Writing Motivation Research, Measurement and Pedagogy

Guest Blogger: ​Dr Muhammad M. M. Abdel Latif

Dr Muhammad Abdel Latif's book Writing Motivation Research, Measurement and Pedagogy is an essential reference and a unique resource for writing teachers and researchers. This six-chapter book provides an overview of the issues pertinent to assessing, researching and nurturing writing motivation. It highlights these theoretical, practical and research issues by drawing upon relevant literature and empirical research evidence. 

In this blog, the main insights provided by this book are summarized.  ​

Types of writing motivation constructs

Drawing upon the comprehensive review of relevant literature, Abdel Latif identifies eight main constructs of writing motivation, and groups them into the following four types: 

a) Attitudinal/dispositional perceptions (writing apprehension, attitude towards writing, and the perceived value of writing); 

b) Situational feelings and actions (writing anxiety and the motivational regulation of writing);

c) Writing ability beliefs (writing self-efficacy and self-concept); 
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d) Writing learning goals (i.e., writing achievement goals). ​

Below are the definitions of these constructs:

• Writing apprehension/attitude towards writing: liking or disliking of writing and writing evaluation situations. 
• Perceived value of writing: the perceived enjoyment, usefulness or importance of writing or writing tasks. 
• Writing anxiety: the negative feelings experienced while performing a writing task or doing a writing activity.
• Motivational regulation of writing: the self-talk or thoughts writers use to foster their engagement in task performance, avoid anxiety and frustration, and encourage themselves while performing the task.
• Writing self-efficacy: one’s perceived ability to perform or demonstrate task-specific writing skills and processes
• Writing self-concept: beliefs about one’s general writing ability and learnability of writing skills.
• Writing achievement goals: learners’ reasons, incentives, purposes or desired outcomes for doing a specific writing activity

Abdel Latif discusses the varied conceptualizations of these key writing motivation constructs, highlights the other constructs similar to them, and provides an overview of the scales developed to assess each main construct and sample items from them. Additionally, he highlights the other broad and impure/non-motivational constructs of writing. These include: writing self-perceptions, procrastination and styles, writer's block, and writing motivation and engagement. The two chapters covering these issues aim at helping readers understand the nature of writing motivation and the types of its constructs, and know how to assess its constructs using accurate scales.    

The characteristics of motivated versus demotivated student writers

Drawing on empirical research evidence, Abdel Latif discusses the variables and factors associated with the varied writing motivation levels. He classifies these variables and factors into the following three main categories:

• Personal variables: age or the educational stage, gender and socio-cultural background.​ 
• Performance, belief, and behaviour factors: language ability levels, language ability beliefs, writing performance, previous writing learning experiences, the interaction among writing motivation perceptions and beliefs, and the behaviours associated with writing learning.
• Learning and instruction practices: the medium of writing (i.e., handwriting versus typing tools), the assigned writing topics, instructional practices and teaching materials, and teacher and peer feedback.

In light of the research-based discussion of these factors, Abdel Latif provides two interesting profiles summarizing the affective, behavioural and performance characteristics of motivated and demotivated student writers.

Instructional research of writing motivation

In his book, Abdel Latif also highlights the instructional research of writing motivation. Specifically, he reviews the studies examining the effect of particular instructional treatments on improving students' writing motivation. The writing instructional treatments highlighted in the book are categorized into the following six types:

• Technology-supported writing instruction (e.g., blog-mediated instruction, wiki-mediated instruction, and multimodal composing tasks); 
• Writing strategy instruction;
• Teacher and peer feedback provision treatments;
• Genre-based writing instruction; 
• Task interest-based writing instruction; 
• Therapeutic training (e.g., the writing anxiety workshop, visualization, mindful breathing, writing anxiety groups). ​

Through highlighting the studies relevant to each of these writing instruction types, Abdel Latif provides clear descriptions of the instructional treatments used, their instructional settings (i.e., L1 versus L2 writing contexts), and their potential impact on fostering particular aspects in learners' writing motivation. Thus, the book provides adequate information and insightful ideas to the readers interested in experimenting any of these instructional treatments.

Research-driven guidelines for motivating students to write

An important part in the book is concerned with the research-driven guidelines proposed for motivating students to write. Drawing upon the research evidence and pedagogical implications found in the descriptive, correlational and instructional studies reviewed in the book, Abdel Latif provides the following six main guidelines for motivating students to write:

• Nurturing and fostering students' writing motivational perceptions, beliefs, and goals;
• Using appropriate teaching materials and writing tasks; 
• Meeting students' language and writing performance needs; 
• Integrating technological tools in writing instruction; 
• Optimizing teacher feedback; 
• Orchestrating peer assessment activities.

These six guidelines are rationalized and delineated with the 42 proposed pedagogical procedures they include. Abdel Latif views that each main guideline promotes some writing motivation aspects rather than others, and that writing teachers can implement the procedures representing each guideline depending on their students' writing demotivation symptoms and their causes.

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@mmmabd

Dr Muhammad M. M. Abdel Latif teaches TESOL at the Faculty of Graduate Studies of Education. Cairo University, Egypt. His research was granted some prestigious international awards, including: a) the ACTFL-MLJ 2009 Emma Marie Birkmaier Award for Doctoral Dissertation Research in Foreign Language Education; and b) the CMLR 2009 Best Graduate Student Paper Award. He has published research papers in more than 15 internationally well-known and ranked journals, including: Applied Linguistics, Assessing Writing, Canadian Modern Language Review, English Teaching: Practice and Critique, European Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Journal of Research in Reading, ReCALL, and System. 

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