Experimental Verification of the Model for Developing Foreign Language Writing Competence in Future Masters in National Security

Abstract

This article reports the design, procedure and results of a pedagogical experiment conducted to verify the effectiveness of the authors' model for developing foreign language writing competence in future masters in national security who study a foreign (Croatian) language from scratch. The study aims to answer two key questions: (1) how should the experimental verification of such a model be organised under the constraints of small language groups typical of higher military educational institutions (HMEIs)? (2) does instruction under the proposed model and pedagogical conditions produce a statistically significant advantage over traditional instruction? The model comprises target, methodological, content, procedural and diagnostic-resultative blocks and is implemented through a set of pedagogical conditions. A natural open experiment covered four stages – ascertaining, intermediate, formative and interpretative – with the formative stage running through the 2021–2023 and 2023–2025 academic years in two experimental (EG 1, 2) and two control (CG 1, 2) groups formed from successive trainee intakes. Learning outcomes were diagnosed through two STANAG 6001-based test administrations. Given the small samples, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was applied, computed in SPSS and verified manually. The empirical value U = 0 for both administrations, with an exact two-tailed significance of p = 0.029 (p < 0.05), warranted rejection of the null hypothesis: the writing competence of EG trainees proved statistically significantly higher than that of their CG peers. The effectiveness of the pedagogical conditions was further corroborated by a group expert assessment (18 experts, group representativeness K_gr = 0.72), in which over 90 % of the experts confirmed the proposed conditions. The findings offer HMEIs an evidence-based, transferable framework for ab initio foreign language instruction aligned with NATO language policy, and demonstrate a statistically rigorous verification procedure suitable for the small cohorts in which military language training is typically delivered.