Contribution of an academic writing intervention on the micro-macrostructure skills of students with intellectual disability

Academic writing is a complex task involving microstructure (linguistic-level) and macrostructure (coherence structure) indices. Our goal was to examine the contribution of an academic writing intervention programme among students with intellectual disability at the microstructure and macrostructure levels while characterising the learning curves. Six students with mild intellectual disability studying for a BA (MCA = 30.43, MIQ = 69.17) participated in a spiral intervention programme of 32 lessons focusing on improving paragraph complexity and text structure measured at five time-points. Microstructure improvement in number of words, sentences, paragraphs, words per paragraph, lexical density, adjectives along with macrostructure improvement in text-paragraph structure, global-local linkage were found. A rapid increase in macrostructure indices was observed between the first and second testing points, after which a ceiling effect was reached. Concurrently, microstructure indices demonstrated a slower, more gradual learning curve throughout the intervention period. The discussion will focus on the improvement patterns in microstructure–macrostructure indices and the various learning curves observed. It explores the implications of these findings for cognitive modifiability in adults with intellectual disability and the potential of tailored academic writing interventions in post-secondary education programmes.