Motivational Impact of Emulation in a Saudi Writing Classroom at Majmaah University

Abstract

This study aims to assess emulative interventions conducted in a Saudi writing classroom at Majmaah University during the academic year 2019/2020. The interventions, i.e., orientation and revision, were needed to deal with writing challenges experienced by underachieving students. Thus, the main question to address at this connection is whether emulative intervention could enhance Saudi EFL learners’ writing since they were generally believed to lack motivation to pursue higher education, as evidenced by their indifference to classes. Also, the students were observed to demand satisfactory attendance records, high coursework scores, high final exam grades, etc., though they had not worked hard to achieve these goals. The qualitative data collected from 18 male students enrolled in the English program at the Community college. It consisted of the participants’ reaction to both success stories (collected from orientation sessions) and revision using guidelines set by expert writers and achieving students as informed by the literature. More specifically, toward the end of the second term of the academic year 2019/2020 a focus group discussion was conducted where the students freely expressed their views of the advantages and disadvantages of the intervention. Discussion was originally conducted in Arabic and then translated in English. The results revealed that the interventions effectively produced positive attitudes among participants toward writing, gaining confidence in themselves as writers and, ridding themselves of writing fears. The results led to some implications for both learning and instructional practices in the writing classroom.