The Effects of Writing Strategy Training on Lexical Density and Linguistic Quality in Grade 11 Students' Writing

The study examined the effects of writing strategy training on Grade 11 students' lexical density, linguistic quality, and perception of writing skills in secondary school EFL writing. A quasi-experimental design was employed with 99 grade 11 students from Ambo Awaro High School. Intact classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The researcher gathered data via paragraph-writing tests and semi-structured interviews. Paired and independent samples t-tests were used to analyze quantitative data, while interview data were thematically analyzed. The findings of this study revealed that the participants in both the experimental and the control groups were similar in using lexical density and linguistic quality in the pre-test stage. However, in the post-test, the experimental group showed substantial improvements, whereas the control group showed no significant changes in their lexical density or linguistic quality. The interview results supported the changes gained by the experimental group by showing enhanced vocabulary awareness, improved paragraph organization, monitoring of grammar, and greater confidence. In conclusion, the results of this study confirm that the strategy training improves linguistic richness and writing quality. Therefore, it is recommended that a strategy-based learning approach be applied to regular EFL writing.