scholarly journals Enhancing Iranian EFL Learners’ Descriptive Writing Through a Genre-based Pedagogy

Author(s):  
Mahsa Assadi

The present study is an investigation to study the influence of genre-based instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ descriptive writing. After applying an OPT, 60 out of 80 Iranian EFL M.A. male and female students from two Azad universities in Tehran, Iran, were selected as the main participants of the current study. The qualified participants were randomly divided into one experimental group and one control group each with 30 learners. The experimental group had the genres based instruction on descriptive writing. The treatment was given in 16 sequential sessions about 30 minutes at the beginning of each session. The control group received no special treatment and it was taught based on traditional methodology of writing instruction. At the initial stage of the experiment, to estimate participants’ knowledge at the beginning of the study, a pretest on writing performance was run to all participants. In this test, the two groups must write two compositions about the same topics. At the end of the study, a posttest was applied to check the participants’ descriptive writing after having instruction. The participants’ scores on the pretest and posttest were compared to estimate the degree of participants’ progress within the group, and also the scores of the two groups were compared with each other to measure the function of instruction. The analysis of the results presented that learners in both groups had the same ability but learners in experimental group outperformed than learners in control group and it was concluded that genres based instruction as treatment worked well. The findings of this study are useful for learners to improve their writing skills. Another significance of this study is to build learners’ confidence to echo their voice in the international educational contexts and to publish their articles in famous worldwide journals.

The purpose of the research was to investigatethe effect of activity-based games on the academic achievement of graduate-level pupils in social sciences.An experimental research design with a pre-and post-test control group was used in this study. As pre-test and post-test, MCQ achievement tests containing 70 items were used as research methods for data collecting. The initial stage in this initiative was to collect data on what inspires children to learn. Both groups took a pre-test, and the results were tallied.The project's second phase was to study the effects of variousactivities on academic achievement. Both groups were given an MCQ performance test. The T-test was used to analyze the data. The findings of this study demonstrated that, compared to the control group, mostpupils'marks improved in the experimental group. The mean value showedthat experimental group participants scored 18.77on the post-test, while control group students scored 16.21. According to a post-lesson poll, most students regarded activity-based games to be more engaging than lecture-based instruction.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-114
Author(s):  
Alanoud Ahmed Aldukhi

The present study investigated the impact of the station rotation model (SRM) on enhancing students’ descriptive writing skills. It adopted the quasi-experimental pre-post test control/ experimental group design. The tools of the study included a pre/post- descriptive writing skills test, and open-ended questionnaire. The participants of the study were selected randomly, 40 female students enrolled in the twelfth intermediate school in Riyadh. Students of the experimental group received the descriptive writing skills instructions in nine sessions based on the SRM, two of them were for training. The study results revealed statistically significant differences at 0.05 level between the mean scores of the control and the experimental groups on the post test in favor of the experimental group in overall descriptive writing skills as well as in each descriptive writing skill. The researcher recommended that there is a real necessity from educators and teachers to prepare appropriate curriculums that involve implementing the station rotation model inside the classrooms, in a way that corresponds with teachers’ ability and students’ need, aiming to gain the mentioned advantages.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Shahram Esfandiari Asl ◽  
Asgar Mahmoudi

The current study was carried out to investigate whether elaborative text modification improves reading comprehension ability of pre-intermediate male and female EFL learners. To do this, 60 pre-intermediate learners were chosen based on their performance on a standard version of Longman's New Opportunities Placement Test. The participants also received a piloted version of a researcher-made reading comprehension test as the pretest to ascertain their homogeneity. The participants were then divided into two equal groups to represent the experimental and the control groups. Each group was further subdivided into male and female groups. Five reading passages in two formats (unmodified and elaborated) were administered to the participants in five weeks which was followed by a posttest. The experimental group received the elaborated texts, while the control group received the unmodified baseline texts. The results of a Two-way ANOVA indicated no significant effect for gender but there was a significant difference between the experimental and the control groups' reading comprehension. Findings of the study suggest that elaborative text modification can be a worthy option in EFL reading classes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Suleiman Al Qunayeer ◽  
Enas Abdelwahab Eltom RahmtAllah

Writing is considered a very important learning tool for all content areas. There is no doubt that writing skill is essential for any kind of learning either at the school or the university level. Therefore, the present study attempted to explore the possibility of improving university students’ one of writing sub-skills, known as coherence through emoji. Coherence in the students’ writing was measured according to the students ability to a) use repetition to link ideas, sentences, and paragraphs, b)use transitional expressions to link ideas, sentences, and paragraphs, c) use pronouns to link sentences, d)use synonyms to link ideas and create variety, e) use parallel structures to link ideas, sentences, and paragraphs. The sample of this study was randomly selected from the Third Level female students joining the Department of English at one Saudi public university. The selected subjects were assigned randomly into control group and experimental group. After administrating the pretest for the two groups, the experimental group was given a six-week treatment of emoji meant for improving the writing sub-skill, while the control group was taught writing without using emoji. One week after the treatment, a posttest was administered to the two groups. Results revealed significant difference between the students’ scores in writing in favor of using emoji to improve students’ writing skills. Thus, the findings show the effectiveness of using emoji in improving students’ coherence in writing. The results were used to draw some conclusions and to suggest some recommendations for teaching writing using emoji. The results also recommend further researches to be done on using emoji to improve other language skills and sub-skills.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-88
Author(s):  
Mohammed Issaka

This study purposely investigated the impact of using inquiry-based teaching method on students’ academic achievement and retention of concept in integrated science against the traditional method in some selected senior high schools in the Obuasi Municipality. The study also investigated the difference in the mean achievement score between male and female students taught integrated science using inquiry -based method. The sample for the study was 292 students in SHS two from Christ the King Catholic Senior High School and Obuasi Secondary Technical in the Obuasi Municipality. The sample were obtained through random sample technique. The experimental group received instructions in integrated science using inquiry-based method of teaching whereas the control group were taught with the traditional method. The data were collected through the use of pretest- posttest research design and were analyze according to the research question for the study. The main research question for the study was: What is the effect of inquiry-based method of teaching on students’ achievement and retention of concepts in integrated science? The results from the study indicates that the students in the experimental group performed better than the students in the control group. The findings also show that students who were instructed with inquiry-based method have higher retention capacity than their counterpart students who were exposed to traditional method. There was a slightly gender disparity in the achievement and retention capacity of both male and female students taught integrated science with inquiry-based method in favour of the male. This means that inquiry-based method is very rewarding to students in terms of achievement and retention regardless of gender.


Author(s):  
Maryam Danaye Tous ◽  
Abdorreza Tahriri ◽  
Sara Haghighi

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of instruction through debate on the male and female EFL learners’ reading comprehension, and to examine the difference between male and female EFL learners’ perception towards instructing critical thinking (CT) through debate. 88 learners, out of 120, were selected through convenience sampling method. Using a quantitative research method with experimental pre-and post-tests design, this study consisted of 44 participants in the experimental group and 44 participants in the control group. The experimental group received some treatment in the form of “the Meeting-House Debate” strategy, while the control group received no such treatment. After one month and a half treatment of experimental group, both groups participated in the post-test. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics procedures. Findings showed that the debate strategy had statistically significant effect on the students’ reading comprehension. Also, results revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female EFL learners’ perception towards instructing CT through debate. It was concluded that instructing CT skills through debate strategy resulted in better understanding of reading texts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ali Mohamed Kassem

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of using wikis on developing business writing skills and reducing writing anxiety of Business Administration students at Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz University, KSA. Sixty students, who were randomly chosen and divided into two equivalent groups: control and experimental, participated in the study. Two main tools were devised to collect data: Test of Business Writing Skills (TBWS) and Writing Anxiety Inventory (WAI). The experiment was conducted during the second semester of the academic year 2015-2016. A t-test was utilized to calculate the differences between the mean scores of the two groups in pre- and post-intervention. The findings of the study showed statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group and the control group on the post-TBWS in favor of the experimental group. In addition, the writing anxiety level of the experimental group, after the intervention, was significantly less than the control group. These findings revealed the positive effects of wikis on developing business writing skills and reducing writing anxiety of EFL learners. It is recommended that sufficient training should be provided to instructors on how to integrate wikis in business writing instruction. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are presented.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukie Saito ◽  
Kazuya Saito

The current study examined in depth the effects of suprasegmental-based instruction on the global (comprehensibility) and suprasegmental (word stress, rhythm, and intonation) development of Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Students in the experimental group ( n = 10) received a total of three hours of instruction over six weeks, while those in the control group ( n = 10) were provided with meaning-oriented instruction without any focus on suprasegmentals. Speech samples elicited from read-aloud tasks were assessed via native-speaking listeners’ intuitive judgments and acoustic analyses. Overall, the pre-/post-test data showed significant gains in the overall comprehensibility, word stress, rhythm, and intonation of the experimental group in both trained and untrained lexical contexts. In particular, by virtue of explicitly addressing first language / second language linguistic differences, the instruction was able to help learners mark stressed syllables with longer and clearer vowels; reduce vowels in unstressed syllables; and use appropriate intonation patterns for yes/no and wh-questions. The findings provide empirical support for the value of suprasegmental-based instruction in phonological development, even with beginner-level EFL learners with a limited amount of second-language conversational experience.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-106
Author(s):  
Khalil Motalebzadeh ◽  
Abdolghafour Bejarzehi ◽  
Hossein Sheikhzadeh

This study aims at investigating the effects of types of oral texts’ genres on listening comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. The participants of the study were 65 male and female EFL students which all of them from Issar institute in Nikshahr and Chabahar. In order to have homogeneous groups and real-intermediate level students, the first part of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) containing 40 questions was performed. After the sampling procedure, the pretest was performed and then students were randomly assigned to two groups of control and experimental. The experimental group received a course encompassing the instruction of generic features including news with two genres, political and economic, for twenty sessions of instruction. The subjects in the control group listened to some pieces of news (without any specific generic features, mostly reports with ordinary people about routines). The results showed the experimental group had a better performance on the listening comprehension posttest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-386
Author(s):  
Ika Hidayanti ◽  
Eko Suhartoyo ◽  
Kurniasih Kurniasih

  The current study aims at investigating the effectiveness of using strategy-based instruction on the student’s listening achievement. This research applied quasi-experimental design, and the instruments were pretest and posttest. Both tests were about putting the pictures in order and form completion.  Prior to strategy choice, this study utilized Posteriori Taxonomy of Strategies of Learning English Listening Skill (Zuhairi & Hidayanti, 2014) especially focusing on the use of eight strategy categories deployed by successful students (Hidayanti & Umamah, 2018). Gaining the result from Independent t-Test analysis, it was found out that the experimental group outperformed better than their counterparts in control group. Thus, Strategy-based instruction plays important role to enhance and improve the EFL learners’ listening skill. 


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