Direct and indirect effects of independent language skills on the integrated writing performance of Chinese-speaking students with low proficiency

Integrated writing is increasingly used in language assessment programmes. As a hybrid task, it requires students to coordinate different skills, i.e. listening, reading and writing, retrieve information from multiple sources, compose an essay for specific purpose. Tapping into the varied skills that contribute successful integrated especially beneficial low proficiency students. However, mechanisms underlying impact of these on performance have yet be thoroughly studied. This study sampled 103 first-year undergraduate Hong Kong who showed relatively Chinese language. They completed three independent tasks measuring their reading, skills; listening-reading-writing task; strategy use questionnaire. The results indicated together, accounted 29.5% variance performance, suggesting skill goes far beyond simple combination writing. Independent strongest correlation with while both listening exerted direct indirect effects performance. effect was insignificant, even though two were significantly correlated. These offer insights complex relationships between skills. findings enrich our understanding construct as well suggest strategies teaching less proficient learners.