Abstract
The goal of this research is to examine whether Saudi undergraduates who use certain grammatical forms in their writing are able to reproduce the same forms with similar accuracy in their speaking. The sample of the study comprised 180 EFL undergraduates’ (male/female) at the undergraduate level from the Institute of languages at the University of Tabuk. The researchers used varied research instruments including Holistic Proficiency Scores and grammatical Use and Accuracy. The data was analyzed using Pearson Product-Moment Correlation, and SPSS. The findings of the research showed that there is a strong relationship between writing and speaking at varied proficiency levels (intermediate and advanced) but the beginners level revealed a noticeable difference in terms of writing and speaking proficiencies’ development in which some of these learners indicated better improvement in writing compared to speaking and vice versa. In relevance to the explicit existence of grammatical items and their use by beginner learners; they were shown to use a considerable number of these grammatical items in their writing, but revealed comparable accuracy in both writing and speaking. This study recommended that further future research should include a similar longitudinal study looking at how the relationship between speaking and writing may change over time for each individual learner, a finding that is merely hypothesized in the present study. Also, the present study investigates this problem through holistic proficiency assessment and grammatical use and accuracy.
Highlights
English is taught in Saudi Arabia as a foreign language from the fourth grade in public schools to higher education sectors including schools, colleges, and universities (Alharbi, 2015)
The findings of the research showed that there is a strong relationship between writing and speaking at varied proficiency levels but the beginners level revealed a noticeable difference in terms of writing and speaking proficiencies’ development in which some of these learners indicated better improvement in writing compared to speaking and vice versa
In relevance to the explicit existence of grammatical items and their use by beginner learners; they were shown to use a considerable number of these grammatical items in their writing, but revealed comparable accuracy in both writing and speaking
Summary
English is taught in Saudi Arabia as a foreign language from the fourth grade in public schools to higher education sectors including schools, colleges, and universities (Alharbi, 2015). Most Saudi EFL students study English language for nine years at school level This helps them acquire sufficient mastery over the grammatical competence of the language. They find they are unable to make grammatically and syntactically accurate expressions in both speaking and writing (Al-Seghayer, 2012) This pinpoints that the Saudi Arabian EFL students who learn English language for many years at schools and universities may acquire the skills and abilities that are just enough to pass the grammar exams and see high scores in the score cards after the final exams. In spite of the high score, they are aware that they haven’t acquired the knowledge for effectively demonstrating the essential skills of writing and speaking They cannot use English competently in their day to day activities. Such researched were conducted in order to bring about the necessary modifications to the teaching methods and adoptions of new teaching methods that emphasize the use of the productive skills of writing and speaking rather than focusing on the receptive skills such as listening and reading (Alharbi, 2015)
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