most learners in an entire classroom of students. In terms of practicality, it was utterly difficult in the context of the study to ask learners to participate in interviews or focus groups, given that there was only one opportunity in which the researcher had contact with participants, which was during class time. As mentioned earlier, the researcher was also the teacher of the course, being able to see them on Tuesdays, from 10.00 to 12.50. Considering that the course lasted only three months -divided into three units-, and that each class was scheduled for each Tuesday, learners had only four days of class per unit before unit assessment. Due to this, using an entire lesson or part of a lesson to conduct interviews was risky and detrimental to the course planning. Furthermore, contacting learners outside class time was not possible, since they participated of courses in which they had to attend libraries and information centers four days a week as part of their professional practices, in addition to part-time jobs which most of participants had. Considering that the instrument considered.

(16) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |16. closed-ended questions, the survey was decided to be presented following descriptive statistics. According to Tomal (2003), descriptive statistics are one of the most common methods of analysis in action research, and it “refers to the use of visual graphics, charts, diagrams, and basic mathematics to describe data” (p. 86). The survey was applied through an online web survey manager, Google Forms1. This survey manager allowed to gather participants answers online, for a period of two and a half weeks. It is relevant to mention that learners took longer to respond, leading to an extension in the period of retrieval. Several reminders were sent in the form of an email to learners, and through further oral requests in classes. Out of 23 potential participants, the survey received 20 responses in total. Second, observation field notes were considered to relevant to understand learners’ actions in their writing process, at the time of developing a writing task. These field notes were taken by the researcher during class time, while learners engaged in tasks from the lesson being taught at the post stage of it. In order to strengthen the quality of the data, observations were done in two opportunities, each lasting 30 minutes (see Appendix 5). Benefits from these observations are to have a look at what learners actually do when involved at a writing task from the perspective of a professional. According to (Cohen, Manion, Morrison, & Bell (2005), observations provide opportunities to look at events that happen in situ, and gather data from developing situations, and they permit researchers to notice things that participants could omit when answering opinion related-questions, such as those in a survey. For that reason, this data can then be contrasted to what survey responses. Observation field notes were developed naturalistically, in which the researcher participated as a teacher, writing down what learners did while developing a writing task. However, learners were aware of the researcher role of their teacher from the beginning of the study.. 1. Www.google.com/forms.

(17) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |17. Third, learners’ artefacts were collected. Artefacts consist of any work produced by students (Pappas & Tucker-Raymond, 2011). The artefacts collected correspond to abstracts written by learners during a writing task, in which they had to describe a project that provided solutions to a problem in the community in regards to ICT (Information Communication Technologies). These artefacts were written by learners in groups of two to three, for which 12 were collected. The focus of considering these artefacts is to see learners’ written production through the feedback provided by the teacher to each piece of work (see Appendix 4). Both field notes and artefacts were analysed using thematic coding, focusing on repeated patterns emerged, using coding to organize the information gathered. Due to the qualitative nature of the field notes and artefacts, the coding system was decided from the data gathered. A process of triangulation was made, using results from all three data sources, which enabled the researcher to infer and identify what were the specific writing difficulties faced by learners during writing tasks. Data Results and Analysis In general terms, the results showed that 55% of the respondents (11) acknowledge to sometimes feel confident when writing in English, while only 25% (5) do it most times, there is, however, a significant 20% (4) learners who manifest to never feel confident at the time of writing. These answers provide possible reasons as to why learners face some difficulties. The fact that most of them do not feel confident might explain further actions they take when involved in writing activities. Indeed, from observation field notes, it was pointed out that learners manifested to experience challenges in 6 opportunities When asked about what type of difficulties learners find most problematic, there was a higher frequency in vocabulary (19%), followed by grammar (16%), and then by sentence structure (13%). All three of them are seem to be significant for students in contrast with the other low frequency selections, as illustrated in the following frequency table..

(18) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS Answer. Responses. Share. Organization of ideas. 10. 10 / 86 = 12%. Vocabulary. 16. 16 / 86 = 19%. Grammar. 14. 14 / 86 = 16%. Sentence structure. 11. 11 / 86 = 13%. Paragraph organization. 7. 7 / 86 = 8%. Linking words. 7. 7 / 86 = 8%. Spelling. 7. 7 / 86 = 8%. Punctuation. 4. 4 / 86 = 5%. Responsiveness to topic. 9. 9 / 86 = 10%. Other. 1. 1 / 86 = 1%. TOTAL. 86. 100%. |18. Table n° 1 – Common difficulties faced by learners in writing. Higher frequency in vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure can be interpreted as acknowledging to consciously have difficulties in these matters, while it can also explain why learners do not feel confident in the target language. As well, it is observed from artefacts that problems in the category of language regularly appeared. Most language errors indicated by the teacher related to word choice, verb tense, subject-verb agreement, and so on. To illustrate, it is worth mentioning that the teacher feedback signalled or corrected these types of grammar related mistakes several times. It can be inferred that learners seem to focus on their proficiency in the language, but they still make mistakes. At the time of doing writing activities in the class, the majority of participants (80%) mention that they mostly take into consideration methods provided by the teacher and complement them with their own methods to write. Only 15% said to only use methods provided by the teacher. In this question, “methods” referrer to the series of steps recommended to be followed in order to develop the.

(19) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |19. writing skill in an EFL context, by literature in teaching writing that EFL teachers usually follow. Following personal methods is expected from students, however it raises the question of what are the steps of those methods and if they help or hinder their writing process. A relevant question was asked regarding if the learners usually think in their native language first when involved in a writing activity. A considerable 65% of participants manifested to do it most times, while 30% acknowledge that they sometimes think in L1. Only 5% (1 participant) said that he never thinks in L1 at the time of writing. The results from this question mostly confirms an assumption expected in an EFL context, in which the mother tongue plays a relevant role in the cognitive process of learners. 60% (12) of participants (consistent with the previous question) also manifested that at the time of writing, they most times do it in L1 first, meaning that instead of writing using their immediate knowledge of English, they start the process in Spanish. Only 20% (4) recognize that they do this sometimes, but there is an equal 20% who say to never start writing in L1 doing it only in L2. Again, this also raises the question of why would learners that have had four courses of English start writing in Spanish when involved in writing tasks. It seems that there is a connection between this behaviour and the difficulties they expressed to go through which relate to proficiency. It can be inferred that learners are worried about their proficiency in the language in written text, for which they prefer to use translation. Consistent with what learners mentioned, artefact analysis showed that teacher feedback included comments related to Spanish expressions or transfer. When asked about what learning resources participants most frequently use at the time of involving themselves in writing tasks, three were markedly highlighted by them. In the first place, online translators are the resources with the higher 32% frequency of choice, followed by dictionaries with 28%. In addition, online checkers (the ones that check possible grammar errors, vocabulary.

(20) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |20. frequency, or use of sentences, among others2) were selected with 26% of frequency as seen in the following table n° 2. Answers. Responses. Share. Dictionaries. 14. 14 / 50 = 28%. Thesaurus. 5. 5 / 50 = 10%. Online translators. 16. 16 / 50 = 32%. Online. 13. 13 / 50 = 26%. None. 1. 1 / 50 = 2%. Other. 1. 1 / 50 = 2%. TOTAL. 50. grammar/vocabulary/structure checkers. 100%. Table n° 2 – Online Resources used by learners when writing. From this data, inferences regarding how learners face to writing tasks or mix personal and teacher methods to write can be made. If learners worry about their proficiency, they start writing in their L1, use translators to maybe make sure to check if the vocabulary they are using is the right one, and they check with online checkers. From observation field notes, it was noted that learners showed to make use of resources, either dictionaries or translators, through smartphones. It was also relevant to dig into another question from the survey, which aimed at identifying if learners considered instructions given when they were involved in writing tasks. To this question, 70% of participants responded that they consider the instructions most times, while 30% do it sometimes. From this, it can be inferred that learners are indeed worry about what they have to do in a task in order. 2. www.paperrater.com is an example of online checkers..

(21) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |21. to respond to it. So they do not have problems understanding what they have to do, but problems with the production they should submit. When observed, most learners required instances of clarification requirements, asking about guidance in order to write according to instructions. Additionally, artefacts showed that learners responded to instructions since content seemed to be consistent through learners’ samples. According to annotations from the teacher, most learners’ writing responded to the content of the task in general terms. Next, in a question regarding if learners discussed their ideas with others when writing, 60% manifested to do it only sometimes, 25% said to do it most times, and solely 15% mentioned that they never share what they are writing. As well, field notes identified that in spite of this, learners required feedback mostly from teacher, but also from peers. Finally, a representative question from the survey regarding confidence when expressing ideas in English, showed that the majority of learners (70%) only sometimes feel confident about what they are expressing in their writing, only 15% assure that they feel confident most times, and 15% say they never feel confident about their ideas in the target language. Confidence, again, in their production seems to me low. Further questions arise from the analysed data, however, it arises the inference that the main issue learners are experiencing is in the first stage of their writing, related to self confidence in their approach to writing. If learners do not trust themselves, maybe this could explain why they tend to mostly write in L1 and use translation methods. From artefacts, in regards to communication of ideas, it was identified that some learners were more effective communicating ideas than others. Most problems in this area are considered to have their roots in L1 transfer or interference, for some of them seem similar to Spanish structures, as noted by teacher comments. However, there might be other reasons such as learning development-. There is no way to know exactly the reasons behind these disruptions in the delivery of ideas without asking the authors..

(22) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |22. From these results and analysis, issues regarding the way in which learners face writing tasks emerge. Learners actions when writing seem to respond basically to their own confidence in the language, and the way in which they struggle to reach proficiency. When writing, students tend to think in their L1, and write in their L1 first, to then use resources to translate what they have written. These actions are reflected in written works that include L1 expressions or transfer not expected at their English level. Even though, some learners socialize their work with the teacher or peers, it is perceived that what hinders their further development are the actions they undertake at the beginning of their writing process. Despite the fact that learners rely on learning resources (such as dictionaries, online writing checkers, or translators), most of them are unsure about their writing outcomes and struggle to make sense of what they have written. Therefore, given this uncertainty, most learners experience low confidence in their use of English in writing tasks, which derives mostly on translation methods. The major inference that can be drawn is that learners’ low proficiency beliefs and lack of confidence in their linguistic abilities hinder the entire process of writing. As a result, the first research question raised from the study will consider this issue as the foremost relevant one to be addressed in order to design an intervention with a strategy that helps learners gain confidence in their own skills. Design of intervention After analysing the data and identifying the main problem hindering learners writing, literature was consulted. The problem seemed to be consistent with issues related to learners’ perceptions of confidence. The literature reviewed on this issues aim at these being related to notions of self-efficacy beliefs in writing. Therefore, after consulting the literature regarding the topic, a possible intervention was designed. To begin with, a useful strategy of guided free writing (Nation, 2009) was considered, which would allow learners to focus on one prompt from a familiar topic (in this case, from the unit) and write their thoughts on it, for a limited amount of time set by the teacher. Learners would have to respond to the prompt in the target language, with no time to prepare a pre-written text in L1, hence.

(23) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |23. encouraging them to produce in English using their knowledge of the language. The strategy was divided into three steps, each of them based on three of four sources of information outlined by Bandura (1977) that individuals employ to judge their efficacy: performance outcomes, verbal persuasion, and vicarious experiences. First, learners would be faced with the prompt after the necessary exposure outlined by Nation (2009) during pre and while stage of the lesson, having explored the topic and becoming familiar to it. They would have to write responding to the prompt for a period of 20 minutes. During this time, they were encouraged to solely have a stream of consciousness. Then, after the 20 minutes had passed, they had to exchange their work with a classmate in order to read each other’s work and provide comments on it. The teacher did not specify which type of comments were supposed to be given, but encouraged learners to provide comments on meaning rather than on accuracy. After this, learners were asked to give their work back to their authors and read the comments. This instance would provide learners with the verbal persuasion from peers and vicarious experiences from reading others’ written work, which could benefit their self-efficacy by looking at classmates’ written performances Then, the third step was to read the comments, decide if the piece of writing needed to be modified, or if they should add more information. This stage would provide participants to have performance outcomes, which if positive it would influence their ability to perform in this specific type of task. According to Bandura (1977), if the experience is positive, then the person would be more likely to feel capable and perform better at similar tasks. After the intervention, learners were asked to respond to three questions regarding their experience and the level they felt in their writing skills after each stage. This intervention was implemented during only one instance. Unfortunately, the lesson that was scheduled for intervention presented limitations, given that learners spent too much time in the while stage of the lesson. However, a second opportunity for intervention was still possible, and when performed only 12 learners were present, out of 23 participants..

(24) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |24. Results from Intervention a. Stage 1 In the first stage, when learners undertook the guided free writing task, their responses to it varied. Of the participating students, 34% (4) felt that their level of confidence was high, commenting that they still stopped to correct some mistakes, and that they recognized that the vocabulary had been introduced throughout the unit for which they remembered it. Another 33% (4) commented that their level of confidence when writing the task was medium, providing reasons related to poor accuracy. Finally, 33% (4) manifested to have a low confidence level in their work in this stage, explaining that could not write as fluently as they wanted, having to stop to look words on the dictionary, or having doubts on their accuracy. All of the results in this stage are evidently similar, therefore it can only be inferred that learners faced limited time to write and respond, for which some of them were prepared and others were not, having difficulties with their production in the target language. Writing selfefficacy then was low for some and high for others. b. Stage 2 In regards to the second stage of the intervention, learners exchanged their work and wrote comments on each other’s’ pieces of writing, for 10 minutes. 42% (5) commented that the experience of having comments from peers was positive, explaining that they realized they could write better than expected, and that were able to understand their classmates ideas and correct or help them, which contributed to a perception of higher confidence; then, 25% (3) said to feel a medium level of confidence, because of the comments received, and given that they felt they were not able to see what to correct in the classmate’s piece of writing. Finally, 33% (4) of learners had a low sense of confidence, explaining that they did not feel prepared to provide comments on their classmates given their lack of training in feedback, or perceiving that the classmate work was better than theirs.

(25) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |25. c. Stage 3 Finally, in the final stage learners writing self-confidence seemed to have increased. 58% (7) said that they felt highly confident on their writing after the previous process, since comments received were aimed at organization, others mentioned that having realized that a classmate was able to understand what they wrote was positive, and others explained that just receiving comments was good for them while also being able to identify their mistakes. Following, 25% (3) felt a medium sense of confidence, commenting that they continued with the same text but feeling with more confidence that at the first stage, realizing that they could not do it alone as they would like, and recognizing flaws in regards to accuracy. Only 17% (2) felt that their sense of confidence did not increase or decrease due to a lack of comments on their writing. d. Limitations As characterized of an action research approach, in which theory and practice come together to address issues or emergent concerns in contexts such as the educational one, there are always limitations for these actions. In the context of this study, time was the most relevant constrain. Considering that the course lasted only three months, and the study identified the most relevant issue faced by learners towards the end of the second month, the opportunities for consistent intervention were very limited. The intervention was designed to be applied in at least 3 sessions, however, towards the end of the course, learners would take too much time completing class activities, leaving no room for intervention. During the second attempt, learners did not attend the lesson, due to assessments in other subjects. Finally, when the intervention was able to be applied, only 52% of the participants attended (12/23), and after this session, the course was already on exam period, for which the intervention was only able to be performed once. For these reasons, results on the intervention might show only a portion of its intended outcomes..

(26) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |26. Conclusions and Further Recommendations Some implications that a possible intervention as the one proposed are that an environment that promotes a higher sense of learners writing self-efficacy beliefs could be developed, while also guiding them to further develop their writing skills proficiently. Additionally, learners could be encouraged to develop an awareness of their self-efficacy levels that could be followed by the teacher and themselves, in order to observe if higher confidence impacts on the use of L2 in writing tasks. Furthermore, achievement could be influenced positively through a higher sense of self-efficacy in learners. Apart from writing instruction, the strategy of free writing linked to self-efficacy and feedback might contribute to learners’ writing fluency, making less use of L1 at the moment of expressing ideas in writing, contributing to the independence of the learner in his use of L2, associated to an intermediate level of English from the Council of Europe (2001). Nonetheless, there are possible threats, since a strategy of free writing by itself (if not carefully follow and assess formatively) might generate an increase in the number of errors or L1 interference, if it is not well rounded in the lesson. Therefore, the role of the teacher in this EFL context should be on constant feedback and linguistic awareness as well. Moreover, the intervention implies that learners should be involved in the activity, the lesson, and the relevance of the topics from the unit, for which If there is no involvement, it might run the risk of becoming irrelevant for the learner, who will possibly not demonstrate positive attitudes. Given the limitations mentioned earlier and the conclusions drawn, the recommendations that are proposed from the results of the study are to take into consideration the application of a teachermade material similar to the one proposed in the intervention, and include it in unit III of the course to be taught next year. These teacher-made material should be based on Bandura’s self-efficacy construct, guided free writing strategy, and the implementation of a writing self-efficacy scale that help learners measure their level of self-efficacy through each task. The material is recommended to be used in at.

(27) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |27. least three writing tasks, given that learners need to be provided with repetitive instances of writing in order to develop a higher sense of writing confidence and fluency (Nation, 2009). The material should be designed around the sources of information proposed by Bandura (1977), which aim at developing self-efficacy, taking into account three of the four sources: vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and performance outcomes (also known as mastery experience). This type of teacher-made material, then, can be of help in the process, providing writing opportunities that allow the learner to follow similar processes of vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and performance outcomes. However, given the time constrains, it is recommended to take these considerations from the start as part of the course tasks and material. Consequently, the material should broadly consist of several elements. First, a template for free-writing activities that respond to a prompt from the lesson. The prompt can be left in blank and filled out within the lesson to which it corresponds. Free writing provides learners the space to express through writing, without thinking about accuracy (Nation, 2009). Next, a template in which the teacher can provide feedback related to verbal persuasion, commenting on the learners’ written work, and encourage them to further develop it. Despite the fact that the outcomes of the intervention made in the action research raised the issue of mistrust in peers and self-abilities when assessing others, it might be beneficial to socialize written work among peers and involve them in a more democratic and fruitful instance of feedback, from which students can learn about feedback processes and become able to also comment on their own work. Finally, a writing self-efficacy scale is recommended to take into account. Having into consideration that writing self-efficacy is difficult to measure and to identify if it has increased or decreased in periods of time, the researcher considers that there should be a scale aimed at self-evaluation of performance in relation to self-efficacy that the learner can respond each time he finishes a writing task. Bandura (2006) provides a guide to construct self-efficacy scales, for which a new scale can be designed by the teacher in charge if these recommendations are considered, designing it according to the context of the course and its students..

(28) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |28. References  Bachman, L. (2004). Statistical analysis for language assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215.  Bandura, A. (1984). Recycling misconceptions of perceived self-efficacy. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 8(3), 231-255.  Bandura, A. (1995). Exercise of personal and collective efficacy in changing societies. Selfefficacy in changing societies (pp. 1-45). New York: Cambridge University Press.  Bandura, A. (2006). Guide for Constructing Self-efficacy scales. Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents, (5), 307-337.  Chea, S., Shumow, L. (2014). The Relationships Among Writing Self-Efficacy, Writing Goal Orientation, and Writing Achievement. Language Education in Asia, 5 (2), 253-269.  Cohen, L., Manion, L., Morrison, K., & Bell, R. (2005). Research Methods in Education (5th ed.). London: RoutledgeFalmer.  Council of Chief State School Officers, & McManus, S. (2008). Attributes of Effective Formative Assessment. Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Publications/Attributes_of_Effective_Formative_Assessment.h tml  Council of Europe, (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages. Cambridge, U.K.  Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge  Facultades y Carreras Universidad Alberto Hurtado. (2017). Universidad Alberto Hurtado. Retrieved 5 January 2017, from http://www.uahurtado.cl/facultades-y-carreras/.

(29) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |29.  Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A learning-centered approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press  Hwang, J. (2010). A case Study of the Influence of Freewriting on writing fluency and confidence of EFL College-level Students. Second Language Studies, 28(2), 97-134.  Kırmızı, Ö. & Dağdeviren-Kırmızı, G. (2015). An Investigation of L2 Learners' Writing SelfEfficacy, Writing Anxiety and Its Causes at Higher Education in Turkey. International Journal of Higher Education, 4(2), 57-66.  Krashen, S. (1988) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. PrenticeHall International.  Mascle, D.D. (2013). Writing Self-Efficacy and Written Communication Skills. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, (2), 216-225.  Nation, I. S. P. (2009) Teaching ESL/EFL Reading And Writing. New York: Routledge. Print.  Newson, D. (1988). Making the best of a bad job: The teaching and testing of translation. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. Edinburgh, Scotland.  Pappas, C. & Tucker-Raymond, E. (2011). Becoming a Teacher Researcher in Literacy Teaching and Learning (1st ed.). Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.  Todaka, Y. (2013). Self-efficacy theory and beyond: Japanese college EFL learners. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 3(7), 359.  Tomal, D. R. (2003). Action research for educators. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.  Universidad Alberto Hurtado (n. d.). Gestión de Información. Retrieved from http://www.uahurtado.cl/facultades-y-carreras/gestion-de-la-informacion-bibliotecologia-yarchivistica/ University Press.  Weigle, S. C. (2002). Assessing writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press..

(30) PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN WRITING IN A COURSE OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES FOR LIBRARY INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS. |30.  Yantraprakorn, P., Darasawang, P., & Wiriyakarun, P. (2013). Enhancing self-efficacy through scaffolding. 3rd International Conference on Foreign Language Learning and Teaching, Bangkok, Thailand.  Zeni, J. (ed.) (1998). Ethical issues in practitioner research. Teachers College Press..

(31) Appendix 1 - Letter to ESP Program Director. Scanned by CamScanner.

(32) Scanned by CamScanner.

(33) Appendix 2 - Students' Informed Consent Letter. Facultad de Educación Consentimiento Informado Has sido invitado a participar de una investigación-acción en el área de la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. La decisión de participar o no es tuya. De hacerlo, la información que proporciones permanecerá siempre anónima. En este estudio, se busca explorar y analizar qué sucede en el proceso de escritura en inglés por el que pasan los estudiantes y cuáles son las mejores formas de promoverlo. La investigación tiene un período de duración de cuatro meses, comenzando en agosto y terminando en noviembre de 2016. Dada la naturaleza de este estudio, se requerirá de tu colaboración como estudiante del curso de Inglés IV en distintas etapas de éste, ya que se pretende recopilar trabajos que entregues durante la asignatura y también que participes en una encuesta y/o entrevista de no más de 20 minutos, además de ser partícipe de observaciones escritas hechas por la persona a cargo de la investigación. Podrás participar de todas anónimamente. El estudio no implica ningún riesgo físico o psicológico hacia tu persona. Dentro de los beneficios que este estudio representa, se encuentra la oportunidad de dar un enfoque especial hacia el desarrollo de la habilidad de escritura en inglés en un contexto universitario, pero no podemos garantizar que personalmente experimentes beneficios de participar en el estudio. No obstante, otros podrían beneficiarse de la investigación en el futuro. El desarrollo de la investigación es realizado por Marcela Palominos, rut 17305199-9, estudiante del postgrado Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MATEFL) de la Facultad de Educación de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado. Esta investigación es dirigida por Stephen Darwin, profesor de dicha Facultad. Tus respuestas en las encuestas serán almacenadas virtualmente, tal como las observaciones hechas y tus trabajos. Los datos de la investigación serán almacenados y divulgados como parte del estudio. Éstos tendrán un uso puramente académico. Derechos del participante: . Tu participación es voluntaria. Puedes renunciar o negarte a participar en cualquier momento.. . Si tuvieras preguntas durante el proceso de la investigación, puedes consultar a Marcela Palominos al correo electrónico mpalominos@uahurtado.cl. . Al firmar estás de acuerdo con participar en el estudio y autorizas las grabaciones en entrevistas..

(34) Yo ______________________________________________________________(nombre) estoy de acuerdo en participar en la investigación-acción que la estudiante Marcela Palominos realiza en el postgrado Teaching English as a Foreign Language de la Facultad de Educación de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado. El propósito y naturaleza del estudio me ha sido explicado. Comprendo lo que se me pide y de querer hacer algunas preguntas sé que puedo contactarme con la persona que ejerce la investigación. También comprendo que puedo renunciar al estudio en cualquier momento y autorizo la grabación y almacenamiento de audio y transcripción.. Nombre del Participante:______________________________________________________________. Firma y RUN del Participante: __________________________________________________________. Fecha: ________________________________________________.























(57) Appendix 3 - Survey Instrument. Survey for English IV GIBA Dear English IV student, Please, spend a couple of minutes to complete this survey. The information you give will provide important insights to identify what are the steps students follow in different stages of the process of writing in English. Your answers will remain anonimous and confidential, and will be uses exclusively for the research conducted by Marcela Palominos. If you have doubts, you can email me and ask for help and clarification at any time to palominos.marcela@gmail.com. This survey will take you no more than 10 to 15 minutes. (Favor de contestar hasta el domingo 18 de Septiembre) Thank you! *Obligatorio. General questions about you writing Please, answer the following questions. 1. Do you generally feel confident when writing in English? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 2. Here are some of the difficulties that students report in learning English. Which you do find most difficult? You can select as many as you want: * Selecciona todas las opciones que correspondan. Organization of ideas (topic sentences, supporting sentences) Vocabulary Grammar Sentence structure Paragraph organization Linking words Spelling Punctuation Responsiveness to topics (E.g.: (difficulty with expressing opinions or finding arguments) Otros:.

(58) 3. When doing writing activities in class, do you generally: * Marca solo un óvalo. Follow your personal writing methods? Follow the stepbystep methods provided by the teacher. Follow your personal writing methods and the ones provided by the teacher. Otros: 4. When doing writing activities in class, do you generally think in your native language first? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 5. When doing writing activities in class, do you generally start writing in your native language first? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 6. If you answered "most times" in the last question, do you translate what you have written using your own knowledge of English or do you use a translator? Marca solo un óvalo. I most often use my own knowledge of the language. I most often use a translator I most often use a translator, but I check the written text with my own knowledge of the language. Otros: 7. If you generally rely on online translators, how confident do you feel when using them? Marca solo un óvalo. Very confident. It helps me improve. Somewhat confident. It helps me, but sometimes I do not understand the translation. Not confident at all. I never understand the translation in English..

(59) 8. When doing writing assignments, what resources do you normally use? You can select as many as you want from the list. * Selecciona todas las opciones que correspondan. Dictionaries (hardcopy and/or online ones) Thesauruses (for synonyms and antonyms) Online translators Online grammar/vocabulary/structure checkers None of the above Otros:. Before Writing This section has questions about the things you do "before" writing anything in English. Please answer then as honest as possible. 9. Do you check and consider the assignment instructions before beginning to write your ideas? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 10. Do you talk to others (peers or teacher) about what you are going to write? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 11. Do you use a brainstorming strategy to come up with possible ideas for your writing? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 12. Do you write down an outline or plan before start developing your writing? (Example: if you are writing an opinion essay, you first write down general ideas or simple sentences that will guide your assignment). * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never.

(60) 13. Do you include new vocabulary related to the topic of your assignment to your writing? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 14. Do you use dictionaries to check for words (meanings, part of speech, etc) before writing them? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 15. Is there anything from this section that you would like to explain? (You can use Spanish if you want to). During Writing This section has questions about the things you do "while" writing anything in English. Please answer then as honest as possible. 16. Do you feel that you can concentrate inside the classroom/lab when writing? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 17. Do you write down the whole assignment in your native language first and then translate it into English? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 18. Do you check the content of your assignment is clear while you are writing? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never.

(61) 19. Do you feel confident about yourself when expressing your ideas in English? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 20. Is there anything from this section that you would like to explain? (You can use Spanish if you want to). After Writing This section has questions about the things you do "after" writing anything in English. Please answer then as honest as possible. 21. After writing your assignment, do you go back to the text to revise it and improve its general organization? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 22. After writing your assignment, do you improve general mechanics (grammar, vocabulary spelling, and punctuation)? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 23. After writing your assignment, do you share it with peers to get feedback on improvement? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 24. After writing your assignment, do you look for the insight of the teacher about your work? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never.

(62) 25. Do you take into consideration the feedback provided by peers or teacher and use it in the assignment? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 26. Do you remember the errors or mistakes you made in previous assignments and try to avoid repeating them in the next assignment? * Marca solo un óvalo. Most times Sometimes Never 27. Is there anything from this section that you would like to explain? (You can use Spanish if you want to). Con la tecnología de.

(63) Appendix 4 - Written Artefacts Samples (3).

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