Writing Tasks In English Research Articles

Analysis of Higher Education Students’ Errors in English Writing Tasks

The aim of this study is to analyse the errors of higher education students in English writing tasks. In the study, the paragraphs in the exam papers of 57 preparatory class students, studying at a state university in Turkey in 2017-2018 academic year, were analysed. The study was conducted using qualitative research method. Case study was used in the research. Document analysis was used to collect data. The collected data were analysed in line with Surface Strategy Taxonomy and errors were identified and classified. As a result of the error analysis process, it was observed that the students made a total of 381 errors on 57 exam papers; 192 of them were misformation errors, 113 were omission errors, 65 were addition errors and only 11 were misordering errors. Misformation was the most frequent error among the students with a percentage of 50.39. In addition, the percentage of omission errors was 29.66%, that of addition errors was 17.06% and misordering errors was 2.89%. The professionals teaching English as a foreign language should focus more on prepositions, verb “to be”, spelling, articles, singular/plural forms of nouns, word formation, tenses, word choice and subject-verb agreement, which were the most problematic areas of language listed under the four main categories by developing efficient instructional techniques and materials. They should also respect learners’ errors and set up a positive atmosphere where learners can easily express themselves in the target language without the fear of committing errors.INTRODUCTIONThere are lots of languages in the world and some of them have come to the fore due to the fact that they are spoken by millions and even billions of people. People generally learn the language spoken where they are born, however; the developments in the fields such as communication, transportation, tourism and trade forced people to learn the languages that they didn’t need to learn in the past. English is the most popular one of those languages and for some it is the lingua franca (Modiano, 2004; Becker and Kluge, 2014) of our age.Millions of people in the world speak English as their mother tongue while others must learn it as a second (ESL) or foreign language (EFL). Learning English as second or foreign language differs with respect to learners’ attitudes towards English and the people who speak it as their native language, exposure to English, their sources of motivation and so on. The main focus of this study is learning English as a foreign language as English is not the primary language in the country where the study was carried out.A considerable

Level of Knowledge Awareness and Use of Planning as Writing Strategy by EFL International Students in UUM English Intensive Course

<em>Malaysian English Language Curriculum makes it compulsory for every newly intake student to master and pass the English Writing Tasks (EWT) as among the basic skills in the language learning processes. However, most of the English Foreign Language (EFL) international students face difficulties with the EWT during the English Intensive Course (EIC) leading to consistent mass failures. The possible reasons of these failures could be due to the neglect of the writing strategies. Hence, the central focus of this paper is to identify and determine the EFL international students’ level of awareness and the use of planning as writing strategy before writing English essays. To this end, convenient purposive sampling strategy was used where 50 EFL (postgraduate and undergraduate) international students drawn from Universiti Utara Malaysian EIC program were selected and administered Writing Strategy Questionnaires (WSQ). The participants hailed from various countries who used and learned English as a foreign language, namely; Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Palestine among others. The data were analyzed using SPSS. The findings revealed proportionate disparity between the EFL students that use planning strategy before starting writing English essays (usually true = 28%) with those that do not (usually not true = 28%). In terms of Revising Requirement for writing process before one start writing an essay in English, the findings revealed validity (40%) of participants’ responses at 82% cumulative. This is followed by “somewhat true” responses at 24% and 42% cumulative. These imply the EFL international students’ reasonable use of planning and having knowledge awareness of writing strategy</em>

Öz Değerlendirmeye Dayalı Geribildirimin İngilizce Yazılı Anlatım Becerileri Üzerindeki Etkisi

The “learning autonomy,” which is believed to have positive effects on learning processes, is achieved when learners have the responsibility to make decisions in their own learning process. In order for individuals to have learner autonomy, the individual must be able to decide which methods and techniques to use in the learning process, to follow their own learning process, and to arrive at realistic assessments for their own learning situation. In the literature, the evaluation of one’s own learning process and products is called “self-assessment.” Self-assessment is expressed as having a positive contribution to one’s own learning processes. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effects of self-assessment on the English writing skills of non-native students. The research was conducted at a state university in Ankara in B1 level, beginning at the second semester of the academic year 2014-2015 and lasted for eight weeks. The study used a pretest - posttest control group design. The required data for the research were collected by pretest and posttest English Writing Tasks, a scoring rubric, and an interview form developed by the researcher. Analysis of the data obtained from the pretest and posttest was carried out by two-way ANOVA for mixed measures, while content analysis method was conducted in order to analyze the data obtained from the interviews. As a result of the research, it has been concluded that writing lessons in which students practice self-assessment are more effective in improving the writing skills of students than writing lessons conducted by traditional means

Who Gains the Benefits of On-Task Versus Off-Task Self-Assessment? Higher or Lower Proficiency?

This study was attempted to investigate the effects of two different types of selfassessment:on-task versus off-task on EFL Indonesian students’ writing performanceacross different proficiency level. The on-task self-assessment asked the students toself-evaluate their performance immediately after they completed their English writingtasks. The off-task self-assessment asked the students to evaluate their overallperformance in a general and somewhat in de-contextualized way. The total number offorty-eight (48) students participated in this study and randomly assigned into twoexperimental groups. The data was gained from the post-test (essay writing test). Theresults indicated that the low proficiency students in on-task self-assessment groupposed a significant effect and they could self-assess their writing performance moreaccurately than they had in an off-task format. In conclusion, on-task self-assessment issuggested to be implemented for lower achievers to consolidate their writingperformance. However, further research is suggested to conduct to know the students’experiences in applying on-task and off-task self-assessment as an effective writingstrategy.

The Relationship Between Self-Regulation Approaches and Learning Approaches in English Writing Tasks on English Foreign Language Students

It is hypothesized in the present study that when learners are tasked to write a composition in English language, they use particular learning approaches and eventually undergo self-regulatory processes. The present study tested a model showing the direction from process to effect in writing (Zimmerman & Kitsantas, 2002) by evaluating the path from learning approaches to self-regulation (using path analysis) as used in composition writing in English. The Academic Self-Regulated Learning Scale (A-SRL-S) and the Revised-Learning Process Questionnaire (R-LPQ-2F) were participated 123 college students major in English literature, Teaching, and Translating from different universities in Golestan Province in Iran. The results showed that: Learning approaches significantly correlated with the factors of self-regulation aspects: Memory Strategy, Goal-setting, Self-evaluation, Seeking Assistance, Environmental Structure, Responsibility and Organizing.

A Needs Analysis of Bio-Technicians’ English Writing Tasks

A Needs Analysis of Bio-Technicians’ English Writing Tasks