Attitudes towards writing of Portuguese adolescents

• Autor(a) principal: Camacho, Ana
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Silva, Mariana, Santos, Susana, Jacques, Teresa, Alves, Rui A.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v12i2.17466

Reading and writing play key roles in contemporary societies, therefore learning these skills are two of the most important goals in compulsory education. Mastering writing is a valuable asset; however many students fail to develop strong writing skills (Graham, 2008). Furthermore, writing is frequently conceived as a rigid and demotivating task, especially after elementary school (Boscolo & Hidi, 2007). This article focuses on attitudes towards writing of Portuguese students from grade 5 to 8. Specifically, we aim to: (1) analyse gender-based differences in attitudes towards writing; (2) explore grade-level differences in these attitudes; and (3) examine the unique influence of writing attitudes on text quality. In this study, a sample of 553 students completed a set of writing-related tasks: questionnaires about attitudes and writing habits, transcription skills tasks, and narrative and argumentative writing. Results showed that girls reported more positive attitudes towards writing than boys in all grade-levels. Fifth graders also showed more positive attitudes than students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Lastly, attitudes towards writing made a significant and independent contribution to the quality of narrative and argumentative texts. These results are relevant to the teaching of writing in Basic Education.