Hong Kong primary students' self-regulated writing strategy use: Influences of gender, writing proficiency, and grade level

The multifaceted nature of writing makes it one of the most challenging school subjects for English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students. Despite its importance and wide attention attracted, primary school students' unsatisfactory writing performance has been little researched. As an optimal way of learning, self-regulated learning (SRL) has gained surging popularly in various academic disciplines but the field of second language (L2) writing is still underexplored. To fill the gap, the study investigated 291 upper-grade (4th-6th grades) Hong Kong primary students' use of SRL writing strategies, and explored whether the students' strategy use varied between genders, and across English writing proficiency groups and grade levels. A three-way MANOVA was performed and results showed that the students' SRL writing strategy use varied significantly between genders, and across different writing proficiency groups and grade levels. Interaction effects of grade level and gender were also discovered. Important implications are drawn.