Writing Strategies used by Sri Lankan Arabic as a Foreign Language Learners in Arabic Composition

Abstract

Writing is a complicated process and involves a number of strategies. It entails composing that means the ability to state or restate the information in the form of description or narratives, or the ability to transform information into texts, as in argumentative writing. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the types of writing strategies (WS) employed by Sri Lankans Arabic as foreign language (AFL) learners in an essay composition. The data were collected from the diploma learners in a classroom by dividing them into three groups according to their proficiency in Arabic as proficient, average and less proficient. Each group consists of six members who were trained to think aloud intelligibly before starting to write and were instructed with regard to the purpose and procedures of the study. Later on, the study was conducted on individuals to provide the information in relation to WS usage by way of think aloud protocol, observation and retrospective interviews during the writing process. The collected data were transcribed and coded according to the operational WS list and were referred to WS taxonomies. Finally, data validity and reliability were confirmed. The result revealed that, the AFL learners reported using five categories of WS namely rhetorical, metacognitive, cognitive, communicative and social strategies were used by them when composing essay in Arabic. However, the average and less proficient learners were identified lacking autonomy in Arabic and did not show varieties of WS in composition in Arabic. In terms of the accusation for coaching,strategy instruction has been revealed to be an effective approach for teaching writing skill to students. Thus, instructors may be required to guide students to figure out a method to organize their ideas by way of writing practices. The instructors may help students make their place affirmation visibly and organize their outlooks more reasonably in the writing activities.