Effects of a writing program on second language skills of Hispanic students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of an after-school "writing-as-process" program incorporating time on task with computers among preadolescent and early adolescent public school limited English proficient (LEP) children on enhancing their writing skills in English and Spanish. In addition, it was hypothesized that preadolescents would make greater gains than early adolescents. A total of 109 students between the ages of 8-13 enrolled in the program, representing 61 families. Students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: the computer-assisted experimental group (WP/C); the non-computer assisted experimental group (WP); and the control group (C). Two experimental groups of 36 students each were exposed to intensive instruction in writing-as-process. Experimental Group A (WP/C) underwent intensive writing instruction with computer assistance, while Experimental Group B received instruction without computer support.;Through an analysis of covariance and pairwise analysis of groups, the gain score differences between groups was revealed to be significant and positive for the computer aided group and non-computer aided groups, as compared with the control on both LAB Writing subtest and global scores. The results of this study supported the expectation that LEP students who regularly attend an after-school writing-as-process program will have greater LEP score gains than those students using traditional methods. Additionally, it was found that the use of the computer enhanced global English proficiency significantly, but not writing skills in particular, in combination with "writing-as-process.".;There were no significant differences between gain scores between preadolescents and early adolescents for either English LAB Writing subtest or global scores.