Writing-related Attitudes of L1 and L2 Students Who Receive Help from Writing Fellows

Abstract

This study examines the writing-related attitudes of L1 and L2 students who receive individual discipline-based writing help from Writing Fellows. It investigates changes in the students' attitudes toward writing through a survey administered at the beginning and end of the semester in which the students worked with their Writing Fellows. Four-hundred-ninety-six (496) students in 23 writing-intensive classes completed the survey at the beginning of the semester, and a smaller subset of these students (363) completed the survey at the end of the semester. In comparison to L1 and monolingual English writers, L2 English and multilingual writers started the semester with more positive writing-related attitudes and were more likely to engage in constructive writing behaviors. In addition, while students from all language groups showed improvement in their writing-related attitudes over the semester, L2 and multilingual writers had significantly greater gains, even after controlling for their more efficacious start. These results suggest that, while Writing Fellows may benefit all students, the program may be particularly effective for L2 and multilingual writers.