There have been a number of studies investigating the writing strategies of skilled and less-skilled native and non-native speakers of English. Nevertheless, very few studies have examined the writing strategies of Indonesian student writers, especially graduate students. Filling the gap in the literature, this study investigates the ways skilled and less-skilled Indonesian graduate students write their Indonesian and English writings. Four Indonesian students participated in this study. They were grouped into skilled and less-skilled writers in order to classify the similarities and differences in the use of strategies between the two groups, and to observe the strategies predominantly employed by the writers when writing in L1(Indonesian) and L2 (English).
Four data collection methods were utilized in this study: think-aloud protocols (TAPs), direct observation, retrospective interviews, and semi-structured interviews. The writing sessions were audio and video recorded. The collected data were transcribed, translated, and then coded for analysis. The results of this study suggest that skilled writers understand the recursive nature of writing. Their writing is not a one-step process; it is an ongoing cycle in which the writers plan, translate/write the draft, pause, read, revise, and edit. In the cycle, they demonstrated different attitudes and behaviors toward writing. Unlike skilled writers, less-skilled writers did not experience writing as cyclical processes of generating ideas and revising texts to find their intended meanings. Their writings tended to be linear.
The results also indicate that the student writers adopted particular strategies consistently when writing in L1 and L2. There might be a transfer of strategies from L1 to L2, and a transfer of rhetoric strategies from L2 to L1. The skilled writers employed similar strategies when writing in L1 and L2. However, less-skilled writers adopted strategies different from the ones used by the skilled writers. The skilled writers adopted reading/ rereading in a very high frequency; as a result, their writing became recursive. On the other hand, the less-skilled ones were inclined to employ linear and less recursive writing. This study shows that skilled writers used meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies more frequently than less skilled writers. From the retrospective interview and think-aloud protocols, it was discovered that the skilled and less-skilled writers rarely used social and affective strategies because of several reasons: they participated in the orientation stage (brief discussion before the actual writing), and the assigned topics were carefully chosen, and they were suitable with the participants’ background knowledge. |