Elke Van Steendam

Chapter 2.01.15: Effective Instructional Strategies in Collaborative Revision in EFL: Two Empirical Studies

Various methods have been suggested to teach novice revisers to improve their revision and writing skills such as peer interaction and collaborative revision, and strategy instruction. One form of strategy instruction which has proven to be particularly effective as far as learning-to-write and learning-to-revise is concerned is observational learning. The two research questions were explored in two relatively large-scale semi-experimental studies with undergraduate foreign language learners. In the two studies different forms of strategy instruction were implemented in collaborative revision to determine the impact of each separate approach. Pair composition moderates the effect of observation: homogeneous dyads in terms of writing proficiency seem to profit more from observation than from practising, whereas weak, heterogeneous dyads made up of two initially weak writers benefit significantly more from dyadic practising. Keywords: heterogeneous dyads; strategy instruction; writing proficiency; writing skills

List of Volumes

This section of this book titled Measuring Writing: Recent Insights into Theory, Methodology and Practices contains a list of volumes. Keywords: writing ability, formative assessments