Tracing EFL learners’ progress in the writing skill focus on vocabulary and writing mechanics
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Date
2019
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University Of Oum El Bouaghi
Abstract
Over the last few decades research into academic writing has been interestingly discussed. A growing body of knowledge suggests that English Foreign Language Learners' success in academic or occupational post-graduation activities is largely determined by their proficiency in the writing skill. It is one of the most challenging skills that require working on a number of facets. Therefore, tracing the line of its progress is an urging requirement. Accordingly, a corpus-based study was undertaken to determine the extent to which EFL learners' writing competence develops after three years of instruction. The investigation also aims at providing a comprehensive description to the development of spelling, articles, punctuation and vocabulary for 90 essays written over a period of three years (2016, 2017 and 2018) by 15 undergraduate learners at Larbi Ben M'hidi University- Oum El Bouaghi. Data were obtained via personal interaction with the subjects as well as through social media. Therefore, the essays combined both hard and electronic copies. The analysis emphasized identifying accuracies and errors in producing the target aspects of writing across three pairs of years (2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2016-2018). The results showed that errors in spelling, articles, punctuation and vocabulary decreased over the three-year period which correlated with an increase in their accuracies. Hence, EFL learners have made a considerable progress in the previously mentioned aspects which contributed to the enhancement of their writing skill. The findings also indicated that the line of progression is consistent and gradual. On account of these findings, multiple recommendations for future pedagogical implication were proposed, limitations were identified and suggestions for further research were discussed.
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Keywords
Vocabulary, writing skill, Punctuation