The Language of Written Argumentation and Explanation: Individual Developmental Trajectories From 4th to 8th Grade

Language skills are increasingly necessary for writing complex texts as students move to higher grades, but scarce research has explored how these skills develop over time, especially in mid-adolescents. In this project, we conducted an exploratory secondary data analysis to examine individual differences in mid-adolescents’ development of the Language for writing (L4W), in relation to the Language for academic reading and the overall Writing quality of students’ texts across two types of tasks: explanatory and persuasive. This project was guided by two main objectives:

1. to examine individual growth trajectories of Language for writing skills (measured by automated language indices and manual coding based on students' writing) in Writing-to-Explain and Writing-to-Persuade tasks;
    
2. to explore the concurrent development of Language for Writing skills (productive skills), Language for Academic Reading (receptive skills measured by Core Academic Language for Skills instrument), and Writing Quality (WQ) over time.

This research project is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A170185. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

This project entails a secondary data analysis of data collected from students in two Eastern  U.S, states followed over three years. The project used a cohort-sequential longitudinal design. The sample includes longitudinally linked assessment and writing data from approximately 530 students from two cohorts (a 4^th-grade and a 6^th-grade cohort) followed over a three-year period.

The study sought to identify indices to capture youth’s productive language skills in domains of language known to be of high-utility for academic writing (e.g., connecting ideas, packing information through complex structures). Students’ written responses were scored for writing quality and analyzed using lexical, syntactic and discourse automated tools and manual coding. Subsequently, factor score analyses and a series of growth curve analyses were conducted.

Products

Publications:

Uccelli, P., Deng, Z., Phillips-Galloway., E., & Qin, W. (2019). The role of language skills in mid-adolescents’ science summaries. In L. Tolchinsky & A. Stavans (Eds.), Journal of Literacy Research, Special Volume The path to text writing quality. doi: 10.1177/1086296X19860206
Eric Number: EJ1224999 [Eric link here]
IES Funding acknowledged: R305A170185, R305F100026

Phillips Galloway, E., Qin, W., Uccelli, P., & Barr, C. (2020). The role of cross-disciplinary academic language skills in disciplinary, source-based writing: investigating the role of core academic language skills in science summarization for middle grade writers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 33: 13-44. doi: 10.1007/s11145-019-09942-x
Eric Number: EJ1239932 [Eric link here]
IES Funding acknowledged: R305A170185
 

Other work:

Deng, Z. (in preparation). Towards Alternative Approaches to Analyzing Argumentative Writing: Examining How Vocabulary, Syntax, and Discourse Structure Contribute to Writing Quality from 5th to 8th Grade. Doctoral Dissertation. Harvard Graduate School of Education.
IES Funding acknowledged: R305A170185
 

Conference and presentations:

Andreev, L., Uccelli, P., & Deng, Z. (March, 2021). Connecting ideas in argumentative writing: Mid-adolescents use of connective markers [Conference presentation]. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference.

Chen, Q., Andreev, L., Deng, Z. & Uccelli, P. (March, 2021). Argumentative texts in early adolescence: A close look at noun semantic complexity [Conference presentation]. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference.

Deng, Z. (April, 2021). Developing a Novel Instrument to Measure the Argumentative Writing Complexity for Young Adolescents. American Education Research Association 2021 Conference.

Deng, Z., & Uccelli, P. (March, 2021). Syntactic complexity predicts persuasive writing quality: A novel measure to capture adolescents' emerging skills [Conference presentation]. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference.

Qin, W. & Uccelli, P. (March, 2021). Learning from a “model text”: Textual borrowing in middle grade writers’ science summaries. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference.

Uccelli, P., Phillips Galloway, E. Barr, C., Deng, Z., & Andreev, L. (March, 2021). Writing to explain and Writing to persuade throughout mid-adolescence: Patterns of growth. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference.

Deng, Z. (November, 2020). I Know You Think You Should (But I Don’t Care): Characterizing and Evaluating Young Adolescents’ Argumentative Writing Complexity. Doctoral Colloquium Main Speaker, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Phillips Galloway, E., (2020, November). What is Academic Language?  Academic Language Study Group: Supporting Language Minoritized Students’ Academic Language Development and Literacy Success [Workshop Series with NYC Teachers and Instructional Coaches]. New York Public Schools Virtual Workshops.

Phillips Galloway, E., (2020, November). The Language for Reading and Writing Connection.  Academic Language Study Group: Supporting Language Minoritized Students’ Academic Language Development and Literacy Success [Workshop Series with NYC Teachers and Instructional Coaches]. New York Public Schools Virtual Workshops.

Phillips Galloway, E., (2020, November). CALS-focused Instruction: A Focus on Connecting Ideas. Academic Language Study Group: Supporting Language Minoritized Students’ Academic Language Development and Literacy Success [Workshop Series with NYC Teachers and Instructional Coaches]. New York Public Schools Virtual Workshops.

Deng, Z., & Uccelli, P. (2019). Integrating the Opposing Side without Stating It: The Emergence of Counterarguments in Fourth- to Eighth-Grade Writing. Presented at American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada.

Uccelli, P. & Phillips Galloway, E., Qin, W., Madigan, C. (March, 2018). The linguistic demands of summarization: Productive and receptive academic language skills predict the quality of adolescents’ written summaries. American Association for Applied Linguistics Conference, Chicago.

Other resources:

Professional learning resources for use by educators generated by this project are available at: https://www.llleresearchgroup.com/

A series of analytic writing quality rubrics and a Taxonomy of Connectives useful to educators and researchers interested in writing assessment and instruction were generated      throughout this project and may be requested from the PI through our Contact Us tool.

This research project is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A170185. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education

This research project is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A170185 awarded to Paola Uccelli at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (PI), with Christopher Barr, Rice University and Emily Phillips Galloway, Vanderbilt University as Co-PIs. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. For more information, see https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=1989.