Review strategies in a first-year university undergraduate thai EFL writing context

Abstract

In response to educational issues at levels from national, institutional, to pedagogical concerns, this study aims to examine the influence and the effectiveness of the review strategies on the writing performance of first-year Thai undergraduates as well as how the perceived strategies are in the students‘ views. In the mixed-method study, the data were collected from 20 Science and 26 Education students who were enrolled in the 2013 academic year. The main findings are: The statistically significant effect of the review strategies were on the students‘ writing performance; t(45) = 17.06; p =.000 at the.05 level. The analyses of the students‘ writing-task score development from 184 self-revised and peer-revised draft scripts showed that they effectively responded to the self-review strategy better than they did to the peer-review strategy; t(45) = 3.08; p =.004 at the.05 level. In the multi-dimensional comparisons of writing-score development, both self-review and peer-review strategies can be applied to all three proficiency groups of the Science and Education students. From the scripts of the students‘ responses to the questionnaires and a semi-structured interview, the findings revealed some insights into aspects of students‘ affective-cognitive-social-contextual factors. Implications and recommendations for future studies are also considered.