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Spaced Multi-draft Composing and Feedback in Mainland Chinese English as a Foreign Language Secondary School Writing Literacy

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Abstract

This chapter investigated how uninformed, spaced multi-draft composing and teacher feedback influenced the writing quality and fluency among secondary school EFL learners of different proficiency levels. Thirty-nine Junior Two students in two proficiency groups composed three drafts of the same paper spaced out over eight weeks. Only half of each group obtained teacher feedback during the training. Results showed that multi-draft composing improved writing fluency for all participants’ second and third drafts. The high-proficiency students showed better writing quality in both subsequent drafts; their low-proficiency counterparts only improved on the second draft. Teacher comments did not affect the writing performance. The results stressed the importance of timely teacher feedback in process writing. Also, low-proficiency learners should receive extra support for later drafts.

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Acknowledgements

Part of the results of this research has been reported in the Chinese publication: Bei, X. (2009). The effects of writing task repetition and teacher feedback on writing quality and fluency among students of different proficiency levels. Modern Foreign Languages, 32(4), 389–398. Those data have been re-analyzed and re-interpreted here.

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Correspondence to Gavin Bui .

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Bui, G., Yu, R. (2019). Spaced Multi-draft Composing and Feedback in Mainland Chinese English as a Foreign Language Secondary School Writing Literacy. In: Reynolds, B.L., Teng, M.F. (eds) English Literacy Instruction for Chinese Speakers. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6653-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6653-6_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6652-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6653-6

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