1 Teaching the Writing of English: Exploring the Impact of Process Approach on the Undergraduate Students of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur GHULAM MUSTAFA MASHORI A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Discipline of Applied Linguistics 2007 Department of English Faculty of Social Sciences and Arts Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Sindh Pakistan ii IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY ALLAH THE MOST MERCIFUL AND THE MOST GRACIOUS AND FOR WHOSE ETERNAL BLESSINGS WE PRAY FOR iii DEDICATION I dedicate this humble work to a great lady, my late mother- I cannot forget the pains she took to sending me to school, as well as to my dear father who has always been praying for my successful future; to both of them, their dreams are realized. Finally this work is dedicated to my grand mother who sowed the seed of education in my generation. iv CERTIFICATE This is certified that the research work embodied in this thesis entitled “ Teaching the Writing of English: Exploring the Impact of Process Approach , on the Undergraduate Students of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur” was carried out by Mr. Ghulam Mustafa Mashori under my guidance and supervision. His research work is original and his thesis is worthy of presentation to Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur for awarding the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in the discipline of Applied Linguistics. Professor Dr. Zafar Iqbal Chairman Department of English Bahauddin Zakarya University, Multan, Pakistan v DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis has been composed entirely by myself and that all the work carried out herein is also my own except where specially stated. Ghulam Mustafa Mashori vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Undertaking this research and writing dissertation in a context like Pakistan is never possible without the will and help of Almighty Allah, first, then the support and encouragement of my teachers, family, friends and colleagues. I am grateful to so many people in Pakistan, the U.K, and the U.S.A for their unique guidance and support along the way. First, I would like to express my deep appreciations to my doctoral supervisor Dr. Zafar Iqbal for his endless guidance and encouragement in both instructional and material aspects. Through the years of difficulties and uncertainties, he has been very kind not only in providing me all the possible resources, but also in sparing his most precious time, traveling a long distance to Khairpur for supervising the research seminars. I do not have words to thank you, sir. I would also thank to Prof. Alison Wray for her friendly one to one supervision during my stay in Cardiff, Wales. Her generously arranged sessions are an unforgettable part of my life. My special thanks to the British Council, Karachi for providing me a unique opportunity to visit the U.K. for the course work and getting access to information which is hardly available in Pakistan. Many thanks go to the U.S. Consulate Karachi for providing tremendous opportunity to visit many universities in United States which included the state of North Carolina – the research triangle in America. Though very short, this visit provided me the insight for research traditions in the U.S.A. I would express my gratitude to teachers, test evaluators, the observer and students who very patiently participated in this study, spent their time and effort in making this small project successful. Last but not least, I am indebted to my brother Ghulam Rasool who laid the very foundations of my academic life, and to my wife Qudsia for her incredible patience and support, at times when I was broken and desperate. There are no words to express my feelings for you. May God bless you all. vii ABSTRACT The importance of English Language teaching in Pakistan is gaining increasing popularity. Apart from the fact that there is a great dearth of research in ELT in Pakistan and that there are no studies existing in Pakistan about the use of process based method of teaching writing at undergraduates level, one importance of this study lies in the fact that without improving upon the pedagogical trends, the writing efficiency of the students can not be developed. This study was designed to explore the impact of process based teaching of writing on the writing performance of undergraduates of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur. The study focused on the performance and perception of two classes of students at two different stages of the investigation. Participants of one class Experimental Class (EC) received the treatment in the form of new process based method of teaching writing and the other group Control Class (CC) was taught by the traditional method of teaching writing. The data collection tools used in this study was questionnaires, writing tests, document analysis and a checklist for classroom observation. The subjects of this study included 48 students from experimental class and 38 students from control class for perception data, and as subset of 20 participants from each group formed the sample for the product data. 10 teachers of English also took part in this study. Being experimental and comparative in nature, simple statistical percentages for perception data and correlated t- test was used to analyze the perception and the product data respectively. The study revealed that there is highly significant difference between the writing performance of the participants in the experimental class and the control class. The results of control class showed that the students were very passive during the process of learning writing and teacher focused more on grammatical structures, reproduction and writing summaries than on actual writing. viii Writing as a process was totally ignored in this class. Moreover, students of control class showed great dissatisfaction about teaching methodology and about their writing efficiency. But the experimental class in the post process teaching investigation showed great change in their perception and level of performance, which obviously indicated that the methodology used in the experimental group was more effective in addressing the needs and improving the efficiency of the students. They can write better paragraphs and essays than before. Moreover the classroom observation analysis supported the findings elicited from other data sets. The study found that there is great need for teachers to improve their teaching practice, keep themselves abreast with the latest techniques of teaching writing and extend learning freedom to students by ensuring their participation in the teaching and learning process. Finally, the study concludes that students’ writing skills can only be developed by enough classroom practice in writing and effective teaching methodology. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………….……… III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………………………….. VI ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………….... VII TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………….……... IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………………..…………………………………………….….…. XVI LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………...…….… XVII LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………...………………………………..… XVIII CHAPTER ONE: Introduction to the Study 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….. ….…. 1 1.2 Importance and State of English Language Teaching in Pakistan…….…. 1 1.3 The Scope and Place of Writing in English; a problem statement……………………………………………………………….…… 9 1.4 The Context of the Study………………………………………..……..…... 11 1.5 The Aims and Objectives of the Study………………………..……..……. 12 1.6 The Hypotheses……………………………………………………….…… 13 1.7 Research Questions………………………………………..…….……........ 13 1.8 Research Design and Methodology…………………………….……....... 14 1.9 The Organization of the Study…………………………………………… 21 CHAPTER TWO: An Overview of Relevant Literature 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….…..…… 22 2.2 A Theoretical Overview of Research in the Writing of English as L1 and L2…………………………………………………..……..…………… 22 2.2.1 L1 Theories of Writing………………………………….……….……… … 22 2.2.2 L2 Theories of Writing…………………………………………….……. … 26 2.3 An Overview of Writing Processes and Process Pedagogies…..………. … 29 2.3.1 Understanding the meaning of ‘Process’…………………………..……....29 2.3.2 Process Writing Pedagogies……………………………………………… 32 2.3.3 Process Approaches to the Teaching of ESL/EFL Writing ……………… 34 x 2.3.4 Process Approaches: Prospects and Problems…………………………..... 39 2.4 An Over View of Relevant Research……..………………..…….……...... . 42 2.4.1 The Process Writing Project ……………………………………………… 42 2.4.2 Caudry’s Study………………………………………………………….. .. 43 2.4.3 Dougans’ Study …………………………………………..………………. 44 2.4.4 Finke’s Study……………………………………………..….………….. .. .45 2.4.5 Yeung’s Study …………………………………………………..……...... 46 2.4.6 Abigial’s Study ………………………………………………………….. 47 2.4.7 Hassan’s Study …………………………………………………………... 47 2.4.8 Zaki’s Study………………………….……………………….…………..... 48 2.4.9 Ahsan’s Study………………………………………………………….... .. 49 2.5 Research in the Teaching of Writing English at Tertiary level in Pakistan………………………………………………………………….… 53 2.6 Justification as to why this approach will be successful in present context …………………...…………………………………………..…. .. 55 2.7 A Process Writing Model……………………………………………...…. 62 2.8 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 63 CHAPTER THREE: Data Collection and Analysis Procedure 3.1 Introduction……………………………………….………………………. 65 3.2 Perception Data Set I, II, III, IV and V: The Questionnaires: construction, and administration procedure………..…………………....... 66 3.2.1. Research Questions & Research Methods……………………………… 67 3.2.2 Perception Data Set-I and II Construction of the Student Questionnaire (Pre and Post) for the Experimental Class………………………….….….. 70 3.2.3 The Administration Procedure of the Questionnaire in the Experimental Class ……………………………………………………………………..... 73 3.2.4 Perception Data Set-III and IV: Construction of the Student Questionnaire (Pre and Post) for the Control Class……………..………… 74 3.2.5 The Administration Procedure of the Questionnaire in the Control Class……………………………………………………………………..… 74