Assessing and Validating a Writing Strategy Scale for Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Little research has been conducted to develop and validate a scale to measure L2 writing strategies. The purpose of this study was to validate a writing strategy questionnaire for English as a Second language (ESL) learners. The validation process involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. First, in the item construction stage, 30 items were constructed through a process that involved both L2 writing experts’ comments and undergraduate students’ interviews. Then, in the statistical analysis stage, the prepared thirty-item questionnaire was administered to 322 undergraduate students who were non-native speakers of English. The data was analyzed using Principal Component Analysis. The results showed that the writing strategies used by non-native learners of English cluster into five categories: metacognitive, cognitive, metacognitive, affective effort regulation and social strategies. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are indicated.