Challenges of text writing in secondary school—A differential study by migration background and family languages

Abstract

While empirical educational research in secondary schools focuses quite extensively on aspects of literacy such as reading and spelling, relatively few studies investigate deep features of writing. In our paper, we compare instructional and argumentative texts in German from a sample of students (N = 208) in Year 9 at lower track schools and perform differential analyses regarding migration backgrounds and languages spoken at home. We evaluate deep features of writing with an analytical rating scheme that distinguishes between structure and coherence. We also assess text quality via holistic comparisons of texts (Comparative Judgement with the software Comproved®) and measure text length. High correlations between the analytic rating, the holistic rating, and text length for a total of 415 texts indicate that structure and coherence are important aspects of text quality. The results of the analytical rating show that regarding structure, almost all students, and regarding coherence, about one-third of the students obtain less than half of the theoretical maximum. Achievement disparities did not only show regarding structure and coherence, but also in the holistic rating and regarding text length among students with migration backgrounds and, in particular, among students exclusively speaking languages other than German at home. The results thus reveal that many students at lower track schools need better support regarding deep level features of writing. Our diagnostic tool could be used as an Assessment for Learning to support weaker writers in developing structure and coherence of their texts.