Writing strategies used by Croatian students in EFL argumentative essays

Foreign language (FL) proficiency assumes effective application of all four language skills in order to communicate properly in the target language. The development of writing in particular has been acknowledged as one of the main challenges in FL learning and teaching. Against the background of increasing L2 writing strategy research in recent years (Leki 1998; Sasaki 2000; Casanave 2004), scholars have been focusing on learners’ writing strategies in various writing tasks. However, empirical research on FL writing competence in the Croatian context has yet to receive sufficient attention. In response to this need, the present study sought to explore the writing processes and products of eight Croatian EFL university students during their collaborative work on argumentative essays. We opted for a case study design. The aim of this case study is threefold: (1) to identify the writing strategies that EFL students predominantly employ in the process of essay writing within the traditional cognitive framework, (2) to explore participants’ attitudes toward collaborative writing, and (3) to investigate if there are any distinctions in the use of writing strategies by skilled and less-skilled student writers. We analysed and compared data collected from a think-aloud protocol, immediate retrospective interviews, and written drafts of papers. The results indicated that the participants utilized a relatively high level and diverse repertoire of writing strategies. The findings also showed that there are no significant differences in the number of writing strategies used by skilled and less-skilled writers. However, the former displayed a more effective strategy usage than the latter. Accurate application of writing strategies, explicit teaching in class, awareness of different rhetorical conventions of academic writing in other languages, and individual factors are identified as the key elements of discourse competence. The findings are discussed in light of FL writing competence and implications for future teaching pedagogy and practice.