Pakistan Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation (PJERE), Vol 2, No 1 (2017)

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Effect of Intervention of Directed Activities Related to Text (DARTs) on Undergraduates’ Writing Skill

Sameena Hameed

Abstract


The current experimental study examines the effect of Directed Activities Related to Texts (DARTs) on writing skill of undergraduates of public sector colleges of Punjab. Intervention of DARTs as scaffolding instruction underpinning reading-into-writing directional model was carried out for six weeks to determine the effect on improving writing skill in response to narrative texts oriented tasks. To accomplish the objective, a convenience sample of 40 students of a female public sector college in urban locality of district Lahore was randomly assigned to control and experimental group in equal numbers. Experimental group was exposed to DARTs, while control group was instructed without application of DARTs through traditional lecture method selecting six short stories from their prescribed syllabus. Pre- and post-tests were conducted using analytical open-ended questions. Selecting TEEP attribute writing scale by Weir (1988), the written performance was assessed at two levels i.e. relevance and adequacy of content and cohesion. Using SPSS-21.0, paired-samples t-test was applied to make statistical analysis between their pre- and post-test performance at p<.05. Results revealed significant improvement in relevance and adequacy of content and cohesion in the favour of experimental group. Thus, the findings signify the benefits of DARTs in improving writing skill of female students in public sector colleges as scaffolding instruction. So, English teachers are advised to intervene DARTs in their teaching methodology to teach English writing skill successfully. Sameena Hameed has been serving in Punjab Higher Education Department collegiate branch since 1999. She is Assistant Professor at Government Post Graduate College (Women) Shad Bagh, Lahore. As an educationist she takes keen interest in research regarding latest English teaching methodologies and wishes to bring revolutionary changes in prevailing education system of Pakistan to teach English as a language rather than as a subject.

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