The effect of topic interest and choice in second language journal writing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.32756Keywords:
interest, choice, motivation, Educational PsychologyAbstract
This study investigates the influences of interest and choice on the production of second language (L2) journal entries by first-year students (N = 88, 55 female, 33 male) at a university in western Japan. Between treatment groups and a neutral group, several aspects of writing were examined: total words, words per sentence, grammatical accuracy, and lexical sophistication (K1, K2, and AWL words). Further enquiry into students' preferred choice conditions was conducted with a post-treatment questionnaire. The results suggest that the provision of choice and interestingness of a topic affect some of the variables but not others. Pedagogical implications and suggested future research are discussed.
References
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Schraw, G., Flowerday, T., & Reisetter, M. F. (1998). The role of choice in reader engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(4), 705-714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.90.4.705
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Wade, S. E., & Adams, R. B. (1990). Effects of importance and interest on recall of biographical text. Journal of Literacy Research, 22(4), 331-353. doi:10.1080/10862969009547717
West, M. (1953). A general service list of English words. London: Longman, Green.
Zamel, V. (1983). The composing processes of advanced ESL students: Six case studies. TESOL Quarterly, 17, 165-187. doi:10.2307/3586647
Zimbardo, P. G., Weisenberg, M., Firestone, I., & Levy, B. (1965). Communicator effectiveness in producing public conformity and private attitude change1. Journal of Personality, 33(2), 233-255.
Zuckerman, M., Porac, J., Lathin, D., Smith, R., & Deci, E. L. (1978). On the importance of self-determination for intrinsically-motivated behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4(3), 443-446. doi:10.1177/014616727800400317
Cobb, T. (2003). VocabProfiler. [computer program]. Retrieved 15 Sept 2015 at http://www.lextutor.ca/cgi-bin/range/texts/index.pl.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213-238
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 627–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior (Perspectives in Social Psychology). New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Dewey, J. (1913). Interest and effort in education. Boston, MA: Riverside Press.
Dweck, C. S., Mangels, J. A., & Good, C. (2004). Motivational effects on attention, cognition, and performance. In D.Y. Dai, & R.J. Sternberg (Eds), Motivation, Emotion, and Cognition (pp. 41-55). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Finley, R. (1999). SurveyMonkey [Computer Software]. Palo Alto, CA: SurveyMonkey, Inc. Retrieved from www.surveymonkey.com
Flowerday, T., & Schraw, G. (2000). Teacher beliefs about instructional choice: A phenomenological study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(4), 634-645. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.92.4.634
Flowerday, T., Schraw, G., & Stevens, J. (2004). The role of choice and interest in reader engagement. The Journal of Experimental Education, 72(2), 93-114. doi:10.3200/JEXE.72.2.93-114
Gradwohl, J. M., & Schumacher, G. M. (1989). The relationship between content knowledge and topic choice in writing. Written Communication, 6(2), 181- 195. doi:10.1177/0741088389006002003
Hidi, S., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2000). Motivating the academically unmotivated: A critical issue for the 21st century. Review of Educational Research, 70, 151-179. doi:10.3102/00346543070002151
Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (1999). Rethinking the value of choice: a cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 76(3), 349-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.3.349
Klugkist, I. (2008). Encompassing prior based model selection for inequality constrained analysis of variance. In H. Hoijtink, I. Klugkist, & P. A. Boelen (Eds.), Bayesian evaluation of informative hypotheses (pp. 53-83). New York, NY: Springer.
Langer, J. A. (1983). Effects of topic knowledge on the quality and coherence of informational writing. Retrieved from ERIC: eric.ed.gov/?id=ED234418
Lepper, M. R., & Henderlong, J. (2000). Turning "play" into "work" and "work" into "play": 25 years of research on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. In C. Sansone, & J. Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Search for Optimal Motivation and Performance (pp. 257-307). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Lindqvist, C., Gudmundson, A., & Bardel, C. A. (2013). New approach to measuring lexical sophistication in L2 oral production [Monograph]. Retrieved from diva-portal.org
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological review, 98(2), 224-253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224
McCutchen, D. (1986). Domain knowledge and linguistic knowledge in the development of writing ability. Journal of Memory and Language, 25(4). 431-444. doi: 10.1016/0749-596X(86)90036-7
Myers, D. G. (2000). The funds, friends, and faith of happy people. American psychologist, 55(1), 56-67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.56
Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Robinson, J. C. (2008). The effects of choice on intrinsic motivation and related outcomes: a meta-analysis of research findings. Psychological bulletin, 134(2), 270-300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.270
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68
Reynolds, P. L., & Symons, S. (2001). Motivational variables and children's text search. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(1), 14-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.93.1.14
Schiefele, U. (1999). Interest and learning from text. Scientific studies of reading, 3(3), 257-279. doi:10.1207/s1532799xssr0303_4
Schraw, G., Flowerday, T., & Lehman, S. (2001). Increasing situational interest in the classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 13(3), 211-224. doi:10.1023/A:1016619705184
Schraw, G., Flowerday, T., & Reisetter, M. F. (1998). The role of choice in reader engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(4), 705-714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.90.4.705
Shirey, L. (1992). Importance, interest, and selective attention. In A. Renninger, S. Hidi, & A. Krapp (Eds.), The Role of Interest in Learning and Development (pp. 81-296). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Sullivan, A. S. (2007). The effects of topic choice and prompts on student writing and student attitudes about writing (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A& I (3277040)
Wade, S. E., & Adams, R. B. (1990). Effects of importance and interest on recall of biographical text. Journal of Literacy Research, 22(4), 331-353. doi:10.1080/10862969009547717
West, M. (1953). A general service list of English words. London: Longman, Green.
Zamel, V. (1983). The composing processes of advanced ESL students: Six case studies. TESOL Quarterly, 17, 165-187. doi:10.2307/3586647
Zimbardo, P. G., Weisenberg, M., Firestone, I., & Levy, B. (1965). Communicator effectiveness in producing public conformity and private attitude change1. Journal of Personality, 33(2), 233-255.
Zuckerman, M., Porac, J., Lathin, D., Smith, R., & Deci, E. L. (1978). On the importance of self-determination for intrinsically-motivated behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4(3), 443-446. doi:10.1177/014616727800400317
Published
2018-09-24
Issue
Section
Research Matters
How to Cite
Eidswick, J., & Asaba, M. (2018). The effect of topic interest and choice in second language journal writing. Writing and Pedagogy, 10(1-2), 161-190. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.32756
