An intervention study to improve primary school students’ self-regulated strategy use in English writing through e-learning in Hong Kong

Abstract

The present study reports on the effects of a self-regulated (SRL) writing strategy-based intervention supported with e-learning tools on SRL strategy use in English writing with 468 Hong Kong primary school students. The changes to the students’ motivation in English writing, and their e-learning acceptance were also measured. The study adopted a pretest and posttest design and the data was collected through a questionnaire, which consisted of three measures, i.e. SRL writing strategy use, motivation in English writing, and e-learning acceptance. The SRL writing strategy use measure included four types of strategies, i.e. planning, text-generating, monitoring, and revising. The motivation measure had two scales, i.e. interest and self-efficacy, and the e-learning acceptance measure included four scales, i.e. perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and continuance intention. The intervention saw significant improvements on the students’ use of all four types of SRL writing strategies. Positive changes also took place to one scale of motivation, i.e. interest, and three scales of e-learning acceptance, i.e. perceived usefulness, attitude and continuance intention. There was no significant improvement to self-efficacy and perceived ease of use. Additionally, the correlations between all the scales became stronger after the intervention. Important implications for teaching ESL/EFL writing through e-learning are drawn.

Keywords:

• Self-regulated writing strategy use
• motivation
• e-learning acceptance
• intervention
• English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the General Research Fund/Early Career Scheme (GRF/ECS) of Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, China [CUHK 24621518].

Notes on contributors

Barry Bai

Dr. Barry Bai is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where he mainly teaches ELT-related courses. He has extensive teaching and teacher training experience in Singapore, Hong Kong and China. His research interests include teaching ESL/EFL, writing strategies, and teacher education. His work appears in Cambridge Journal of Education, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Applied Linguistics Review, TESOL Quarterly, Reading and Writing Quarterly, ELT Journal, System, The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, and Journal of Education for Teaching.

Jing Wang

Dr. Jing Wang is an assistant professor at the College of Education, Zhejiang University, China. Her research area is self-regulated learning, English as a Second Language learning and teaching, and computer assisted language learning. Her work appears in Cambridge Journal of Education, Language Teaching Research, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Psychology in the Schools, and European Journal of Psychology of Education.

Huixuan Zhou

Huixuan Zhou is an English teacher at Shenzhen Middle School, Shenzhen, China. At the same time, Huixuan is an EdD candidate at the Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.