‘Righting’ the wrong: Text revision in ESL students’ composing processes in senior high schools in Greater Accra, Ghana

Abstract

Revision is a fundamental strategy in second language learners’ text composition primarily because it guarantees congruence between these learners’ translated texts and their writing intentions as they effortfully compose in a nonnative language. As such, as part of a larger study, the current research explores the revision behaviours of learners in English composition in senior high schools in Greater Accra, Ghana. Twenty-four students were purposively sampled to write a timed argumentative essay under think-aloud conditions. The data were analysed using Conijn et al.'s (2021) tagset of revision as an analytical framework. The findings show unique and general characteristics of the trigger, spatial location, sequence, orientation, evaluation, action and linguistic domains of the students’ revision behaviours. Also, the findings reveal significant weaknesses in the revision behaviours of the participants and offer insights into aspects of their overall composing competence. From the findings, English language teachers in Ghana are encouraged to adopt revision-strategy instruction and also develop the cognitive and metacognitive skills of their students.