Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Sindh Pakistan - Higher

313 Pages·2012·0.95 MB·English

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Teaching the Writing of English: Exploring the Impact of
Process Approach on the Undergraduate Students of Shah
Abdul Latif University Khairpur

GHULAM MUSTAFA MASHORI

A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
In the Discipline of Applied Linguistics

2007
Department of English
Faculty of Social Sciences and Arts

Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Sindh Pakistan
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IN THE NAME OF
ALMIGHTY ALLAH
THE MOST MERCIFUL AND THE MOST GRACIOUS
AND FOR WHOSE ETERNAL BLESSINGS WE PRAY
FOR
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DEDICATION

I dedicate this humble work to a great lady, my late mother- I cannot forget the
pains she took to sending me to school, as well as to my dear father who has always
been praying for my successful future; to both of them, their dreams are realized.
Finally this work is dedicated to my grand mother who sowed the seed of education
in my generation.
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CERTIFICATE

This is certified that the research work embodied in this thesis entitled
“
Teaching the Writing of English: Exploring the Impact of Process Approach
,
on the Undergraduate Students of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur” was
carried out by Mr. Ghulam Mustafa Mashori under my guidance and supervision. His
research work is original and his thesis is worthy of presentation to Shah Abdul Latif
University, Khairpur for awarding the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in the
discipline of Applied Linguistics.

Professor Dr. Zafar Iqbal
Chairman
Department of English
Bahauddin Zakarya University, Multan, Pakistan
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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis has been composed entirely by myself and that
all the work carried out herein is also my own except where specially stated.

Ghulam Mustafa Mashori
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Undertaking this research and writing dissertation in a context like Pakistan is
never possible without the will and help of Almighty Allah, first, then the support and
encouragement of my teachers, family, friends and colleagues. I am grateful to so
many people in Pakistan, the U.K, and the U.S.A for their unique guidance and
support along the way. First, I would like to express my deep appreciations to my
doctoral supervisor Dr. Zafar Iqbal for his endless guidance and encouragement in
both instructional and material aspects. Through the years of difficulties and
uncertainties, he has been very kind not only in providing me all the possible
resources, but also in sparing his most precious time, traveling a long distance to
Khairpur for supervising the research seminars. I do not have words to thank you, sir.
I would also thank to Prof. Alison Wray for her friendly one to one supervision
during my stay in Cardiff, Wales. Her generously arranged sessions are an
unforgettable part of my life. My special thanks to the British Council, Karachi for
providing me a unique opportunity to visit the U.K. for the course work and getting
access to information which is hardly available in Pakistan.
Many thanks go to the U.S. Consulate Karachi for providing tremendous opportunity
to visit many universities in United States which included the state of North Carolina
– the research triangle in America. Though very short, this visit provided me the
insight for research traditions in the U.S.A.
I would express my gratitude to teachers, test evaluators, the observer and students
who very patiently participated in this study, spent their time and effort in making this
small project successful.
Last but not least, I am indebted to my brother Ghulam Rasool who laid the very
foundations of my academic life, and to my wife Qudsia for her incredible patience
and support, at times when I was broken and desperate. There are no words to express
my feelings for you. May God bless you all.
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ABSTRACT

The importance of English Language teaching in Pakistan is gaining
increasing popularity. Apart from the fact that there is a great dearth of research in
ELT in Pakistan and that there are no studies existing in Pakistan about the use of
process based method of teaching writing at undergraduates level, one importance of
this study lies in the fact that without improving upon the pedagogical trends, the
writing efficiency of the students can not be developed. This study was designed to
explore the impact of process based teaching of writing on the writing performance
of undergraduates of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur. The study focused on
the performance and perception of two classes of students at two different stages of
the investigation. Participants of one class Experimental Class (EC) received the
treatment in the form of new process based method of teaching writing and the other
group Control Class (CC) was taught by the traditional method of teaching writing.
The data collection tools used in this study was questionnaires, writing tests,
document analysis and a checklist for classroom observation. The subjects of this
study included 48 students from experimental class and 38 students from control
class for perception data, and as subset of 20 participants from each group formed the
sample for the product data. 10 teachers of English also took part in this study.
Being experimental and comparative in nature, simple statistical percentages
for perception data and correlated t- test was used to analyze the perception and the
product data respectively. The study revealed that there is highly significant
difference between the writing performance of the participants in the experimental
class and the control class. The results of control class showed that the students were
very passive during the process of learning writing and teacher focused more on
grammatical structures, reproduction and writing summaries than on actual writing.
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Writing as a process was totally ignored in this class. Moreover, students of control
class showed great dissatisfaction about teaching methodology and about their
writing efficiency. But the experimental class in the post process teaching
investigation showed great change in their perception and level of performance,
which obviously indicated that the methodology used in the experimental group was
more effective in addressing the needs and improving the efficiency of the students.
They can write better paragraphs and essays than before. Moreover the classroom
observation analysis supported the findings elicited from other data sets. The study
found that there is great need for teachers to improve their teaching practice, keep
themselves abreast with the latest techniques of teaching writing and extend learning
freedom to students by ensuring their participation in the teaching and learning
process. Finally, the study concludes that students’ writing skills can only be
developed by enough classroom practice in writing and effective teaching
methodology.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………….……… III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………………………….. VI
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………….... VII
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………….……... IX
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………………..…………………………………………….….…. XVI
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………...…….… XVII
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………...………………………………..… XVIII

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction to the Study

1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….. ….…. 1
1.2 Importance and State of English Language Teaching in Pakistan…….…. 1
1.3 The Scope and Place of Writing in English; a problem
statement……………………………………………………………….…… 9

1.4 The Context of the Study………………………………………..……..…... 11
1.5 The Aims and Objectives of the Study………………………..……..……. 12
1.6 The Hypotheses……………………………………………………….…… 13
1.7 Research Questions………………………………………..…….……........ 13
1.8 Research Design and Methodology…………………………….……....... 14
1.9 The Organization of the Study…………………………………………… 21

CHAPTER TWO: An Overview of Relevant Literature

2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….…..…… 22
2.2 A Theoretical Overview of Research in the Writing of English as L1
and L2…………………………………………………..……..…………… 22

2.2.1 L1 Theories of Writing………………………………….……….……… … 22
2.2.2 L2 Theories of Writing…………………………………………….……. … 26
2.3 An Overview of Writing Processes and Process Pedagogies…..………. … 29
2.3.1 Understanding the meaning of ‘Process’…………………………..……....29
2.3.2 Process Writing Pedagogies……………………………………………… 32
2.3.3 Process Approaches to the Teaching of ESL/EFL Writing ……………… 34
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2.3.4 Process Approaches: Prospects and Problems…………………………..... 39
2.4 An Over View of Relevant Research……..………………..…….……...... . 42
2.4.1 The Process Writing Project ……………………………………………… 42
2.4.2 Caudry’s Study………………………………………………………….. .. 43
2.4.3 Dougans’ Study …………………………………………..………………. 44
2.4.4 Finke’s Study……………………………………………..….………….. .. .45
2.4.5 Yeung’s Study …………………………………………………..……...... 46
2.4.6 Abigial’s Study ………………………………………………………….. 47
2.4.7 Hassan’s Study …………………………………………………………... 47
2.4.8 Zaki’s Study………………………….……………………….…………..... 48
2.4.9 Ahsan’s Study………………………………………………………….... .. 49
2.5 Research in the Teaching of Writing English at Tertiary level in
Pakistan………………………………………………………………….… 53

2.6 Justification as to why this approach will be successful in present
context …………………...…………………………………………..…. .. 55

2.7 A Process Writing Model……………………………………………...…. 62
2.8 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 63

CHAPTER THREE: Data Collection and Analysis Procedure
3.1 Introduction……………………………………….………………………. 65
3.2 Perception Data Set I, II, III, IV and V: The Questionnaires:
construction, and administration procedure………..…………………....... 66

3.2.1. Research Questions & Research Methods……………………………… 67
3.2.2 Perception Data Set-I and II Construction of the Student Questionnaire
(Pre and Post) for the Experimental Class………………………….….….. 70

3.2.3 The Administration Procedure of the Questionnaire in the Experimental
Class ……………………………………………………………………..... 73

3.2.4 Perception Data Set-III and IV: Construction of the Student
Questionnaire (Pre and Post) for the Control Class……………..………… 74

3.2.5 The Administration Procedure of the Questionnaire in the Control
Class……………………………………………………………………..… 74