Effects of the Production-Oriented Approach on EFL Learners’ Writing Performance in China’s Tertiary Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-341
Author(s):  
Wenjuan Zhang

AbstractThe Production-Oriented Approach (POA) has been proposed as a remedy for overcoming the problem of input-output separation in the traditional text-centered teaching and learning paradigm in tertiary education in China. This two-week quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of the POA, compared with the traditional text-centered Intensive Reading Approach (IRA), on college students’ L2 writing performance in terms of overall quality of the writing and its components of language, idea, and discourse structure. Data included writing samples of both experimental and control groups before and after classroom instruction and the results of a language achievement test on mastery of target language forms predicating students’ language use in writing. The results showed that: 1) no significant difference was found between the two groups either in the overall quality or in the “idea” and “structure” of the written texts; 2) the experimental group outperformed the control group with respect to language use, in terms of both language quality and the frequency of target language use. These results indicated that the POA might have an advantage over the IRA in facilitating learners’ writing development.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 926-940
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Vasheghani Farahani ◽  
Omid Rezaei ◽  
Milad Masoomzadeh

Purpose The purpose of this paper (experimental–comparative research) is to investigate the possible impacts of explicit and implicit teaching Persian structures and editing methods on the translation performance of the Iranian undergraduate translation students. Design/methodology/approach This research enjoyed a quasi-experimental design. A quasi-experimental research design was used in this research, as it was impossible to assign random sampling to the subjects. In addition, this research was a comparative group study as there were two experimental groups with two different treatments and one control group with placebo. Table I represents the design of the research. Findings The results showed that before the treatment there were no significant differences between three groups in terms of translation performance; however, after treatment, the results indicated a statistically significant difference between two experimental groups and treatment group. Moreover, explicit instruction yielded more positive results than the implicit group. Originality/value Although research in the field of translation assessment and quality in relation to target language are prevalent and in spite of the abundance of research in the field of implicit/explicit instructions in second language teaching and learning, there is no research (to the best knowledge of authors) which looks at translation performance from teaching structures and editing methods of target language perspective with the focus of explicit and implicit (in an English–Persian context).


Author(s):  
Ayuni Madarina Abdul Rahman ◽  
Mohd. Nazri Latiff Azmi

Writing requires specific skills in brainstorming, organizing, editing, and proofreading. There are varieties of research conducted in finding which approach is the most impactful to teach writing and one of the approaches emphasized is blended learning, widely acceptable in education field. Nevertheless, its effectiveness on writing is still questionable and the effort to integrate blended learning in teaching writing needs a thorough consideration. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to researcrh the adequacy of blended learning approach on students’ writing performance. Employing an explanatory research type, an experimental research design was applied. A mixed-method method was executed to collect, analyse and interpret data. For quantitative, a quasi-experimental design was carried out to 60 respondents who were selected through purposive samplings and distributed to control and experimental groups. The study used pretest and posttest for both groups. The result shows that there is no significant difference of blended learning and students’ writing performance between the experimental group and control group in the pretest and posttest. Overall, the study shows that both instructions have place in writing. Hence, educators have to become eclectic practitioners who are able to apply suitable approach that can contribute to the growth of teaching and learning writing.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan Eslamian ◽  
Seyed Ebrahim Mirshah Jafari ◽  
Mohammad Reza Neyestani

AbstractThis quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of teaching aesthetic skills to faculty members on development of their effective teaching performance through a two-group pretest-posttest design. The sample included 32 faculty members at a major Iranian university who were divided into the experimental (11 participants) and control groups (21 participants). The experimental group was taught to use aesthetic skills in the teaching and learning processes; however, no intervention was applied to the control group. To evaluate the effective teaching performance of the faculty members, a tailor-made questionnaire was used in two pretest and posttest stages, where randomly chosen students were asked to express their opinions about the faculty membersí performance. The sample size of the students was 1096 in the pretest stage and 935 in the posttest stage. Paired t-test results showed that there was no significant difference between the mean effective teaching scores of the faculty members in the control group in the pretest stage and in the posttest stage. However, the mean effective teaching scores of the faculty members in the experimental group were found to be significantly higher in the posttest. In addition, although there was no significant difference between the mean effective teaching scores of the two faculty groups in the pretest, faculty members in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group. Based on the findings, applying aesthetic skills by faculty members in the teaching and learning processes can pave the way for sustainable development of their effective teaching performance. Therefore, faculty members are recommended to acquire the required knowledge and skills to better use aesthetic skills in the teaching process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Noura Al Burtamani ◽  
Fawzia Al Seyabi ◽  
Abdo Al Mekhlafi

This quasi experimental study aimed at investigating the effect of using Google Docs on EFL Omani college students’ writing performance and students’ perceptions of its use. The sample of the study included 81 Level 3 Foundation Program students in Nizwa College of Technology, Oman. The experimental group consisted of 39 students while the control group consisted of 42 students. The research instruments included a writing performance test that was administered as pre and post- test and a students’ perceptions questionnaire. Data analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the writing performance of the experimental and control groups in favour of the experimental group. The experimental group outperformed the control group in task achievement, task organization, grammar and vocabulary. Also, the students perceived using Google Docs in EFL writing as a very beneficial tool in improving their writing and collaboration skills. In light of these findings, a number of recommendations for practice are presented.


Prominent ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohmaniyah Nia ◽  
Nur Ekaningsih

Abstract: This research aims at finding out whether or not the use of chunking strategy is effective in developing students’ ability of story retelling to the tenth-grade students at MAN 01 Pekalongan. Quasi experimental research was applied as the method with two groups : experimental and control group. The total subject of this research was 52 students which were taken from two classes of X IPS 1 as a control group and X AGAMA 2 as an experimental group. Face and content validity were done by asking the English teacher and advisor to be expert judgements to validate the instrument by using a rubric appearance of test for face validity and its conformity by curriculum as a content validity. Inter-rater reliability in giving scores to the students’ was done to measure the reliability of the test. This research used SPSS in analysing the data of speaking test through several activities. They were pre-test before treatments, and post-test after treatments. The result of the research shows the significant difference in the story retelling ability between tenth grade students who were taught by using chunking strategy and those were not taught by using it. It can be seen in the result of mean score in the post-test of experimental class which is 89 and control class which is 83 and as a result Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.044 0.050. Therefore, the null hyothesis of this study is rejected. It means that the use of chunking strategy had significantly improved the tenth-grade students story retelling ability in English teaching and learning process of the experimental class at MAN 01 Pekalongan in the academic year 2019/2020. Keywords:     chunking, teaching speaking strategy, story retelling


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 178
Author(s):  
Nkechi Patricia-Mary Esomonu ◽  
Lydia Ijeoma Eleje

This study aimed at investigating the effect of diagnostic testing on students’ academic achievement in secondary school quantitative economics. In conducting the study, 3 research questions and 3 stated hypotheses were answered. The study is quasi-experimental employing 2x4 factorial pretest-posttest design. The sample consisted of 210 Senior Secondary 3 (SS3) economics students in the four co-educational schools purposely selected from Nnewi Education Zone of Anambra State in Nigeria. They were allocated to 3 experimental groups and 1 control group. Students’ responses to two instruments titled Diagnostic Quantitative Economics Skill Test (DQEST) and Test of Achievement in Quantitative Economics (TAQE) constituted relevant data for the study. Instruments for data analysis were t-test and ANCOVA. Results of the analysis indicate a significant effect of treatment on students’ achievement in favor of DQEST with feedback and remediation group only (F (3, 209) = 22.3114, p > 0.05). Gender made no significant difference on students’ achievement in TAQE. Thus, diagnostic tests are effective when used with feedback and remediation. The use of DQEST with feedback and remediation in teaching and learning of quantitative economics is therefore recommended.


Author(s):  
Marbella Binti Justine ◽  
Rosliah Kiting ◽  
Julita@Norjietta Binti Taisin

Reading skill is an important skill in Kadazandusun language to enable pupils to follow and master the teaching and learning in the classroom. However, the findings from previous studies show that most pupils in primary schools have yet to master the basic skills of reading in the pronunciation aspect. Therefore, this study has to be carried out to study the effectiveness of ‘Sinding Pimato’ software application on the reading achievement of the Year One pupils. This study is a quasi-experimental study. The quantitative approach is used together with pre and post-test instruments. A total of 30 Year One pupils in a school at Tambunan District have become the sample for this study. The sample of the study was divided into two groups, namely the experimental group taught using ‘Sinding Pimato’ software and the control group taught by Chalk and Talk method. The findings show that there is a significant difference in the achievement of reading between the experimental group and the control group. The findings of this study show that the application of ‘Sinding Pimato’ learning software is effective in helping to improve the achievement of reading for the Year One pupils. In conclusion, the ‘Sinding Pimato’ software has an effective effect as a learning tool for Kadazandusun Language. The implication of the study shows that the ‘Sinding Pimato’ software is useful to improve the quality of teaching and learning Kadazandusun language curriculum.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-169
Author(s):  
Akawo Angwal Yaki ◽  
Koroka Mohammed Sanda ◽  
Rabiu Mohammad Bello

The study examined the effects of Improvised Instructional Material Enhanced Biology Achievement among Secondary School Students in Lapai, Niger State. Quasi-experimental design which involved pretest, posttest, experimental and control group. A total of eight five (85) Senior Secondary two (SSII) students randomly selected from two sampled schools formed the sample size of the study. The instrument used for data collection was a researchers’ designed Biology Achievement Test (BAT). The instrument was validated, and pilot tested and yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.75. Two research questions were raised, and two corresponding null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study, the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significant. The result of the study showed among others a significant difference in achievement score of the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. The finding also showed that both male and female students’ achievements were enhanced equally. It was recommended among others that Biology teachers should be encouraged to improvise instructional materials for effective teaching and learning of Biology.    


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Jean Mendezabal ◽  
Darin Jan Tindowen

This study examined the effects of using Microsoft Mathematics on students’ attitude, conceptual understanding, and procedural skills in Differential Calculus. A quasi-experimental research design was used in which two different learning environments were compared. The participants of the study were two classes of Electrical Engineering students enrolled in Differential Calculus course, assigned randomly as control and experimental groups with 30 students in each group. The control group was taught using the traditional approach of teaching Differential Calculus while the experimental group was taught the same lessons using the Microsoft Mathematics embedded activity sheets. The experimental group learned through exploration and discovery of various concepts. The findings indicated that the participants had little understanding of the concepts and processes of Calculus prior to the conduct of the study. A significant improvement in their performances was noted after the experimentation. This suggests that the use of Microsoft Mathematics in teaching and learning Differential Calculus improves students’ conceptual understanding and procedural skills. It is also found that the use of Microsoft Mathematics in teaching and learning calculus is equally effective as the traditional approach. In terms of attitude, the experimental group demonstrated a “favorable” to “very highly favorable” attitude along the five (5) domains of the MTAS. A significant difference exists between the pretest and posttest attitude of the subjects on the domain “learning Mathematics with technology”. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-116
Author(s):  
Morenikeji Alex Akanmu

The performance of Nigerian students in the Senior School Certificate Mathematics Examinations over the years has not been encouraging. Studies have indicated that this is partly due to students’ lack of in-depth knowledge of some selected topics in mathematics. Pieces of evidence abound in literature and WAEC Chief examiner’s reports indicating that students performed poorly in set theory with Venn diagram. Therefore, this study examined the effects of think-pair-share on senior school students’ performance in mathematics in Ilorin, Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to examine: (i) the performance of students’ taught set theory using think-pair-share cooperative instructional strategy; (ii) the difference in the performance of students taught using think-pair-share instructional strategy based on gender and score level; (iii) the influence of think-pair-share instructional strategy on students’ retention in set theory. The researcher employed a quasi-experimental design for the study. The sample consisted of 118 SS II students. The instruments used for the study was Mathematics Performance Test (MPT). The instruments yielded reliability values of 0.78 using Pearson Product Moment Correlation procedure. The data collected were analyzed using independent sample t-test, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Findings of the study showed: (i)  a statistically significant difference in the performance of students taught set theory using think-pair-share compared with their counterparts in the control group in favour of think-pair-share group, (ii) no statistically significant difference in the performance of male and female students taught set theory in Mathematics using think-pair-share; (iii) no statistically significant difference in the performance of students taught set theory in Mathematics using think-pair-share based on scoring levels; and (iv) a statistically significant difference in the knowledge retained by students taught set theory in Mathematics using think-pair-share compared with their counterparts in the control group in favour of think-pair-share group. The study concluded that the use of think-pair-share improved students’ performance in Mathematics, gender of a student does not affect his or her performance in Mathematics, and the use of think-pair-share improved the retention ability of the students. It was recommended among others that the use of think-pair-share be encouraged for teaching and learning of Mathematics at all levels of education.


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