Enhancing students writing ability through task oriented responses

Enhancing students writing ability through task oriented responses to listening exercises: The case of pre. University students in Iran @Mahan Attar and *Dr. S. S. Chopra @ Ministry of Education, Hamedan District – Iran E-mail: attarm@yahoo. com * University of Pune, India. E-mail: Silloochopra@hotmail. com 1

Introduction -In 1960 s controlled composition model or product approach. The origins seem to lie in the oral approach -In 1970 s the process approach ( what the writer does: Planning, revising and the like) - Teachers need to adapt a well-grounded philosophical stance. -Teachers should be able to choose methodologies and materials which arise from principled decisions. 2

Task-Based Teaching: -One of the most student approaches in teaching -The late 1990 s , in applied linguistics is “the age of task”. - According to Prabhue 1987: “tasks are activities that require learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allows teachers to control and regulate that process. ” 3

Two basic types of students responses to listening exercises: 1. The question oriented response model 2. The task oriented response model - “Do the Iranian pre-university students achieve more ability in writing through the task-oriented responses or through the question-oriented responses to listening exercises? ” -“There is no difference between task-oriented and question oriented responses to listening exercises in enhancing the writing ability of Iranian Pre-University students. ” 4

Design Experimental design: 1. Experimental and control group 2. Random selection of the groups 3. A pretest-post test administration. Participants: 50 Iranian female pre-university students. 5

Procedures: 1. Nelson pre- test / writing Pre- test. 2. The control group responded to listening exercises through multiple choice, fill in the blanks and true/false questions. 3. The experimental group class responded to listening exercises based on tasks. (For example questions to write verification, clarification and elaboration. ) 4. Nelson post test / writing post test. 6

Instructional Materials - 10 listening passages selected out of the pre-university English course book. - Some cards and pictures , designed by the researchers, to help the subjects both in experimental and control groups, understand the passages better. 7

Data Analysis Table 1 The data derived from Nelson Pre test N M SD Experimental group 25 52. 5 4. 73 Control group D. F. = 48 T 0. 866 25 53. 7 5. 05 P = 0. 05 t-critical = 2. 00 _________________________________ Table 2 The data derived from writing Pre test N M SD Experimental group 25 44. 88 15. 08 Control group 25 D. F. = 48 P = 0. 05 43. 84 12. 55 t-critical = 2. 00 T 0. 264 8

Table 3 The data derived from Nelson Post test N M SD T Experimental group 25 65. 3 10. 44 3. 001 Control group 25 57. 8 6. 85 D. F. = 48 P = 0. 05 t-critical = 2. 00 _________________________________ Table 4 The data derived from writing Post test N M SD Experimental group 25 67. 88 9. 22 Control group 25 D. F. = 48 P = 0. 05 54. 66 13. 71 t-critical = 2. 00 T 3. 998 9

Table 5 The data derived from Nelson Pre and Post test for Control group Pre test Post test D. F. = 24 N 25 25 P = 0. 05 M 53. 7 SD 5. 05 T 2. 405 57. 8 6. 85 t-critical = 2. 064 _________________________________ Table 6 The data derived from Nelson Pre and Post test for Control group Pr test Post test D. F. = 24 N 25 M 43. 84 SD 12. 55 25 54. 66 13. 77 P = 0. 05 t-critical = 2. 064 T 2. 908 10

Table 7 The data derived from Nelson Pre and Post test for Experimental group N M SD T Pre test 25 52. 5 4. 73 5. 582 Post test 25 65. 3 10. 44 D. F. = 24 P = 0. 05 t-critical = 2. 064 _________________________________ Table 8 The data derived from Nelson Pre and Post test for Experimental group N M SD T Experimental group 25 44. 88 15. 8 6. 504 Control group 25 67. 88 9. 22 11 D. F. = 24 P = 0. 05 t-critical = 2. 064

Conclusion • It is necessary to provide opportunities for the students to use English more communicatively. • The null hypothesis was rejected. • The answer to research question is that, task oriented responses to listening exercises increases writing ability and the students are, not only able to respond to controlled listening comprehension questions, but also able to increase their writing ability. 12

Thank you 13