Acquisition of the linearization process in text composition in third to ninth graders: effects of textual superstructure and macrostructural organization.

Two complementary experiments analyzed the acquisition of text content linearization in writing, in French-speaking participants from third to ninth grades. In both experiments, a scrambled text paradigm was used: eleven ideas presented in random order had to be rearranged coherently so as to compose a text. Linearization was analyzed on the basis of the conceptual ordering of ideas and writing fluency. The first experiment focused on the effect of superstructural facilitation (in decreasing order: 1--instructional, 2--narrative, 3--argumentative), while the second experiment studied the effect of prewriting conditions: 1-scrambled presentation, 2--macrostructural facilitation, 3--ideas given in optimal order (control condition). As expected, scores in conceptual ordering and writing fluency improved through the grade levels. Students were most successful with respect to conceptual ordering in the instructional superstructure, followed by the narrative and finally the argumentative superstructures. The prewriting assignment also had the expected effect (control better than macrostructural presentation which, in turn, was better than the random order) but only with the argumentative superstructure. Contrary to conceptual ordering, writing fluency was not affected by the type of superstructure, although we did record an effect of the prewriting condition. The results are discussed in light of Bereiter and Scardamalia's knowledge transforming strategy (1987) taking into account cognitive development and French language curriculum.