Improving reference cohesion in young EFL learners’ collaboratively written narratives: Is there a role for reformulation

Abstract

This article reports an empirical study in which we explore the role played by reformulation as a written corrective feedback technique on the use of reference cohesion in the collaboratively written narratives of young foreign language learners. The study was carried out with 11-to-12-year-old low proficiency pairs divided into a reformulation (RG) and a control group (CG), all of whom engaged in two multi-stage writing and feedback tasks over a three-month period. Features of reference cohesion were examined in four sets of narrative picture-story texts written by all the children before and after a treatment period during which the RG pairs completed a weekly writing task and received reformulated feedback, which they compared with their original drafts. The CG pairs also performed the weekly writing task and self-edited their texts. Results showed that the feedback proved useful in significantly promoting the accurate use of pronominal reference and sequence markers in the L2 by RG pairs and in contributing to a significant decrease in the misuse of articles in comparison to the CG. These findings are discussed and conclusions drawn for the role of reformulation in fostering cohesion in children’s L2 writing.