Relationship Between Writing Motivation Levels and Writing Skills Among Secondary School Students

Abstract

The aim of the research was to determine the correlation between writing motivation levels and written explanation skills among middle school students. The research was completed with the correlational research model from the quantitative research methods. The study group for the research comprised 230 students attending three different middle schools in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 educational year. For selection of the study group, the convenient sampling method from the non-probabilistic sampling methods was used. The data collection tools for the research were the Writing Motivation Scale, the Writing Evaluation Form and a Personal Information Form. Research data were collected from 254 students; however, 24 students who did not participate in the free writing study had scale data excluded from the scope of the study. Free writing studies were separately assessed by the researchers (3 researchers) and points were given based on definite consensus. Data from the Writing Motivation Scale applied to determine the writing motivation of students and the Writing Evaluation Form assessed with free writing studies had statistical processes performed. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to test whether data showed normal distribution or not, and as data were not normally distributed nonparametric tests were used. Analysis of data linked to subproblems used the Mann Whitney U test for gender and two-way comparisons, the Kruskal Wallis H test was used for class level, writing and reading frequency variables, the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient technique was used for correlations between writing motivation and writing points and simple linear regression was used with the aim of determining the degree to which writing motivation predicted writing success. To test the significance of differences, the significance level was accepted as .05. The research concluded that students with high writing motivation points had high writing evaluation points.