The Role of the Eclectic Method in Teaching Writing to EFL Intermediate School Students

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the effect of the Eclectic Method on EFL Intermediate school students’ achievement in writing through finding out: The average level of the EFL second year intermediate school students’ achievement in writing. Whether there is any significant difference between the achievement of the experimental group and that of the control group, in the posttest. Finding out whether there is any significant difference between the students' achievement at the recognition and the production levels, of the posttest. These aims have been achieved through verifying the following hypotheses: The mean scores of the EFL second year intermediate school students’ achievement is within the theoretical mean scores of achievement in writing. There is no significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group’s achievement and that of the control group’s achievement, in the posttest. There is no significant difference between the mean scores of the students’ performance at the recognition level and that at the production level, of the posttestTo verify the hypotheses of this study, a sample of sixty female students who represent 18% of its original population have been randomly selected from the second year intermediate school students in Zubaida Intermediate School for Girls, and divided them into two equal groups, i.e. experimental and control groups. Both groups are equalized in their ages, parents’ academic attainment, and students’ scores in the pretest. The two groups have been taught the same material, English for Iraq, 2nd Intermediate Student’s Book, by using the Eclectic Method for the experimental group and the traditional method for the control group. An achievement test of five questions has been constructed, validated, its reliability is obtained, and its items have been analyzed and then applied to the two groups of the study. The collected data has been statistically analyzed and the obtained results are as follows: There is a significant difference between the students’ average level of achievement in writing and the theoretical level of achievement, and in favour of the former. There is a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group and that of the control group’s achievement in the posttest, and in favour of the experimental group. There is no significant difference in the mean scores of the students’ achievement at the recognition level and that at the production level, of the posttest. Finally, in the light of the obtained results, a number of conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions have been put forward for future work.