The Impact of a Contrastive Lexical Approach in Formulaic Expressions’ Perception on University EFL Learners’ Writing Proficiencies

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to look at how the contrastive lexical approach influenced Saudi EFL learners’ writing proficiencies. Forty-six Saudi EFL learners from the College of Science and Humanities at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University were randomly selected for this study. The study sample was then divided by the block randomization method into two equal groups: an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). All the EFL learners were males, aged between 16 and 19. First, a pretest was administered to the two groups to gauge their writing proficiency. The experimental group then received writing instructions using the Contrastive Lexical Approach (CLA) over the course of 12 sessions, precisely, two fifty-minute sessions a week. While the participants in the EG were given L1 equivalents for L2 formulaic codes, the CG received conventional instructions and regulations during which participants began to skim and scan texts comprising the same formulaic codes as for the EG without being given any kind of translation and were then requested to write on the same subject matters as the experimental group. The two groups each received a posttest at the end of the treatment. After confirming the normal distribution of the data, the paired sample t-test was used to strike a comparison between the mean scores of the two posttests. The results demonstrated that adopting a contrastive lexical approach had a considerably significant impact on Saudi EFL learners’ writing proficiencies. The implication, as the size effect results showed, was that there was a strong correlation between CLA and writing skill development.