The influence of self-editing on micro skills development in academic writing in English as a second language

Journal of Language and Education. 2016. Vol. 2. No. 1. P. 30–38.

Tatiana Pospelova

Self-editing skills are extremely important in foreign language learning; without these students do not tend to write appropriately in academic context. These skills are, however, often less developed in school graduates and thus it is essential to understand challenges faced by students. The study was conducted to answer the research question: whether self-editing as a final component of written production can boost writing micro skills of learners. It analyses essays of 50 second year students of the Faculty of Economics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, written in English as the second language and reports on the most frequent errors they usually commit in their formal writing. The aim of this study is to focus on the stage of self-editing and identify the role of self-editing in micro skills development. Findings reveal that students are most often weak at producing coherent and cohesive paragraphs; they also lack appropriate argumentation and are often inaccurate in using grammatical structures and lexis. They also, however, suggest that L2 writing students can improve their own writing by transferring micro skills they learn when editing texts. The present study may contribute to teachers’ views on developing micro skills of student writers.

Keywords: эссе, essays, саморедактирование, типичные ошибки, Self-editing, writing micro skills, typical errors, микроумения