A Study of Students’ Assessment in Writing Skills of the English Language

Muhammad Javed; Wu Xiao Juan; Saima Nazli

A Study of Students’ Assessment in Writing Skills of the English Language

Yıl 2013, Cilt: 6 Sayı: 2, - , 01.12.2012

Öz

skills at Secondary school level in the English Language focusing five major content areas: word completion, sentence making/syntax, comprehension, tenses/ grammar and handwriting. The target population was the male and female students of grade 10 of urban and rural Secondary schools from public and private sector. Forty (40) Secondary schools of District Bahawalnagar, Pakistan were taken using stratified sampling. A sample consisting of 440 students (11students from each school) was randomly selected using a table of random numbers. An achievement test consisting of different items was developed to assess the students’ competency and capability in sub-skills of writing such as word completion, sentence making/syntax, comprehension, tenses/grammar and handwriting. Mean score and standard deviation were used to analyze the students’ proficiency in each sub-skill. The t-test was applied to make the comparison on the bases of gender, density and public and private sector. The overall performance of all the students was better in comprehension as compared to other sub-skills namely word completion, sentence making/syntax, tenses/grammar and handwriting. The analysis, based on t-value, revealed no significant difference between the performance of male and female students and the students of public and private schools, whereas there was a significant difference between the performance of urban and rural students

Anahtar Kelimeler

Kaynakça

Benjamin, R., & Chun, M. (2003). A new field of dreams: The collegiate learning assessment project. Peer review. 5, 26-29.
Bereiter, C., & Scardamalia, M. (1987). The psychology of written composition.
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Berninger, V. W., Vaughan, K. B., Abbott, R. D., Abbott, S. P., Rogan, L. W., Brooks, A., Graham, S. (1997). Treatment of handwriting problems
Transfer from handwriting to composition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89 (4), 6 in beginning writers: Bok, D. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Braine, G. & Yorozu, M. (1998). Local area network (LAN) computers in ESL and EFL writing classes. JALT Journal, 20 (2).
Carney, T. H. (1990). Teaching Reading Composition. Buckingham: Open University
Press Burns and Smith limited.. Connelly, V., Dockrell, J. E., & Barnett, J. (2005). The slow handwriting of undergraduate students constrains the overall performance in exam essays. Educational Psychology, 25 (1), 99-107.
Dockrell, A., & Messer, D. (1988). Children’s Language and communication
Difficulties, Understanding, Identification and Inventions. London: T.J International Ltd Pad stow, Cornwall. Elander, J., Harrington, K., Norton, L., Robinson, H., & Reddy, P. (2006). Complex skills and academic writing: a review of evidence about the types of learning required to meet core assessment criteria. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31 (1), 71
Farzana, U. (2000). The Language Skills. Rawalpindi: Farhan Raza Printers.
Garcia, M. (2008). Waking Minds Writing (WMW) a web-based program. ELL
Department. Retrieved Feb 15, 2011from www.cdiamerica.com.
Gay, L. R. (2000). Educational research competencies for analysis and application.
Lahore: Combine Printers (Pvt) Ltd. Geiser, S., & Studley, R. (2001). UC and the SAT: Predictive validity and differential impact of the SAT and SAT II at the University of California Retrieved March 1, 2002, from http://www.Informaword. com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a 784398315.
Graham, S., Berninger, V. W., Abbot, R. D., Abbot, S. P., & Whitaker, D. (1997). Role of mechanics in composing of elementary school students:A new methodological approach. Journal of Educational Psychology. 35, 170-182.
Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2000). The role of self-regulation and transcription skills in writing and writing development. Educational psychologist. 35, 3-12.
Hadely, A. O. (2001). Teaching Language in context (3rd Ed). Singapore: Heinle &
Heinle Thomas Learning. Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. (1980). Identifying the organization of writing processes.
In L.W. Gregg & E. R. Steinberg (Eds.). Cognitive processes in writing (pp.3-30). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. (1986). Writing research and the writer. American Psychologist, 41, 11-13.
Henry, J. (2000). Writing workplace cultures: An archeology of professional writing.
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Hywel, J. (2003). The Language Skills. (4th Ed Block A). Rawalpindi: Sigma Press.
Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad. Johnstone, K. M., Ashbaugh, H., & Warfield, T. D. (2002). Effects of repeated practice and contextual-writing experiences on college students' writing skills. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 94 (2), 305. Kellogg, R. T. (2008). Training writing skills: A cognitive developmental perspective.
Journal of writing research, 1 (1), 1-26. Kellogg, R. T., Olive, T., & Pilot, A. (2001). Verbal, visual and spatial working memory in written language production. ACTA Psychologica. 124, 382-397.
Littlefair, A. B. (1991). Reading all types of writing. Buckingham: Open University
Press Burns and Smith Limited. Levy, C. M. & Ransdell, S. (1995). Is writing as difficult as it seems? Memory & Cognition. 23, 767-779.
Mahyuddin, R., Elias, H., Cheong, L. S., Muhamad, M. F., Noordin, N., & Abdullah, M. C. (2006). The Relationship between Sstudents’ Self-Efficacy and Their English language Achievement. Pendidik Dan Pendidikan Journal, 21, 61-71.
McCutchen, D. (1996). A capacity theory of writing: Working memory in composition.
Educational Psychology Review. 8, 299-325. Nanda, G. C. & Khatoi, P. K. (2005). Fundamentals of educational research and statistics. New Delhi: Kalyani Publications.
National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2002). The nations report card. Writing 2002 major results. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from nces.ed.gov
/nationsreportcard/writing/results2002/.
Nickerson, R. S., Perkins, D. N., & Smith, E. E. (1985). The teaching of
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. thinking. Pajares, F., Miller, M. D., & Johnson, M. J. (1999). Gender differences in writing self- beliefs of elementary school students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91 (1), 50.
Pamela, J. S. (1991). Test of English as a Foreign Language. (6th Ed). New York:
Barron’s Educational Series Inc. Pylkkänen, L., & McElree, B. (2006). The syntax-semantics interface: On-line composition of sentence meaning. Handbook of psycholinguistics, 2.
Rijlaarsdam, G., Braaksma, M., Couzijn, M., Janseen, T., Kieft, M., Broekkamp, H., & Van den Bergh, H. (2005). Psychology and the some words. Pedagogy-learning for teaching BJEP Monograph series II, 3, 127-153. teaching of writing in 8000 and Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1991). Literate expertise. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith
(Eds.). Toward a general theory of expertise: prospectus and limits (pp. 172-194). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shahid, S. M. (1999). Teaching of English. Lahore: Majeed Book Depot.
Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching Language as Communication. London: Oxford University Press.
Wilcox, B. L. (2002). Thinking and Writing for Publication. New York: International Reading Association.
Witte, J. F. (1992). Private school versus public school achievement: are there findings that should affect the educational choice debate? Economics of Education Review, 11 (4), 371-3
Wren. P, C. & Marten. H. (2006). High School English Grammar and Composition. New
Sadder Consonant Quintessence Beginning Stopped Jurisprudence Hopefully Zoology Psychology Philosophy Sample of very good/good handwriting Sample of fair/poor handwriting Appendix ‘C’