Attitudes to writing and writing performance among bilingual and monolingual children

Primary schools in UK continue to grow in linguistic diversity, yet we have limited knowledge about how the unique language experiences and contexts bilingual pupils bring to the classroom, can potentially impact the development of their writing skills. There is also an awareness of the importance that positive attitudes towards writing can possibly have on children’s subsequent outcomes. However, research seeking pupils’ attitudes on writing within a UK context, is scarce. The present study aims to begin addressing these gaps, by investigating the role language background can play in bilingual children’s writing performance, in addition to understanding both bilingual and monolingual pupils’ attitudes towards writing. A secondary analysis of data from Murphy et al. (2015) was undertaken. Quantitative data were analysed in investigating the relationships between 45 bilingual pupils’ language backgrounds and writing performance in the narrative and expository genres. Qualitative data consisted of interviews with 11 monolingual and bilingual pupils, that were analysed to ascertain pupils’ attitudes towards writing. This study revealed that of the different domains of language background examined, bilingual pupils’ computer use in English was found to be positively related to their writing performance in the narrative genre, and less consistently so with the expository genre. Regarding attitudes towards writing, the study identified specific elements pupils enjoyed, disliked and found difficult about writing, but also highlighted the uncertainty some pupils expressed in their attitudes towards writing. These findings have implications for teachers, researchers and parents in not only recognising the impact language background can have on pupils’ writing progress, but that writing tasks used to measure performance are subject to pupils’ attitudes, which may affect their engagement. We propose further research into measuring the nuances of language background, assessing the effectiveness of computer-based interventions in developing bilingual pupils’ writing, and quantifying attitudes to explore the possible relationships between pupils’ writing attitudes and their subsequent performance.