―The Effects of Aligning Students’ Preferred Writing Instructional Methods and Feedback Provision Styles with Teachers’ Practices on the Improvement of Writing Skills: Ambo University Undergraduate Students in Focus."

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of aligning students’ preferred writing instructional methods and feedback provision styles with teachers’ practices on the improvement of students writing skills. To achieve the purpose of this study, a mixed method design was employed. Specifically, both descriptive case study and quasi experimental designs were used to achieve the main purposes of the study. Descriptive case study was used to identify the experimental students’ preferences of writing instructional methods and written feedback provision styles at paragraph level. To do that, questionnaire was dispatched to 100 students and 20% of the experimental group students were interviewed. The questionnaire data were analyzed using tables and percentages and the interview data was narrated qualitatively. The finding shows that the students’ preferred methods of teaching and learning paragraph writing was process approach to teaching writing and their feedback provision styles preference was indirect and peer feedback. Then, to examine the effects of aligning students’ preferred writing instructional methods and feedback provision styles with teachers’ practices on improving students writing skills, quasi experimental design was employed. The students were divided into two groups control and experimental. Pretest was employed to both groups and students were asked to write three different paragraphs. Independent-Samples T Test computed for the pre-test revealed that students who were assigned to the control and experimental groups had similar paragraph writing performance with regard to the three elements of a good paragraph which are structure, quality and language (df= 88, t-value >p-value<.05). This shows that there is no significant difference between the two groups. Hence, it is possible to carry out the experiment. However, after the intervention, the independent-Samples T Test computed for the post-test revealed that students who were assigned to the experimental group outperformed the students in the control group in paragraph writing performance with regard to structure, quality and language. This can be shown as (df= 88, t-value <p-value<.05) which shows that there is a significant difference between the two groups. Moreover, the actual written texts analysis also shows that experimental groups’ students demonstrated important improvements in their paragraph writing performance after the intervention. The result of the experiment shows that students who have learnt paragraph writing using process approach to writing ( their preferred instructional method) and indirect and peer feedback provision styles( the students’ preferred feedback provision styles) perform better in writing skills than students who are forced to follow teachers and other peoples’ methods and styles in writing and feedback provision styles. Based on the findings, the researcher suggested that students’ preferences are more important than verified and polished methods and feedback styles which do not suit students. The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of aligning students’ preferred writing instructional methods and feedback provision styles with teachers’ practices on the improvement of students writing skills. To achieve the purpose of this study, a mixed method design was employed. Specifically, both descriptive case study and quasi experimental designs were used to achieve the main purposes of the study. Descriptive case study was used to identify the experimental students’ preferences of writing instructional methods and written feedback provision styles at paragraph level. To do that, questionnaire was dispatched to 100 students and 20% of the experimental group students were interviewed. The questionnaire data were analyzed using tables and percentages and the interview data was narrated qualitatively. The finding shows that the students’ preferred methods of teaching and learning paragraph writing was process approach to teaching writing and their feedback provision styles preference was indirect and peer feedback. Then, to examine the effects of aligning students’ preferred writing instructional methods and feedback provision styles with teachers’ practices on improving students writing skills, quasi experimental design was employed. The students were divided into two groups control and experimental. Pretest was employed to both groups and students were asked to write three different paragraphs. Independent-Samples T Test computed for the pre-test revealed that students who were assigned to the control and experimental groups had similar paragraph writing performance with regard to the three elements of a good paragraph which are structure, quality and language (df= 88, t-value >p-value<.05). This shows that there is no significant difference between the two groups. Hence, it is possible to carry out the experiment. However, after the intervention, the independent-Samples T Test computed for the post-test revealed that students who were assigned to the experimental group outperformed the students in the control group in paragraph writing performance with regard to structure, quality and language. This can be shown as (df= 88, t-value <p-value<.05) which shows that there is a significant difference between the two groups. Moreover, the actual written texts analysis also shows that experimental groups’ students demonstrated important improvements in their paragraph writing performance after the intervention. The result of the experiment shows that students who have learnt paragraph writing using process approach to writing ( their preferred instructional method) and indirect and peer feedback provision styles( the students’ preferred feedback provision styles) perform better in writing skills than students who are forced to follow teachers and other peoples’ methods and styles in writing and feedback provision styles. Based on the findings, the researcher suggested that students’ preferences are more important than verified and polished methods and feedback styles which do not suit students.