The Effects of Creative Writing Practices on the Writing Skills of Students Learning Turkish as a Second Language

Background: English Second Language (ESL) learners have difficulty constructing sentences due to internalising information in their home language and thereafter translating it into English. Learners who have difficulty speaking English generally encounter problems writing it, which hampers their creative writing ability.Objectives: The purpose of the research was to identify a teaching strategy to facilitate ESL learners with creative writing. This study explored the influence of flashcards on the creative writing skills of Grade 1 ESL learners and improved the researchers’ teaching practice.Method: This qualitative study depicted an action research design and utilised an inductive approach to data analysis. Convenience sampling was used when selecting the participants who were 31 Grade 1 learners in a school in Pietermaritzburg. The flashcards were used during the implementation stage of the action research process as an intervention to enhance learners’ creative writing skills.Findings: The findings indicate that learners who participated in the study had improved in their written assessments. There were three themes identified, which included misspelt words, incorrect use of tenses and ungrammatical sentence construction. Flashcards revealed the correct sentence writing techniques by depicting sentences. Learners’ written pieces were more logical and they participated actively during lessons. This enhanced the researcher’s teaching practice, which catered to both visual and auditory learners.Conclusion: The findings suggest that the use of flashcards had a positive effect on ESL learners’ creative writing skills. This encouraged participatory teaching and learning, which can be of benefit to many teachers seeking to engage learners using alternate learning styles.

Download Full-text

Editorial - Second Language Writing Practices, Identity, and the Academic Achievement of Children from Marginalized Social Groups: A Comprehensive View

Writing & Pedagogy ◽

10.1558/wap.v3i2.181 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Shelley K. Taylor ◽

Jim Cummins

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Second Language ◽

Second Language Writing ◽

Social Groups ◽

Comprehensive View ◽

Writing Practices ◽

Language Writing

Download Full-text

Improving the 5th Formers’ Continuous Writing Skills through the Creative Writing Module

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ◽

10.7575/aiac.alls.v.4n.2p.7 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 7-12

Author(s):

Mohana Ram Murugiah

Keyword(s):

Creative Writing ◽

Writing Skills

Download Full-text

Dynamic Transfer and Relations between First Language (L1) Proficiency and Second Language (L2) Writing Skills Performance

10.31235/osf.io/2t6cf ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Abdulelah Alkhateeb

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

English Language ◽

First Language ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Arabic Language ◽

Future Research ◽

Dynamic Relationship ◽

Arabic And English ◽

L1 And L2

This study investigates the transfer relationship between first language (L1) (Arabic) proficiency and second language (L2) (English) performance in writing skills of a Saudi bilingual graduate student. Several studies have discussed the transfer issues in language learning, yet a few of them focus on the transfer relationships between Arabic and English language writing skills. Regardless of the huge linguistic distinction between the English language and Arabic language, it is presumed that Arabic and English writing skills positively, negatively, and neutrally transferred in a dynamic relationship. The researcher has conducted observations and interviews with Fatimah, the participant of this study, and analyzed her texts in both languages to illustrate how dynamic relationships between L1 and L2 in the composition skills is and what the effects of language transfer in the composition skills between L1 and L2 are. The data were collected and analyzed in January 2018. The results demonstrate effects of L2 on L1 as the following; first, a reverse or backward transfer implemented in three ways; positive, negative, and neutral transfer. Second, they indicate that there is a dynamic relationship between second language performance and first language proficiency in composition particularly. It is hoped that this knowledge will assist students in being aware of the effects of L2 on L1 specifically in composition and taking the advantages to accelerate the rate of language learning. It is recommended for future research to conduct studies in bilingual writings to investigate how L1 could be a resource and advocate of language development.

Download Full-text