Analysis of Meta-text Writing Ability in Students with Intellectual Disabilities

This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of meta-text writing manifested in the free expressive writing of students with intellectual disabilities and to examine how they employ metalanguage throughout the writing process.For this purpose, 325 texts comprising 1,925 sentences were collected from Korean language classes of 53 middle and high school students with intellectual disabilities who experienced substantial difficulties in writing.The texts were analyzed based on the textual developmental structure proposed by Daneš (1974) and the principle of textual resumption developed by Brinker (1992).The results showed that the most frequently observed textual developmental structures were topic progression with a constant theme pattern (40.1%) and simple linear progression (39.3%).In contrast, the derived hypertheme progression pattern was the least frequent (1.6%).Regarding textual resumption, explicit-equivalent-situational cohesion (26.0%) and explicit-inclusive-logical cohesion (20.9%) were the most prevalent types, while explicit-equivalentsubstitution (1.1%) occurred least frequently.In addition, school level was associated with statistically significant differences in both textual developmental structures and textual resumption patterns.Students with intellectual disabilities rely on repetitive, linear text structures and distinct cohesive patterns.This study clarifies meta-text writing characteristics and offers educational supports to develop written discourse competence for these learners.