Fluency development through freewriting and transfer to other more structured tasks

This study investigated the effect of consistent freewriting practice on written fluency development. Thirty-nine first-year university students completed 70 10-minute freewriting activities over the course of an academic semester. Written fluency, measured as words produced per minute (wpm), increased from a mean of 19.5 wpm to 30.1 wpm over a period of 15 weeks. Further analysis revealed statistically significant gains over two-week intervals. The participants also wrote three timed TOEFL-style essays at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester to see whether fluency gains transferred to more structured contexts. The results showed a statistically significant increase in written output on the timed essays, along with an increase in holistic scores. Findings indicate that consistent freewriting can result in rapid and statistically significant fluency gains that carry over to other more structured contexts. In addition, the improved scores on the timed essays suggest increased fluency may allow learners to attend to other aspects of writing, improving the global quality of the text. A detailed description of the fluency building activity and discussion of results are provided.