The effectiveness of writing techniques in improving students’ writing ability with different self-esteem

Identifying appropriate writing techniques to help students with different self-esteem improve their writing ability needs to be considered by educators. This study attempted to examine the effectiveness of two writing techniques, Reflective Learning Portfolio (RLP) and Dialogue Journal Writing (DJW) in improving the writing ability of undergraduate students with different self-esteem. A quasi-experimental design was employed in this study. The participants of the study were 62 undergraduate students from a private university in West Java, Indonesia, which were divided into two groups that received different treatments, RLP and DJW techniques. A set of questionnaires to measure students’ self-esteem and writing tests were utilized to collect the data. Data from questionnaires were analyzed by using Likert Scales. Data from pre-test and post-test, to know the effectiveness of RLP and DJW was administered by using a paired t-test. The finding revealed that the writing performance in RLP class was significantly better than in DJW class. In other words, RLP is more effective in teaching writing to students with different self-esteem. The use of explicit teaching, peer feedback, and teacher feedback in RLP class could have caused the RLP technique to be more effective in improving the students’ writing ability compared to the DJW technique.

Developing Writing Blended Approach to Increase Students’ Descriptive Writing Competency

This quantitative research was to find out whether there was a statistically significant difference of students’ descriptive writing competency taught through Blended approach and the traditional one and to find out the effectiveness of the Blended approach in increasing students’ descriptive writing competency. The subjects were 29 students of the second grade of SMP 1 Purbolinggo, east Lampung. The instruments used were descriptive writing tests. The data were analysed by using Repeated Measure t-test. The result showed that there was a statically significant difference of students’ descriptive writing competency taught through Writing Blended approach and the traditional one with the significant level 0.05. This suggests that Blended Approach to Writing promotes the students to increase students’ descriptive writing competency. Keywords: [Blended Approach to writing, Effectiveness, Writing competency].

Improving functional text writing achievement by using Four Square Strategy at SMK Negeri 2 sekayu

The fact that English writing skill in Indonesia is still low encouraged the writer to conduct this study concerning vocational high school students. Four Square strategies in prewriting activities help students to write, especially in writing functional text. The objective of this study was to see if there was a substantial difference in writing achievement between students who were taught with the Four Square strategy and those who were not. The quasi-experimental approach was applied in this research. The population of SMK Negeri 2 Sekayu’s eleventh graders in the academic year 2021/2022, with a total of 217 students. From this group, 60 students were chosen as the sample and divided evenly into two groups, the experimental and control groups. The Four Square strategy was used to teach the experimental group, whereas the control group received no treatment. However, all the students in the two groups were given writing tests before and after the application of the two strategies. A t-test was used to assess the data collected. The result showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group with a significant mean difference of 23.82 (p < 0.00). These results indicated that the Four Square strategy was effective in improving the students’ writing achievement.

Figuring out the Levels, Types, and Sources of Writing Anxiety Among Undergrad ESL Students in Pakistan

Effective English writing skills are essential for students’ academic, professional, and even personal growth. Particularly, in a country where The English language is used as a second language or co-official language. Because Effective writing is considered as an instrument to measure students’ intellectual ability and academic performance. Anxiety/ apprehension can adversely affect students’ English language writing skills due to several factors. The prime objective of this study was to figure out the extent, types, and sources of writing anxiety in undergrad ESL students. 200 ESL undergrad students were selected as the sample for the research study and two survey questionnaires were adopted as a tool for data collection; SLWAI by Cheng (2004) and CWAI by Razaeaia and Jafari (2014). Data analysis indicated that the extent of writing anxiety in undergrad ESL students was moderate and avoidance anxiety was found to be the leading type of anxiety experienced by ESL students. Moreover, fear of writing tests, lack of topic knowledge, pressure for perfection in written work, and fearing of teachers ‘negative comments and evaluations were found as the main sources of writing anxiety in undergrad ESL students.

Animation Film in Writing Teaching Instruction on Narrative Text: Working or not Working?

The teaching writing is still in need of interesting teaching media to support its pedagogy as teaching writing is associated with difficult subject to be taught. Prior researches have been conducted on teaching writing area and the result suggested conducting more study on teaching writing effectively. This study attempts to fulfill the gap and takes teaching media as the focus of the research. This article investigated the employment of animated films as a teaching medium in the teaching of narrative writing tests, as well as if they are still effective in supporting the learning process. The sample of the research was taken from the students of a Junior high school in Parepare, Indonesia which was chosen purposively. Online Google Forms was employed as research tools for the study, and the questionnaire and test writing were used to collect data. Quantitative analysis was used in analyzing the data gathered. Regarding the research result, the data revealed that there is difference result between before and after the research. Students respond positively to an animation video utilized in the study as an alternate media in teaching narrative text of writing. They enjoyed the learning process of writing narrative text via animation film as the media as well as improved their positive energy in writing. It can be suggested for the next researcher to study more in another issue of animation film for teaching.

Motivational Teaching Strategies and EFL Students' Essay Writing Proficiency

Motivation is considered a complex and challenging issue in teaching, especially in second language courses. Many studies have been conducted about motivational strategies in teaching English language, however, the research that focuses on essay writing is still rare. Therefore, this research aims to describe the effect of the motivational strategies on students’ essay writing proficiency and their response to its implementation. These strategies include Creating the Basic Motivational Condition (CBMC), Generating Initial Motivation (GIM), Maintaining and Protecting Motivation (MPM), and Encouraging Positive Retrospective Self-Evaluation (EPRS). The research participants were third-semester undergraduates in a private university, in Indonesia, that enrolled in essay writing. The data were collected by conducting essay writing tests and interviews. The results revealed that there was a statistically significant impact on the students' writing scores, as observed from the improvement from their pre-test to post-test scores In addition, the data from the interview showed the students’ positive response and consciousness of their writing progress which indicated the appropriateness of the strategies in their class. The results showed the necessity of implementing motivational strategies as a new model of English instruction by writing lecturers and English teachers in general.

Writing Descriptive Mapping on students D3 Bahasa Inggris Programs

ABSTRACT This study concerns with the improve students’ creativity ability in writing descriptive paragraph through mind mapping technique. The objective of this study is to discover whether the use of mind mapping could significantly improve students’ creativity ability in writing descriptive paragraph. With support from the theory by Buzan. This study was conducted by applying Classroom Action Research which was carried out in two cycles in 4 meetings. The subject of this study was the Administration Public course in 2ed semester of Students Universitas Merdeka Malang which consisted of 20 students. The data will take in quantitative and qualitative data. Where quantitative data collected by giving descriptive writing tests that related to topic in TA( (tugas akhir) and calculating the mean of students’ scores. The quantities data were collected by the students’ score in (80. 55) which was higher than the first cycle (74.95) and orientation test (69.65). The qualitative data were collected observation and questionnaire sheets. The analyzed qualitative data gathered from the observation and questionnaire sheet during cycle I and II. It was found that students also made improvement students creativity in writing descriptive paragraph by using mapping on their TA (tugas akhir) while guidance and teaching learning proses . Despite all students got problems at 1st meeting, they could handle their difficulties and more enjoy their lesson. By the process they become active and creative in writing descriptive paragraph and qualitative data showed students strongly agreed by mind mapping had solve students problem in writing TA (tugas akhir) that related to writing descriptive paragraph. The result of the research showed that mind mapping significantly improved students’ ability in writing TA (tugas akhir) that related to descriptive paragraph text.

The effectiveness of corpus-based training on collocation use in L2 writing for Chinese senior secondary school students

Corpus tools are known to be effective in helping L2 learners improve their writing, especially regarding their use of words. Most corpus-based L2 writing research has focused on university students while little attention has been paid to secondary school L2 students. This study investigated whether senior secondary school students in China, upon receiving corpus-based training under the framework of data-driven learning (DDL), could improve their vocabulary use, especially the use of collocations, in their writing for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test. Twenty-two students aged 16–18 in a senior secondary school in Nanchang, China who were planning to take the IELTS exam participated in the study. Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and Word and Phrase were the main corpora that the participants used to learn various search functions. Pre-writing and post-writing tests were administered to measure the effect of corpus training. In addition, a questionnaire and interviews were used to collect students’ perspectives and attitudes. The results indicate that students made improvement in word selection after three corpus training sessions, and their attitudes towards corpus use were positive even though they were restricted from using computers to access corpora inside their school.