A Multiple-Case Study of 1.5 Chinese Students’ Writing Strategies

Writing has always been recognized as the most difficult and challenging part of language learning. Research on writing strategies has increased a lot recently, while less was found in Chinese field. Meanwhile, the number of 1.5 Chinese students shows a rapid growth trend, and this group’s writing strategy research needs more attention. To fill the research gap of 1.5 Chinese, this study focuses writing strategies in different writing stages of 1.5 Chinese students with different writing abilities. This study adopts target sampling, and 4 IBDP Chinese B students from an international school of Hong Kong join in, with 2 of them are more skilled Chinese writer and the other 2 less skilled. In this study, interviews, think aloud protocols and stimulated recall are conducted with the students, meanwhile observation form and process log are done by the researcher. With the varieties of qualitative data, the study aims to meet triangulation principle and enhance the study’s trustworthiness as well. The study identified 32 types writing strategies in total. The group of more skilled students used writing strategies more frequently and effectively in various writing stages than the group of less skilled students. Meanwhile, the writing strategies used by more skilled students are more interactive, thus their writing was more effective. However, the use of writing strategies of less skilled students often lacked of correlation and even contradictory with each other, thus it affected their writing performance. Basing on the research findings, this study makes both theoretical and pedagogical contributions to 1.5 Chinese writing strategy research and teaching. Further research on this field is expected and directions are also proposed.