The Effect Of Strategy-based Instruction On Efl Students' Paragraph Writing: A Mixed-methods Study
Auteurs : Ahmed Gaid Oussama . Golea Tahar .
Résumé
This study investigates the effectiveness of Strategy-Based Instruction (SBI) in enhancing EFL students’ paragraph writing performance through a mixed-methods experimental design. Sixty-six first-year EFL students at the University of Batna 2, Algeria, were assigned to experimental (n=33) and control (n=33) groups. The experimental group received 13 weeks of systematic SBI-based instruction incorporating explicit strategy training, metacognitive awareness development, and learner autonomy promotion through CALLA methodology, while the control group received traditional instruction. Both groups were taught by the same instructor, with careful protocols in place to prevent cross-contamination of the instructional treatments. Pre- and post-intervention assessments used a validated 36-item rubric. Inter-rater reliability for writing score assessment was established at ICC = .89 (95% CI [.84, .93]), with a full rubric and scoring anchors. Statistical analysis revealed remarkable improvements in the experimental group (Mpre = 15.87, Mpost = 43.21, t(32) = 24.67, p < .001, d = 3.12) compared to moderate gains in the control group (Mpre = 16.03, Mpost = 23.84, t(32) = 11.23, p < .001, d = 1.41). Effect size calculations indicated very large treatment effects (η² = .913). Mediation analysis demonstrated that enhanced metacognitive awareness and strategy use mediated approximately 31% of the intervention effect; the residual direct effect (69%) reflects unexplained variance that future research should investigate through longitudinal designs. Qualitative analysis revealed profound enhancements in metacognitive awareness, self-regulation strategies, writing confidence, and transfer to other academic contexts. Interview data, originally collected in Arabic, were translated by a Arabic-English-Arabic translator. These findings provide empirical evidence for the systematic integration of SBI in EFL writing instruction and offer practical implications for language educators and curriculum developers.
Mots clés
Strategy-based instruction ; paragraph writing ; EFL learning ; metacognitive strategies ; learner autonomy
