TY - JOUR
T1 - The Contribution of Word -, Sentence-, and Discourse-Level Abilities on Writing Performance
T2 - A 3-Year Longitudinal Study
AU - Carvalhais, Lénia
AU - Limpo, Teresa
AU - Pereira, Luísa Álvares
N1 - info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F03213%2F2020/PT#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDP%2F03213%2F2020/PT#
UIDB/03213/2020
UIDP/03213/2020
UIDB/00914/2020
PY - 2021/8/3
Y1 - 2021/8/3
N2 - Writing is a foundational skill throughout school grades. This study analyzed the development of different levels of written language (word, sentence, and discourse) and explored the relationship between these levels and writing performance. About 95 Portuguese students from two cohorts—Grades 4–7 (n = 47) 6–9 (n = 48)—were asked to produce a descriptive text two times, with a 3-year interval. The produced texts were used to assess spelling, syntactic correctness and complexity, and descriptive discourse as well as text length and quality. The main results showed that there were improvements from Grades 4 to 7 and 6 to 9 in word- and sentence-level skills, along with increases in some dimensions of the descriptive discourse. Moreover, the older cohort performed better than the younger cohort in terms of spelling, syntactic complexity, and text quality, but not in terms of syntactic correctness, one dimension of the descriptive discourse, and text length. Regression analyses showed that writing performance was predicted by word and sentence levels in the younger cohort only, and by discourse-level variables in both cohorts. Overall, despite indicating a generalized growth in writing skills throughout schooling, this study also highlighted the areas that may need additional attention from teachers, mainly in terms of the descriptive features.
AB - Writing is a foundational skill throughout school grades. This study analyzed the development of different levels of written language (word, sentence, and discourse) and explored the relationship between these levels and writing performance. About 95 Portuguese students from two cohorts—Grades 4–7 (n = 47) 6–9 (n = 48)—were asked to produce a descriptive text two times, with a 3-year interval. The produced texts were used to assess spelling, syntactic correctness and complexity, and descriptive discourse as well as text length and quality. The main results showed that there were improvements from Grades 4 to 7 and 6 to 9 in word- and sentence-level skills, along with increases in some dimensions of the descriptive discourse. Moreover, the older cohort performed better than the younger cohort in terms of spelling, syntactic complexity, and text quality, but not in terms of syntactic correctness, one dimension of the descriptive discourse, and text length. Regression analyses showed that writing performance was predicted by word and sentence levels in the younger cohort only, and by discourse-level variables in both cohorts. Overall, despite indicating a generalized growth in writing skills throughout schooling, this study also highlighted the areas that may need additional attention from teachers, mainly in terms of the descriptive features.
KW - Descriptive text
KW - Grade level
KW - Levels of language
KW - Longitudinal study
KW - Spelling
KW - Syntactic complexity measures
KW - Writing performance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113145405&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.668139
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.668139
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113145405
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 668139
ER -