AN ACTION RESEARCH ON IMPROVING EFL STUDENTS’ ESSAY WRITING SKILLS BY USING THE PROCESS APPROACH
Main Article Content
Abstract
In the process of acquiring essay writing skills at university, students often face many difficulties related to psychology, perception, and language. To deal with this situation and improve the essay writing skills of EFL students, the author conducted an action research, which applied a process approach to designing and implementing teaching and learning activities in her writing class. The study was conducted within 15 weeks with 25 students in the same class of a university specializing in teaching and studying foreign languages. To assess the effectiveness of the approach, the author compared the results of pre- and post- tests, which took place at the beginning and the end of the semester, respectively. Besides, a survey was delivered to collect students' perception towards the teaching and learning activities based on this approach. The results showed that the quality of students' writing product was significantly improved, both in four criteria: task fulfillment, organization, vocabulary, and grammar. The majority of students also affirmed their preference for this approach and pointed out many of its advantages. However, students also offered some suggestions to overcome the disadvantages of the process approach.
Article Details
Keywords
writing skills, essay writing ability, product approach, process approach
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