Comparing monomodal traditional writing and digital multimodal composing in EAP classrooms: Linguistic performance and writing development

Abstract

In response to mixed perceptions about the digital multimodal composing (DMC) approach to conceptualizing and teaching second language (L2) writing, the purpose of the current study is to compare students' linguistic performance on traditional monomodal writing and DMC tasks, as well as writing development over time under traditional and DMC instructional conditions. A total of 41 Korean university English as a foreign language (EFL) students were randomly assigned to two instructional groups: traditional writing and DMC. Over one semester, both the DMC and the traditional writing groups completed TOEFL-style independent writing pretests and posttests, and depending on their intervention condition, they completed either monomodal writing or DMC tasks for two elemental genres (causal analysis and argumentation). For the first research question, focused on output of traditional writing and DMC tasks, the two groups' language use on each of the two assigned genres (causal analysis and argumentation) was analyzed separately, and their linguistic performance was compared using independent t-tests. For the second research question, the pretest and posttest essays were scored using an analytic rubric focused on content, organization and language, and the two groups' timed writing performance was compared using linear mixed effect models. The findings indicated that students produced longer texts for DMC tasks, and that there were significant gains in writing development over time for both DMC and traditional writing instructed groups. The DMC-integrated group, however, showed greater gains. Pedagogical implications for the use of DMC in L2 writing instruction are discussed.