The word-association instructional strategy for writing compositions, commonly used in elementary and junior high schools, is based on the use of word associations. Even though there are reasons to believe that this strategy can improve written compositions, the evidence available is not as yet conclusive. One of the supposed merits of this strategy is the increase in length of the compositions. To further investigate the above findings, two groups of fifth graders, one experimental (
N=30) and one control (
N=35), were asked to write two compositions. Both groups did not differ in the first compositions, but did in the second compositions; only the experimental group was found to follow this strategy. Confirming the supposed effect of this strategy on composition length, the compositions of the experimental group were longer than those of the control group. However, the effect of this strategy on composition length in the second composition was limited only to those experimental subjects whose first composition was relatively short.
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