Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development Instruction on EFL Students’ Writing Performance and Engagement: The Case of Wollo University

Abstract

The main concern of this study was to examine the effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development writing instruction on third year undergraduate EFL students’ writing performance and engagement. For this purpose, an interrupted time-series quasi- experimental design was conducted on 10 students of Wollo University selected using comprehensive sampling technique. In order to collect quantitative data from the participants of the study, eight essay writing tests; and a questionnaire about engagement were used. Textual analysis and semi-structured interview were also used to collect qualitative data from the respondents in line with the objectives. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, namely mean, standard deviation and using inferential statistics of paired samples t-test and repeated measure Analysis of variance. The qualitative data were analyzed using textual analysis and Nvivo software. The findings of the descriptive statistics and textual analysis and the Nvivo thematic analysis revealed that the Self-Regulated Strategy Development writing instruction had a significant positive effect on students’ writing performance and writing task engagement. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in both the writing performance (p<0.005) and engagement levels (p<0.05) of EFL students after the SRSD intervention. Based on the results, the study recommends that the teaching of writing in higher education could benefit if Self-Regulated Strategy Development is integrated into the existing practice of second language writing pedagogy.