Teaching Writing at the Elementary Level

This study was undertaken to investigate the outcome of using the activity based learning method on the development of writing skills of students of grade 6. The study used pretest post-test equivalent group design. 50 students were randomly selected from a government school as sample for this study. They were divided into experimental and control groups based on the scores they achieved in pre-test. Students in the experimentalgroup received instruction through activity based method of learning. In contrast, the traditional method of teaching writing was used for teaching the control group. A comparison of pre- and post-test scores on writing measure evidenced that the experimental group performed better that the control group on writing post-test. It was concluded that activities helped enhance the writing skills of the experimental group. This finding suggests that students of elementary level should be engaged in activity based learning to enhance their writing skills.

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Dictogloss or Processing Instruction: Which Works Better on EFL Learners’ Writing Accuracy?

Porta Linguarum Revista Interuniversitaria de Didáctica de las Lenguas Extranjeras ◽

10.30827/portalin.v0i36.20909 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 263-277

Author(s):

Yasaman Azmoon

Keyword(s):

Teaching Writing ◽

Elementary Level ◽

Instructional Interventions ◽

Approaches To Teaching ◽

Processing Instruction ◽

Focus On Form ◽

Efl Learners ◽

The Mean ◽

Writing Accuracy ◽

Writing Task

Although many investigations have been carried out into the consequence of applying different approaches to teaching writing, there is still a lack of the empirical comparing research into two influential focus-on-form methods of generating writing accuracy. This study is therefore significant as it is the very first study that compares the relative effects of the two instructional interventions of dictogloss and processing instruction on EFL learners’ writing accuracy. To achieve the abovementioned aim, 56 teenage Iranian participants with elementary level English were homogenized and selected out of 90 learners at a language school, using the results of a piloted sample Key English Test (KET). These participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups with 28 participants in each to practice in one group dictogloss tasks and in the other processing instruction tasks after a pretest. A picture sequence writing task was administered as a posttest at the end of the treatments to both groups. Finally the mean scores of both groups on the posttest were compared through an independent samples t-test. The result rejected the null hypothesis demonstrating that dictogloss could significantly motivate the participants who outperformed the processing instruction group regarding their writing accuracy.

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Het Verbeteren van Andermans Tekst; Evaluaties, Diagnoses en Effectieve Revisies van Leerlingen Eind Basisschool

Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen ◽

10.1075/ttwia.48.08gel ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 48 ◽

pp. 67-77

Author(s):

Amos van Gelderen

Keyword(s):

Elementary School ◽

Expository Text ◽

Teaching Writing ◽

Elementary Level ◽

Think Aloud ◽

Experimental Task ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Revision Process ◽

Virtual Absence ◽

Fellow Student

Results of a study into revision skills of 32 elementary school pupils (grades 5-6) are presented. A further analysis is given based upon concrete revisions these students have carried out and on their verbalizations during the process. The experimental task consisted of revising a given expository text supposedly written by a fellow student, but in fact composed on the basis of several texts written by students of the same age. Subjects were asked to think aloud and were specifically asked to evaluate each part of the text to be revised. When problems were detected a diagnosis and suggestions for improvement had to be given. Finally subjects dictated their revision to the experimenter. The analysis aims at the question what specific difficulties in the revision process might explain the virtual absence of revision activity at the level of communicative content in students' normal writing behaviour. Based upon a model of the revision process by Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) some explanations are explored. This so-called CDO-model (Compare, Diagnose, Operate) suggests that writers go through a recursive process in which the three components are the most important cognitive steps. Although the results of the study show that most students do possess the necessary skills to carry out each of the steps (under experimental conditions designed to facilitate the revision process), it is also shown that the students still have an inadequate concept of the task. More specifically, their awareness of the consequences of changing parts of a text for surrounding parts is limited, and the students are not inclined to check these consequences mentally before carrying out a final revision. This explains why the students were rather successful in detecting problems in a text, diagnosing them and eliminating them, but at the same time introduced new problems (both at the level of communicative content and formal aspects of usage). Some implications for teaching writing at the elementary level are discussed.

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