The mediating effect of feedback-seeking behavior on the relationship between ideal L2 writing self and story continuation writing performance: A multigroup structural equation modeling approach

The existing literature on the “the motivation → behavior → outcome chain” has implied that ideal L2 writing self should be equipped with appropriate behavioral strategies to facilitate writing achievement. Feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) includes both feedback monitoring and feedback inquiry and offers a novel perspective. Using a sample of 589 Chinese high school students with low, mid, high levels of writing proficiency, this study explores the mediating role of FSB in the relationship between ideal L2 writing self and story continuation writing performance. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results showed no significant mediating effect in the full sample model. However, such an effect varied across the different levels of L2 writing competence: (1) for the low-achieving students, the indirect path from ideal L2 writing self to writing performance via FSB was not evident; (2) for the mid-achieving students, feedback monitoring positively mediated the relationship between ideal L2 writing self and writing performance, whereas feedback inquiry had a negative mediation effect on this relationship; (3) for the high-achieving students, feedback monitoring had a significantly negative mediation effect, while feedback inquiry had a marginally positive mediation effect. The implications of the findings are discussed.