Writing Motivation and Writing Performance of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Elementary School Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between writing motivation and performance for students in grades three to five, and whether scores differed based on students’ language status, gender, or grade level. Three student language groups were included: (1) emergent bilingual students currently receiving services for English language development (ELD); (2) reclassified bilingual students who had exited ELD programs; and (3) native English-speaking students. The district administered a performance measure and a motivational measure to participating students (N = 1126). Intrinsic and self-regulatory motivation scores were significantly higher for emergent bilingual students (intrinsic M = 2.07; self-regulatory M = 2.48) and reclassified bilingual students (M = 1.99; M = 2.71) than their native English-speaking peers (M = 1.67; M = 2.30). On extrinsic motivation for writing, reclassified bilingual students (M = 2.69) scored significantly higher than both emergent bilingual students (M = 2.49) and native English speaking student (M = 2.57). Fourth and fifth graders scored significantly higher than third graders on extrinsic (M = 2.68, 2.74, 2.31, respectively) and self-regulatory motivation (M = 2.53, 2.59, 2.21 respectively), while only fourth graders scored significantly higher than third graders on intrinsic motivation (M = 1.90, M = 1.76). The only significant difference by gender was found on extrinsic motivation, where girls (M = 2.67) scored higher than boys (M = 2.53). On the district writing test, native English speaking students (M = 5.15) scored significantly higher than both reclassified (M = 4.95) and emergent bilingual students (M = 3.94). Reclassified bilingual students scored significantly higher than emergent bilingual students. In terms of grade, gender, and performance, fifth graders (M = 5.58) scored significantly higher than fourth (M = 4.56) and third graders (M = 4.31), and girls (M = 5.07) scored significantly higher than boys (M¬ = 4.64). Finally, after accounting for significant variance in district writing scores according to language status, gender, and grade (R2 = .22), the motivational incentives for writing significantly predicted an additional 1% of the variance. Findings are discussed according to the Writer(s)-Within-Community model (Graham, 2018).