declaration - Bharathidasan University Central Library

N. VANAJA

Research Scholar (Part-time)

Department of Educational Technology

Bharathidasan University

Trichy -23.

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this research work titled “EFFECTIVENESS OF

COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE INTERVENTION STRATEGIES IN

ENHANCING WRITING SKILL IN ENGLISH AMONG B.Ed.,

TRAINEES” submitted to Bharathidasan University for the award of the degree

of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION, is my original research

work done under the guidance of Dr. E. RAMGANESH, Associate Professor,

Department of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University, Trichy, and

that it has not previously formed the basis for the award of any Degree /Diploma

/Associateship /Fellowship or any other similar title of any University.

(N. VANAJA)

(Research Scholar)

1

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that dissertation “EFFECTIVENESS OF

COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE INTERVENTION STRATEGIES IN

ENHANCING WRITING SKILL IN ENGLISH AMONG B.Ed.,

TRAINEES” submitted by N. VANAJA for the award of DOCTOR OF

PHILOSOPHY is a record of research work done under my guidance and

supervision and the dissertation has not formed the basis for the award to the

scholar of any Degree, Diploma, Associateship, Fellowship or any other

similar title to my candidate of any university.

Signature of the Research Supervisor

2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the out set I thank the Almighty for having bequeathed His blessings in

all my efforts in this research work, and thank my parents from whom I deserved

the blessings added.

I owe my deepest gratitude to my Research Guide Dr. E. RAMGANESH,

Associate Professor, Department of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan

University, Tiruchirappalli, for his perpetual energy and enthusiasm in research

which formed a constant source of encouragement to me in this work. Endowed

with meticulous attitude, his research institution made him a constant source of

ideas and passions in Education which exceptionally inspire and enrich my growth

as a student and a researcher want to be. His originality has triggered and

nourished my intellectual maturity which I will cherish for the years to come.

Without his guidance and persistent help this thesis would not have been possible,

as such I am greatly indebted to him more than what he knows.

It is a pleasure to express my gratitude wholeheartedly to

Dr. R. KARPAGAKUMARAVEL, Professor and Head of the Department of

Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli for having

permitted me to work in such a convivial place and provided all the necessary

facilities to the aspirants of research in the Department of Educational

Technology.

I gratefully acknowledge the Doctoral Committee Member

Dr. S. DEVANATHAN, Associate Professor, Department of Educational

Technology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, for his inestimable

suggestions that gave me a spirit of adventure in regard to research and

scholarship.

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I express my gratefulness to the Doctoral Committee Member

Dr. K. MOHANASUNDARAM, Associate Professor, Government College of

Education, Orathanadu District for his valuable assistance and generous support in

my efforts formed a good encouragement.

I convey my special acknowledgement to Dr. S. AMUTHA, Assistant

Professor, Department of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University,

Tiruchirapalli for her generous support and encouragement in every stage of my

research endeavor in this department The associated experience broadened my

perspective on Educational Technology.

I owe my thankfulness to Dr. R. SATHYAMOORTHY, Lecturer,

Department of Education, JJ College of Education, Pudukkottai, who had paved

the way to find myself a research student under the Guidance of

Dr. E. RAMGANESH.

I express my sincere thanks to Mrs. PRINCY IMMACULATE,

Principal, Venkateswara College of Education, Pudukkottai for her esteemed

permission to undertake the research utilizing the support and involvement of the

B.Ed. Trainees who in turn also deserve my immense thankfulness.

I am grateful to my brother Mr. N. RAVI, Associate Professor, Department

of Physics, St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli for his inseparable support in my

endeavour.

It is honour for me to thank Er. J. NATESAKUMAR, Project Manager,

SYNTEL, New Jersy, U.S.A. for sparing time to assist in my efforts while

searching research papers. His spouse Er. KRISHNA PRABHA deserves all my

thankfulness.

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My family members Selvi. B. RAMYADEVI and B. ARAVINTH

KUMAR are in the high degree of co-operation, extended with affection, to whom

I owe my thankfulness.

I express my thankfulness to colleagues and friends who have extended

their moral support during the period of my research.

N. VANAJA

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CONTENT

DECLARATION

CERTIFICATE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK 01

II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE FOR GAINING

INSIGHTS

45

III DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL ON WRITING SKILL IN

ENGLISH

93

IV DESIGN OF THE STUDY 166

V DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 195

VI SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS,

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

255

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

6

CHAPTER – I

INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK

S.No. Title Page No.

1.1. Introduction and Backdrop of the Study 01

1.2. Rationale of the Study 39

1.3 Scope of the Study 41

1.4. Statement of the Problem 42

1.5. An overview of the study 43

CHAPTER – II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE FOR

GAINING INSIGHTS

S.No. Title Page

No.

2.1 Introduction 45

2.2 Studies Conducted on Written Communication 47

2.3 Studies on English Language Skills other than writing skills 52

2.4 Review on cognitive processes 57

2.5 Related studies on Cognitive Strategy Instruction. Cognitive

Strategies

59

2.6 Studies on linguistic theory of second language acquisition, 61

2.7 Review on Affective Strategies 73

2.8 Synthesis 86

2.9 Conclusion 92

7

CHAPTER – III

DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL ON WRITING

SKILL IN ENGLISH

S.No. Title Page

No.

3.1 Introduction: Cognitive and Affective Strategies in Writing English 93

3.2 Selection of a topic 95

3.2.1. Rationale for the Passage Chosen 97

3.3 Development of the model to enhance Writing Skill in English 98

3.4 Components identified to ascertain Writing Skill in English 101

3.5 Strategy and expected performance 115

3.6 Adaptation of Cognitive Intervention Strategies in the treatment 118

3.7 Affective Intervention Strategies in the treatment. 134

3.8 Implementation of the model 156

3.9 Assessment focus 161

3.10 Conclusion 165

CHAPTER – IV

DESIGN OF THE STUDY

S.No. Title Page

No.

4.1 Introduction 166

4.2 Objectives of the Study 166

4.3 Formulation of Hypothesis 167

4.4 Research Design 169

4.4.1. Operational Definition of the Key terms 172

4.4.2. Variables 174

4.4.3. Sample for the study 174

4.4.4. Experimentation in Phases 176

8

4.4.5. Duration of the Treatment 178

4.4.6. Threats to internal validity 180

4.4.7. Threats to external validity 182

4.5. Construction and validation of Research Instruments. 183

4.5.1. B.Ed., Trainees’ Assessment – Tool for Writing Skill

in English (BTATWSE)

183

4.5.2. B.Ed., Trainees’ Attitude Scale Towards Writing in

English (BTATWSE)

4.5.3. Test Properties

185

186

4.6. Data Collection 194

4.7. Conclusion 194

CHAPTER – V

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION



5.2 Scheme of Analysis 195

5.3 Descriptive Analysis 196

5.4 B.Ed., Trainees’ Attitude Scale Towards Writing in English

(BTASTWE)

201

5.4.1. B.Ed., Trainees’ Assessment Tool for Writing Skill

in English (BTATWSE)

210

5.5 Differential and Relational Analyses 212

5.6 Conclusion 254

9

CHAPTER – VI

SUMMARY OF THE MAJOR FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS,




6.2 Major findings of the study 255

6.3 Discussion 264

6.4 Implications of the Study 268

6.5 Recommendations of the present study 269

6.6 Recommendations for future police decisions. 272

6.7 Recommendations for development of Instructional Model. 274

6.8 Suggestions for further research 275

6.9 Conclusion 276

References

Appendices

10

LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title Page

No.

4.T.1 Duration and Time Schedule of the Experimentation.

178

4.T.2 Summary and Nature of the Items in the Scale.

185

4.T.3 Factor loading of items 190

5.T.1 Descriptive analysis for Control group and Experimental group

196

5.T.2 Descriptive analysis of dimensions of writing skill for Control

group and Experimental group

198

5.T.3. Pre-test and Post-test comparison of mean scores of Control

Group

213

5.T.4 Pre-test and Post-test comparison of mean scores of

Experimental Group.

214

5.T.5 Comparison of mean scores of Control group and Experimental

group in the Pre-test.

216

5.T.6 Comparison of mean scores of Control group and Experimental

group in the Post-test.

217

5.T.7 Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing

of Control group in the Pre-test and the Post-test.

219

5.T.8 Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing

of Experimental group in the Pre-test and the Post-test.

220

5.T.9 Demographic variables of control group in the Pre-test.

222

5.T.10 Demographic variables of control group in the Post-test 223

5.T.11 Demographic variables of Experimental group in the Pre-test 225

5.T.12 Demographic variables of Experimental group in the Post-test

226

5.T.13 Difference between Experimental group and Control group in

their overall Pre-test dimensions of writing skill.

228

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5.T.14 Difference between Experimental group and Control group in the

overall Post-test dimensions of writing skill.

232

5.T.15 Comparative scores of Pre-test and Post-test of Control group in

various dimensions of writing skill.

236

5.T.16 Comparative scores of Pre-test and Post-test of Experimental

group in various dimensions of writing skill.

241

5.T.17 Regression Analysis for Experimental group in the Pre-test with

different dimensions of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies.

246

a) Model summary of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies with different dimensions.

246

b) ANOVA of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies with

different dimensions.

246

c) Co-efficient of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies

with different dimensions.

246

5.T.18 Regression Analysis for Experimental group in the Post-test with

different dimensions of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies.

247

a) Model summary of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies with different dimensions.

247

b) ANOVA of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies with


247

c) Co-efficient of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies


247

5.T.19. Control group: Post-test correlations between Attitude towards

writing and writing skill in English

250

5.T.20. Control group: Post-test correlations between Attitude towards

writing and writing skill in English.

251

5.T.21. Experimental group: Pre-test correlations between Attitude

towards writing and Writing skill in English.

252

5.T.22. Experimental group: Post-test correlations between attitude

towards writing and writing skill in English.

253

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

No. Title

Page

No.

1.F.1 Interaction between Cognition and Emotion 28

3.F.1 Components of writing Skill 102

3.F.2 Writing – Sub Skills 111

3.F.3 Strategy –Process – Expected Performance 116

3.F.4 Interactive experiences through action 132

3.F.5 Vanaja’s Model on Writing Skill in English 141

4.F.1 Research Design 171

4.F.2 Experimentation in Phases 177

5.F.1 Descriptive analysis for Control group and Experimental group 198

5.F.2a Descriptive analysis of dimensions of writing skill for Control group and

Experimental group 200

5.F.2b Descriptive analysis of dimensions of writing skill for Experimental group 200

5.F.3 Pre-test and Post-test comparison of mean scores of Control Group 214

5.F.4 Pre-test and Post-test comparison of mean scores of Experimental Group. 215

5.F.5 Comparison of mean scores of Control group and Experimental group in

the Pre-test

217

5.F.6 Comparison of mean scores of Control group and Experimental group in

the Post-test

218

5.F.7 Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing of Control

group in the Pre-test and the Post-test.

220

13

5.F.8 Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing of

Experimental group in the Pre-test and the Post-test.

221

5.F.9 Demographic variables of control group in the Pre-test. 223

5.F.10 Demographic variables of control group in the Post-test 224

5.T.11 Demographic variables of Experimental group in the Pre-test 226

5.F.12 Demographic variables of Experimental group in the Post-test 227

5.F.13 Difference between Experimental group and Control group in their overall

Pre-test dimensions of writing skill.

231

5.F.14 Difference between Experimental group and Control group in the overall

Post-test dimensions of writing skill.

236

5.F.15 Comparative scores of Pre-test and Post-test of Control group in various

dimensions of writing skill.

240

5.F.16 Comparative scores of Pre-test and Post-test of Experimental group in

various dimensions of writing skill. 245

14

APPENDICES

APPENDIX – 1 : ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR WRITING SKILL

APPENDIX – 2 : E-CONTENT EVALUATION TOOL FOR EXPERTS (EETE)

1

CHAPTER – I

INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK

“My task which I am trying

to achieve is by the power of written word,

to make you hear, to make you feel,

it is before all, to make you see.”

- Joseph Conrad (Lord Jim)

(1857-1924)

1.1. Introduction and Backdrop of the study

Education is a process of human empowerment for the achievement of

better and higher quality of life (Dave, 1996). The intrinsic character of education

for individual growth and social development is now accepted by every one.

Investment in education of youth is considered as most vital by all nations.

Education for all by the year 2000 was adopted as a Global target and a framework

of a plan of action to achieve this target was adopted by international community.

Language is an essential part of human life. It is the man’s greatest

achievement that distinguishes the human being from the animal. Human beings

are able to learn, think, feel and express themselves through language. Language

in its written form helps the past to come to be true in terms of present paving

eternity for that language.

Generally speaking language is a socially shared code, or conventional

system, that represents ideas through the use of arbitrary symbols and rules that

govern combination of these symbols (Bernstein and Tieger man,1989).

Therefore language is a code where by ideas about the world are represented

through a conventional system of arbitrary symbols for communication (Bloom

and Laney, 1978).

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Language is like the flesh and blood of human culture. People get

influenced in their emotions, experience, thoughts and feelings with the help of

language. One can not imagine a world without language. The advancement in

science and technology, modern economics, literature, social and culture, tradition

and knowledge of history have all become possible today mostly because of

language. One generation transmits its customs, ideas, thoughts, beliefs, religions

etc., with the help of written and spoken language to the younger future

generations to maintain continuity and achieve further advancement. It can thus

be concluded that language is such an important element of human society that

without it, all cultural activities would remain dormant and all human experience

would be rendered insignificance.

Language is a complex phenomena associated with the vocal and auditory

communication of emotions, ideas, thoughts and feelings of human beings. Using

the language an individual speaks, expresses his emotions, thoughts, desires,

feelings etc. in a social atmosphere. In general the responsibility of language

learning rests on the shoulders of teacher – educators of a language. As English

occupied and recognised as International language its role assumes greater

significance in the world. As such learning English language is resorted to in

almost all the educational system prevailing in various countries. In India it is

treated as second language in most situations. With this Significant position of

English language as International language aims of teaching English are many

fold.

Aims of teaching English

a) to enable the learner to communicate effectively and appropriately in real-

life situation.

b) to use English effectively for study purposes across the curriculum.

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c) to develop and integrate the use of the four language skills i.e. listening,

speaking, reading and writing.

d) to develop an interest in literature.

e) to recycle and reinforce structures already learnt.

Apart from helping students to achieve these overall aims, the teacher has

an important role to play in improving the linguistic competence of the students.

The main principles of teaching English that help towards this end are creativity,

self-monitoring and liberal education.

The aim of learning English like any other language is to acquire Listening,

Speaking, Reading and Writing skills. While listening and reading are passive or

receptive skills, speaking and writing are active or productive skills. “Learning

how to write effectively has value in itself as part of the long – term education

process, and should not be evaluated only on whether it is immediately profitable

or not:”

Teaching writing is a very important part of teaching the English language

and no doubt it needs special attention. The natural properties of the written

channel (written channel is permanent, is characterized by logical sequences, uses

a consistent set of graphic symbols and punctuation etc) help learners to frame

their meanings / messages as they write until they ultimately create a text, they are

pleased to leave. Teachers have to remember that “The product is, after all, the

ultimate goal: the reason that we go through the process of prewriting, drafting,

revising and editing. Without that final product firmly in view, we could quite

simply drown ourselves in a sea of revisions. Process is not the end: it is the means

to an end:” (Douglas Brown, H. (2001)).

Writing is the most difficult of all the skills. Writing skill combines verbal

and motor skills. The learner has to be well versed in words and must know

4

correct word order. Knowledge of correct spelling is also essential. The ideas

must be organized in logical sequence.

Technology is believed to have reduced the need to write in some areas and

it has increased the need in some others. More careers in writing probably exist

now than before in technical reporting and journalism. Television announcers

work from a script. Movie and T.V writers depend for the most part upon writing.

People in many occupations and all walks of life write memos, reports, letters,

business and personal, sympathy notes, articles, essays, theses, advertisements,

brochures, manuals, captions for posters and photographs, the list is endless. In

professions where writing is not essential, the ability to express one’s ideas on

paper is still an asset.

Writing contributes a lot in taking notes during lectures. It enables in

sorting out the information and highlighting what is important. Taking notes helps

one remember and yields a written record. Outlining or summarizing new

information provides an overview of the subject and also fosters a close analysis

of it.

Writing takes a good form of communication as it helps anyone to be in

touch with others. The impulse to write can be as urgent as the need to converse

with someone sitting across the table in a restaurant or to respond to a provocative

comment. Some times one may want to influence the readers’ decisions, actions,

or beliefs. Sometimes one may want to amuse or flatter others. Writing helps

anyone to overcome isolation, writing fosters social relationships.

Good writing skills necessitate a logical mind, an ability to interact with a

wide public, and a knack for comprehending complex situations in depth. The

first job is to write, but later advancement often depends on skill in writing. The

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ability to write will continue to be a decisive factor in the careers of larger and

larger numbers of people year after year.

Writing is more than public communication; it is a way of thinking. Good

writing is a product of careful thinking. It exhibits the following characteristics

(RIE 2003) as

� Coherent structure

� Smooth, detailed development

� Appropriate style.

The guiding principle should be easy communication for easy

comprehension. In order to achieve a good structure, the writer should first of all

order his material, that is, decide: (a) how much of what should be in the work,

and (b) in what order. Logic, common sense and experience drawn from one’s

wide reading will help here. One must learn the various ways how words,

grammar and discourse to organize diverse ideas into coherent unit are used.

Every piece of writing should strive for this unity. A well-organized piece of

writing should strive and reveals that the writer has established a pattern of

relationship between the individual parts and the whole composition.

In its totality, a piece of writing is like a work of architecture, where every

stone is well cut and fits into the other as if the two make one piece. Nothing in it

should stick out. On the whole the architectural structure should make an

aesthetical satisfaction.

A piece of writing has a frame work. To build on to the frame work, one

needs to expand an idea by raising the general points and discussing them in

detail. It is a must to analyze complex matters, provide vivid examples, and

perhaps refute opposing ideas. There should be a smooth flow. When related

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ideas are not transferred in an organized sequence, they do not reach their

destination. Ideas should therefore be grouped according to their importance and

according to their relationship to the other ideas.

Good style in writing is generally distinguished by three qualities. They are

(a) Economy (b) simplicity and (c) clarity.

Further, writing is a complex process involving many activities such as an

initial probing into experience, an analysis of it, identifying items of specific and

definable and finally their expression in a language that is both appropriate and

correct. Competence in writing depends on two factors:

� Control over the experience to be communicated

� Control over the language, especially at the level of syntax.

To write in simple and flawless English, one needs sufficient grammatical

competence. Besides, the learner needs to learn adequate vocabulary items. With

the help of this, the learner can acquire clarity in writing, because clarity of

thoughts is one of the main features of writing ability.

Coherence is another feature of writing skill in order to develop and

highlight the ideas in logical sequence. Any piece of writing is a mere assembly

of words, however impressive and grammatically correct. But it should have a

sense of direction with clear mind of the writer and there should be harmony. So,

jarring notes are to be eliminated otherwise there would be cacophony and not

harmony. Finally, any piece of good and useful writing should be interesting,

informative, challenging and creative. If all these features are properly

understood, learnt and taught, the learner can clearly understand the correct

concept of the given task in writing in simple, grammatical and flawless English.

7

Infact writing is perceived as the components of spelling, comprehension,

grammar, precise – writing, vocabulary and ordering ideas “Writing represents a

distinctly different ability from speaking, drawing on many of the same linguistic

resources but also relying on distinctly different mental processes” (Weigle,

2002:15)

Towards obtaining prompt writing skills in English the following qualities

are expected from the trainees opting for the degree of Bachelor of Education in

India. One can take cognizance of the following for a good writing in English.

i) expressing ideas in clear and grammatically correct English, using

appropriate punctuation and cohesive devices

ii) writing in a style appropriate for communicative purpose

iii) planning, organize and present ideas coherently, by introducing,

developing and concluding a topic

iv) writing a clear description (eg. of a place, a person, an object or a

system)

v) writing a clear account of events (eg. a process, a narrative, a trend or a

cause-efficient relationship)

vi) comparing and contrast ideas and arrive at conclusions

vii) presenting an argument, supporting it with appropriate examples

viii) using an appropriate style and format to write letters (formal and

informal) post cards, telegrams, notices, messages, reports, articles and

diary entries

ix) transcending information from diagrammatic to verbal form

x) expanding notes into piece of writing

xi) reducing a given text in to a summary

xii) recording information from one text type to another (eg.diary entering to

letter, advertisement to report)

8

Cognition

Cognition is a general term used to refer the higher mental process.

Cognition embraces perception, imagination, language and conception including

thinking.

Cognition refers to the processing of information about the environment

that is received through the sense. Cognitive process involves:

� Selection of information

� Making of alteration in the selected information

� Association of items of information with each other

� Elaboration of information in thought

� Storage of information in memory and when needed

� Retrieval of stored information

Cognition is a mental process that transforms the sensory input in various

ways, code it, store it in memory and retrieve it for later use. Perception, imagery,

problem-solving, remembering and thinking are all term that describe hypothetical

stage of cognition (Neisser, 1967)

The term cognition (Latin: Cognizance, ‘to know’) is used in several

loosely related ways to refer to a facility for the human in the processing of

information. In psychology and in artificial intelligence it is used to refer to the

mental functions, mental processes and states of intelligent entities (humans,

human organizations, highly autonomous robots), with a particular focus toward

the study of such mental processes as, comprehension, inference, decision-making,

planning and learning.

Cognition is the act of knowing. The analysis of the act and its components

is the core of Psychologists’ and educators’ attempt to understand the mind and its

developments. ‘Cognition’ is a troublesome term to define in Psychology because

9

it has no clear referent; it is defined narrowly by some as merely ‘awareness’

(Guilford-1967) and is defined so broadly by others as to include all higher mental

processes like perception, thinking, attention, language, reasoning, problem

solving, creativity and memory.

Since there is no differentiation in pure presence, its knowing is the first

knowing, the origin of cognition. We see that the origin of cognition is the

experience of being, or more precisely, the dimension of pure presence. Knowing

begins with being, which is the knowing of being.

Mental process is hypothesized to occur during sensation, perception,

association, memory, learning and thinking. Association means the process

through which the memory images are related and ordered. From birth, memory is

an integral part of the cognitive process. The activity of combining present

sensation and perception with experience and memories makes up what is usually

thought of as knowing. Utilizing present perception with memory images and

association gives us the process of thinking.

A cognitive process may or may not leave a lasting trace i.e. it may or may

not be learned. If it does leave an anagram one says that the animal has learned

something or that it has acquired a bit of knowledge. Perceiving a scene, imaging

an event, or forming an intention without remembering anything after a while, are

cognitive processes and more over, they involve knowledge investments.

The process of mental growth and development is responsible for the

development of an individual’s cognitive process like sensation, perception,

reasoning, understanding, interpretation, problem solving, imagination, memory

conservation, concept formation, association, thinking, intelligence, and

generalization.

10

Sensation: Sensation implies anything, which is experienced through the senses’ a

general term, which is used to refer to sound, visual experiences, smell, taste,

tactile or kinesthetic describe the particular form that the experience will take or

has taken.

Perception: The process by which one analyses and makes sense out of incoming

sensory information. Perception has been studied extensively by psychologists

and now forms part of cognitive psychology. Perception can be distinguished

from sensation, which concern the stimulation of sensory receptors and may be

restricted to the earlier stages of processing incoming information.

Understanding: To grasp a fact, process and situation interact especially in

learning through experience. Ex. You do not need to understand how computers

work to be able to use them.

Imagery: An image is usually a specific object. Mental representation recreates

sensory impressions. The study of imagery has been a major area in memory

research, as it forms one of the main systems for the encoding and representations

of memories.

It is also inevitable to conceptualize certain cognitive strategies that

influence in the process of writing.

Memory: Memory is the general term given to the storage and subsequent

retrieval of information. Memory has been intensively studied by psychologists

through the history of psychology and consequently involves an extensive range of

theoretical approaches and fields of enquiry. These include the study of episodic

memory, every day memory, levels of processing, encoding and representation

and physiological correlation of memory.

11

Concept formation: Concept formation is the name given to the process by which

an individual comes to develop mental categories, which will allow objects and

events to be classified and grouped together. A cognitive development has

emphasized concept formation.

Association: The linking of one thing with another is sequence. Associative

learning is learning which has been acquired as a result of the connection of a

stimulus with response. During the period when psychologists were attempting to

account for all behaviours as stimulus-response connections, association was seen

as the central psychological process.

Thinking: Thinking is a general term, which can be defined in several ways (1)

the use of symbolic process by brain (2) any chain or series of ideas (3) ideation

the sequence of producing ideas concerned with the solving of specific problems

or incongruities in models of reality. Thinking is usually taken to mean conscious

cognitions. Most psychological investigations of thinking have concentrated on

problem solving or concept formation.

Intelligence: Intelligence is the ability of an individual to understand the world

and workout appropriate courses of action. Within psychology there is no more

precise definition that is generally accepted, through the old claim that

“intelligence is what intelligence test measure” is uncomfortably acute.

Interpretation: The activity of making sense of information and identifying

essential meaning is called interpretation. In psychotherapy, the activity of the

therapist in pointing out underlying meaning in the patient’s activities are

cognitions.

Generalization: Generalization is the process by which a learned response is

derived in more situations than those in which it was first learned.

12

Hence, cognitive processes are unobservable mental actions used to

manipulate information. Like other kinds of processes, cognitive processes

produce outcomes or cognitive products. Cognitive products may be processed

again, or they may manifest during performance. For example, a student may

rehearse (cognitive process) the spelling of an irregular word over and over to

learn (cognitive product) to write it correctly in a test. (Performance)

Imagery, one of the cognitive strategies which enhances writing skill is also

involved in cognitive process. Perceptual thinking represents the basic level of

thinking. Thinking can proceed without such sensory inputs and when it does so it

is operating on a higher and more formal level using images.

Images are mental forms which enable the individual to think of things

even when they are not present before him and even when he is not getting any

sensations as a result of object stimulation of sense organs. The mental capacity to

form images is referred to as ‘imagery’. Prior sensations are necessary for

subsequent imagery and we could have image corresponding to the various

sensory channels.

To develop any model, suitable strategy could be adopted to acquire

expected effectiveness. Here cognitive and affective intervention strategies are

used for enhancing writing skill.

In general, strategy is a tool, plan or method used for accomplishing a task.

Other terms associated with strategy instruction are:

A strategy is composed of cognitive operation over and above the processes

that are natural consequences of carrying out the task, ranging from one such

operation to a sequence of under several operation. Strategies achieve cognitive

purpose.

13

Celiger (1982) defined strategy as a set of abstract cognitive functions,

which are used to acquire knowledge, which are biologically determined

independent and constant.

• Chunking

• Spatial learning

• Concept mapping

• Advance organizer

• Metaphor

• Rehearsal

• Imagery

• Mnemonics

A strategy or group of strategies or procedures that the learner uses to

perform academic task or to improve social skills.

• Visualization

• Verbalization

• Making association

• Chunking

• Questioning

• Scanning

• Assessing cues

• Using mnemonics

• Sounding out words

• Self-checking and monitoring

Cognitive strategies are specific in distinguishing to distinct learning

activities and would include steps in learning. They include interacting with the

14

materials to be learned, manipulating the material mentally or physically or

applying a specific technique to learning (O Malley et al, 1985).

• Repetition

• Grouping

• Note taking

• Deduction

• Imagery

• Substitution

• Elaboration

• Summarization

• Translation

• Transfer

• Inference

• Auditory representation

• Recombination

Cognitive strategies operate directly on incoming information manipulating

it in the ways that enhance learning. Weinstein and Mayer (1986) suggest that

these categories can be subsumed less than three broad grouping as Rehearsal,

Organization, Elaboration processes.

Strategies which are evolving cognitive processes are called cognitive

strategies. Some of them are

� Chunking: Chunking, a cognitive strategy simply means grouping, organizing

information according to time, space, logical reasoning, types, taxonomies,

cause and effects, similarities and differences, the crucial points helped to

develop writing skill in English. It is a unit of working memory, and through

chunking new material is reorganized into already existing memory units.

15

� Spatial learning: Spatial strategies provide a visual display of substantial

amount of information. Students should be intellectually capable of forming

the logical operations involved and systematically recalling information.

Bridging strategies such as helping the students move from known to

unknown, the advanced organizer is like a bridge, which can be constructed and

used with material presented in written and oral form. It introduces a unit of

instruction before the main body of presentation. It is based on students’ previous

knowledge. It should be brief and abstract. A spatial approach of creating insights

that connect a bigger picture by extracting concepts from information and

developing relationships among them.

� Concept Mapping: Information is processed into long-term memory

� Advance organizer : Linkage between known and unknown. This strategy

establishes a mindset for the learner, reading new material related to previously

learned material.

� Metaphor: Emotional connection from context and experience.

� Rehearsal: It is replanting the information. It shows the forgetting process

and helps in transferring the information to long-term memory.

� Imagery: A mental representation depicting an object or event, rather than

describing the object or event. Generally, images have a strong subjective

resemblance to perceptual experience and so visual images are described as

being similar to actual pictures.

� Mnemonics: Strategies are designed to improve memory. These techniques

attempt to improve memory accuracy and to make learning easier, in general,

these strategies attempt in one fashion or another to help memory by imposing

an organization on the to be learned materials.

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These cognitive strategies and strategy process are stored and retrieved into

cerebral cortex. This cerebral cortex consists of four lobes named frontal lobe,

partial lobe, temporal lobe and occipital lobe.

The main function of frontal lobes are emotional behaviour, paying

attention, decision making, executing plan, thinking, searching and storing

information. The partial lobes are responsible for sensory information. Cognitive

function like attending, perceiving and analyzing the main functions of temporal

lobes are auditory perception and occipital lobes are visual perception. These

mental processes are entering into sensory memory and to pass registering and

recalling of information. The Cognitive strategies are classified and categorized

according to their cognitive processes.

Cognitive strategies Categories

1. Chunking: Clustering

Organizing

Structuring

Sorting

Grouping

Classifying

Categorizing

Making Association

Arrangement.

2. Spatial Learning: Transfer of knowledge

Comparison

Relationship

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3. Concept Mapping: Summarization

Substitution

Recombination

Inference

4. Advance Organizer: Prior knowledge

Repetition

Returning

5. Metaphor: Comparison

Meta cognition

Transfer

Translation

6. Imagery: Modeling

Prompting

7. Rehearsal: Repetition

Questioning

Note taking

Retrieval

Reinforcing

8. Mnemonics: Naming strategies

Key words

Visualization

Verbalization

Symbolic words

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Complex topics in English deal with complex systems that have multiple

inter connected components. The process of writing is a good example of a

complex English topic. Writing has various components like grammar,

vocabulary, syntax, cohesion and coherence, homophones, precise – writing,

paragraph, comprehension etc., These components function simultaneously by

interacting with each other. To understand the principles, rules and regulations

with which writing as a process works, learners need to integrate all components

and functions of each individual component. Mere memorization of the

components of the system leads to little understanding of how the system works.

(Hmelo – silver and Azevedo, 2006). This cognitive interaction process can occur

when learners use cognitive and affective intervention strategies and when they

are motivated and responsible for their own learning.

This concept is in line with the knowledge generation process of Wittrock’s

Generative Learning Theory (Wittrock, 1974, 90, 91,91).

Comprehension and understanding result from the generation of relations

both among the concepts and experience or prior learning and information that is,

comprehension occurs from the creation of new understandings of the information

by the learner, rather than transferring the presented information (Grab owski,

2004).

Basic information and assumption in that learners are not passively receive

learning, but they are actively engaged in the construction of meaning as it, relates

to their preconceptions, abstract knowledge, every day experience and the context

in which learning is occurring (Wittrock, 1992).

The most frequently used learning strategies employed in the name of

generative learning are underlining and note – taking. Learners meaningfully

relate what they read to information they already know (Richards,1992): Similarly

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a learner naturally engages in generative activity through paraphrasing sentences

to combine ideas from the passage, or to relate them to prior knowledge. Hence

one can be good enough to understand the relationship between cognition and

English.

Cognition, the mental process, needed for the accomplishment of writing,

an intellectual task. Specific cognitive abilities may be essential for the acquisition

of specific skills such as writing which is often considered as a powerful means for

knowledge acquisition, structuring and application of the acquired knowledge.

Many researches concerning the relationship of several aspects of cognitive

style and writing have been conducted. As a result cognitive style is stated to be

related to reading and writing ability and achievement. (Witkin, H.A and Good

enough, D.R., 1981). After acquiring them cognitive strategic knowledge the

persons possess the following qualities.

� Students trust their minds.

� Students know there’s more than one way to do things

� They acknowledge their mistakes and try to rectify them. they evaluate

their products and behaviour

� Memories are enhanced.

� Learning the content increases.

� Self – Esteem increases.

� Students feel a sense of power.

� work completion and accuracy improve.

� Students develop and use a personal study process.

� They know how to ‘try’

� On – Task time increases; Students are more ‘engaged’.

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Essentiality of Cognitive and Affective Strategies in Writing English.

According to Jerry Wellington, the affective domain is largely responsible

for attitudes of the students towards writing. He put forward some ideas for

developing students’ attitudes and dispositions towards writing.

The origin of ‘domains’ in learning is usually attributed to ‘Bloom’s

taxonomy’ (Bloom - 1956). The taxonomy was devised in three domains: The

cognitive, the affective and the psychomotor. The affective domain is the

component of Blooms taxonomy of educational objectives that involves the

feeling and emotional side of learning and teaching , ie., enjoyment, motivation,

drive, passion, intuition, enthusiasm, inspiration (Kratwohl, Bloom) and the term

‘affect’ to describe attitudes, beliefs, tastes, appreciations and preferences.

Greater attention is now being paid to the affective domain in education

with a slow increasing focus on it in the area of student writing (Lillis and Turner,

2001)

It is known that writing involves a great deal of cognitive energy; but for

most, writing is also an experience that involves strong feelings, emotions, pain,

pleasure, annoyance, relief, enjoyment etc., The affective domain in writing is

important and is worth exploring and discussing, with the aim of helping people to

recognize it, to ‘deal with it’ and to improve their writing by doing so.

An extensive set of studies by Torrance et al. in the 1990s (1992, 1994)

looked at various aspects of students’ writing including the difficulties. Many of

these were located in the affective domain, with other significant percentages

worrying about grammar, spelling and other aspects of writing.

Torrance viewed the aspects of students as follows,

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• The affective domain, reflecting on it and sharing it with fellow students is

a vitally important to them with enthusiasm, reflexivity and care.

• They have many positive attitudes and feelings towards writing.

• The activity of opening up the affective domain reflecting on it and sharing

it with fellow students is a vitally important one- not only to make them

‘feel better’ about writing but also as a starting point to help them develop

and improve their own writing.

Here it is evident that cognitive and affective domains are inter related to

each other in language learning especially in writing.

The above views offer a view of the cognitive and affective aspects of

language learning through students’ introspective narratives about their learning

histories. These narratives reflect “situated cognition” in which learners are

embedded in their own learning communities, which can be either nurturing or

destructive. Some primary themes in the students’ narratives are motivation,

anxiety, self-esteem, learning styles, and learning strategies. Language histories

can be very powerful sources of information for students and teachers alike, to

describe the writing of language learning histories or recollective studies as a way

to capture “situated cognition” (learning occurring in a particular setting.); to

present verbatim examples of selected histories written by students who are

already language teachers or who wish to become language teachers; and to show

some primary and very important themes in these examples. The technique of

writing language learning histories gives learners the opportunity to describe their

own language learning experiences and express their feelings about those

experiences. Feelings are defined here as the general quality of mental, emotional,

or physiological awareness (Weinglass, 1990). Unfortunately, the culture of

teaching and learning typically “does not value taking time to consider feelings”

(Weinglass, 1990). Having the rare opportunity to express and transform one’s

22

own feelings through a language learning history is profoundly empowering from

a constructivist viewpoint, in which individuals construct their own meaning

(Richardson, 1994). It also helps learners reflect critically on their own

assumptions and correct distortions (Mezirow, 1990).

Reading and writing have traditionally been thought of as distinctly

separate processes, as fillip sides of a coin, with reading regarded as receptive and

writing as productive (Tompkins, 1997). However, researchers have increasingly

noted the connections between reading and writing identifying them as essentially

similar processes of meaning constructions. (Paris, Wasik, & Turner, 1991;

Tierney & Person.1983). Experienced readers and writers purposefully select and

orchestrate cognitive strategies that are appropriate for the literacy tasks at hand

(Flower) & Hayes, 1981a; Paris et al., 1991; Pressley, 1991.) As Langer (1991)

notes, "As children learn to engage in literate behaviors to serve the functions and

reach the ends they see modeled around them, they become literate - in a culturally

appropriate way; they use certain cognitive strategies to structure their thoughts

and complete their tasks, and not others". In order to help students develop

confidence and competence, research suggests that teachers need to provide

systematic and explicit instruction in strategies used by mature readers and writers

and help students develop declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge of

these cognitive strategies, thereby building students' meta cognitive control of

specific strategies (Baker & Brown, 1984; Paris, Lipson, & Wixon,1983; Pressley,

2000). It is the teacher's responsibility to make visible for students what it is that

experienced readers and writers do when they compose; to introduce the cognitive

strategies that underlie reading and writing in meaningful contexts; and to provide

enough sustained, guided practice that students can internalize these strategies and

perform complex tasks independently (Langer & Applebee, 1986).

Despite the "plethora of research establishing the efficacy" of cognitive

strategies instruction, very little of this type of instruction occurs in school (Block

23

& Pressley, 2002)- especially for ELLs (Vaughn & Klinger, 2004). Two National

Research Council (NRC) reports (August & Hakuta, 1997; Snow, Burns, &

Griffin, 1998) point out the paucity of research on how best to teach English to

ELLs, particularly in secondary schools. The NRC committee identified the

following attributes of effective schools and classrooms that benefit all learners,

curriculum that balances basic and higher-order skills, explicit skills instruction

for certain tasks (particularly in acquiring learning strategies), instructional

approaches to enhance comprehension, and articulation and coordination of

programs and practices within and between schools. Like the NCR reports,

Fitzgerald (1995), in her analysis of effective reading instruction for ELLs, argues

that both native and non-native English-speaking children benefit from the same

types of balanced reading approaches - approaches that include explicit strategy

instruction. It is stated that there is "virtually no evidence that ESL (English as

Second Language) learners need notably divergent forms of instruction to guide or

develop their cognitive reading process, U.S. teachers of ESL students should

follow sound principles of reading instruction based on current cognitive research

done with native English speakers". In a similar vein, in their Office of

Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) study of what teachers need to

know about language, Wong Fillmore and Snow (2003) argue that all children

need to learn cognitive strategies. Jimenez, Garcia, and Pearson (1994), who

studied the reading strategies of bilingual students who are successful readers,

concur that cognitive strategies might help ELLs develop academic literacy, as do

Vaughn and Klinger (2004). Exploring promising practices for ELLs and the link

between literacy instruction and language development, other researchers, such as

Wong Fillmore (1986), Anderson and Roit (1993, 1996), and the members of The

Education Alliance (Coady et al., 2003), emphasize a cognitive strategies

approach to integrating reading and writing instruction. What is needed are

carefully designed studies of the cognitive strategies approaches, particularly with

secondary, urban ELL.

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According to these researchers,

• All children need to learn cognitive strategies,

• Cognitive strategies help to develop academic literacy

• Cognitive approach integrates reading and writing instruction

The Cognitive implications of writing

Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology investigating the way

animals and humans acquire, process and store information. With their concern

about the way in which the human mind thinks and learns, cognitive psychologists

have had particulars influence on the study of the writing process. They show

interest in the internal processes that the writer goes through with a focus on the

way the mind works to process information and in the problem solving approach

based on information - processing. As McLeod sustains, Flower and john Hayes

provided one of the most (if not the most) influential studies in education and

learning. Their ideas, were widely implemented in process- oriented classrooms,

the cognitive processes involved in various phases of writing (prewriting, drafting,

revising) and to different levels of social and cognitive development that students

bring to writing tasks.

Cognitive models of written composition suggest that any composition task

involves the individual’s mental structures and representations. Hayes (1990)

draws on the Hayes and Flower (1980, 1981) model to suggest a model which

consists of three main elements. The reflection process (incorporating the planning

process) involves the activity that operates on an internal representation in order

to produce another internal representation. This involves information for working

out a plan to write the text. At this stage the learner generates ideas, organizes and

evaluated them. This dual representation is vital in so far as it determines the

learner’s ability to pursue the process of composing. For, a learner who is unable

to achieve this dual representation will not be able to move to the production

25

process (incorporating that of translating). This process starts from the internal

representation and produces writing. It involves text production (Putting words on

paper). The interpretation process (incorporating that of reviewing) generates

internal representation from linguistic entries. At this stage the writer improves

what has been written.

Affective domain and the writing process

Since the time of classical Greece, we have been accustomed to viewing

humans as both thinking and feeling individuals. The dichotomy of cognition and

affect is no ingrained in Western thought that it seems a natural one; the two

elements have seldom, however been deemed equally important in the scientific

community. During the nineteenth century and early twentieth century,

psychology gave primary to affect; humans were thought to be at the mercy of

various drives and passions. As behaviorism became more dominant in the field,

affect was discounted; indeed, there were those who wished to exclude affect from

scientific study altogether (Brown and Farber; Duffy). More recently, with the

ascendancy of cognitive psychology, humans have been viewed as problem-

solvers whose thinking processes operate rather like a computer.

According to Ronald T. Kellogg (2001), writing skills typically develop

over a course of more than two decades as a child matures and learns the craft of

composition through late adolescence and into early adulthood. The novice writer

progresses from a stage of knowledge-telling to a stage of knowledge transforming

characteristic of adult writers. Professional writers advance further to an expert

stage of knowledge-drafting in which representations of the author’s planned

content, the text itself, and the prospective reader’s interpretation of the text are

routinely manipulated in working memory. Knowledge- transforming and

especially knowledge- crafting, arguable occur only when sufficient executive

attention is available to provide a high degree of cognitive control over the

26

maintenance of multiple representations of the text as well as planning conceptual

content, generating text, and reviewing content and text. Because executive

attention is limited in capacity, such control depends or reducing the working

memory demands of these writing processes through maturation and learning. It is

suggested that students might best learn writing skills through cognitive

apprenticeship training programs that emphasize deliberate practice.

Lev Vygotsky (1978) quoted by Susan McLeod considers the separation of

affect from cognition as a major weakness of traditional psychology. His position

is rooted in the view that it makes the thought process appear as autonomous,

segregated from the fullness of life, from the needs and interests of the individual.

Vygotsky (1986) therefore suggests that cognition be viewed in concert with

affect. This view is totally shared in so far as putting the affect in the background

might deprive developments in the field of an interest in some relevant

manifestations of human feelings and their impacts of human behaviour.

Moreover, thinking processes that lay at the core cognitive psychology might

result from some feelings developed by individuals, Drawing on this position my

reflection on the psychological dimension of writing tests will involve both

cognitive and affective considerations. It is felt that such an approach to the study

of psychological phenomena that occur during the administration of writing tests

is likely to provide the reader of this paper with the extent to which cognitive and

affective elements combine to explain learner’s performances.

As McLeod explains, theorists in the field of psychology agree more or less

on the existence of non – cognitive aspects of human activity which may be

labeled ‘affect’. Though they have not come to a clear – cut description of that

domain, theorists’ use of the word ‘affect’ includes feelings, attitudes, beliefs,

preferences, tastes, emotions, moods, motivation to name but a few. According to

Pierre Daco (1973) ‘Our affectivity is all our psychic reactions in life. It is

27

therefore a fundamental aspect of human psychology. Affectivity includes our

instincts, the tendencies of our unconscious, our thoughts and it guides our

actions. It determines our emotions, our moods, our passions. Affectivity is

therefore a vast psychological field, and is then exposed to many troubles. Internal

conflicts, complexes, nervosas, psychoses, rejection, are affective reaction. The

affective domain overshadows most (if not all) human activities. Most reaction

(positive or negative) result from affect. Even though teaching and learning are

primarily concerned with acquiring knowledge, no educational context can ignore

the affective domain. For whenever one tries to do without it, experience teaches

us that one cannot but realize its influence on both behaviour and performance.

In the early 1980s, Hairston (1982) asserted that writing instruction had

undergone a “Proceeding Shift” as a result of research in the proceeding decades,

some of the elements in new paradigm include focusing on the writing process,

with teacher intervention as needed and teaching strategies for intervention and

discovery.

Furthermore, writing is evaluated according to how well it fulfills the

writer’s intentions, and writing is also considered a recursive rather than a linear

process. Writing is viewed as a way of learning and developing and as a

disciplined creative activity that can be analyzed and described. (Hairston, 1982)

To Carol S.Deweck, Jennifer A.Mangles the cognitive psychologists

concerned with motivation for typical cognitive psychology formulation say that,

motivation is an interesting or important variable. The assumption typically made

motivation. Simply involves caring about a task or wanting a success to come and

that once individuals are care about the task they will have cognitive processes

(and hence the intellectual performance). In this view motivation is a quantity that

people have certain degrees and, if they have enough of it, their intellectual

performance reflect their cognitive abilities.

28

Kerry Walkeer (2001) said that psychological research has revealed

similarities between human cognitive and emotional processes as,

� Both cognitive and emotional dispositions show great inter- individual

variation.

� There is a direct behavioural link between cognition and emotion: Our

thoughts affect the way we feel about stimuli and vice versa.

� Both cognitive and emotional processes involve a multiple systems

neural network.

Indeed researches proved already about the interactive relationship between

cognition and emotion.

1.F.1. Interaction between Cognition and Emotion

The anatomical connection between the organs of cognition and those of

affect explains why perceptions memories and expectations can arouse emotions

and why the latter can elicit, distort or even inhibit some cognitive processes. In

sum, though different and localized in different brain regions, cognition and

emotion interact. One is an act of emotional mind and the other of the rational

mind. The emotional mind is far quicker than the rational mind. Springing into

action without pausing even a moment to consider what it is doing. Its quickness

produces the deliberate, analytic reflection that is the hall mark of the thinking mind.

Perceptual and conceptual area

Amygdale

Hypothalamus and basal fore brain Medial and midline thalamus

29

Language Functions happen in the left right hemisphere of the brain .

Left Hemisphere Right Hemisphere

• Analytical processing • Global Holistic processing

• Language • Recognizing

• Right visual field • Visuospatial skills

• Writing • Emotion

• Logic • Metaphor

• Verbal memory • Visual field

• Word parts • Perception

• Syllable recognition • Model making

• Speech of sound • Spatial movement

• Comprehensive

• Speech and action

According to Stephan Steidl, Fathima Razik and Adam K.Anderson, (2010)

emotional arousal enhances declarative /episodic memory. They ascertained that

arousal during encoding determined the mnemonic fate of cognitive skills

learning. Emotional enhancement of prediction and retention was independent of

verbally stated knowledge, for the picture contexts in which learning took place.

This is a novel demonstration for cognitive skill learning and suggest that

emotional arousal may in parallel enhance the neural systems that support

procedural learning and its declarative context.

Emotion influences spatial attention. Paul S.Foster, valeria Drago, Daniel

G.Webster, David W.Harrison, Gregory P.Crucian and Kenneth M.Heilman

(2007)

30

Their results indicated that the positively labeled pegs were placed in left

distal hemi space and the relative placement of negatively labeled pegs were

rightward and proximally. Whereas numerous research investigations have

examined how attention is based for emotional stimuli, theirs’ is the first

investigation to provide evidence that emotions can bias intentional allocation.

Reports on the results of a study of cognitive and meta cognitive strategy

use and its effect on the students’ test performance Chinese EFL context a 18 item

survey revealed the following.

� the students had a medium use of both cognitive and meta cognitive

strategies during the test;

� cognitive and meta cognitive strategy use was closely related to each other,

but neither was a predictor for the other;

� though cognitive and meta cognitive strategy use significantly correlated

with the students’ performance in certain parts of the proficiency test, only

the meta cognitive strategy of evaluating one’s performance proved to be a

positive predictor of the students’ performance in listening and

comprehension and the overall written test.

Boyd, Dooley & Felton (2006) showed the results of their research as the

affective domain consists of levels that address a learner’s interests, attitudes,

values and appreciation of a given topic or content area. Undergraduate courses

that include agricultural content invariably contain both cognitive and affective

dimensions. The inter relationships between cognition and affect cause a learner to

further internalize the information and promote a change in attitude, belief and

values that would instill a desire to improve the condition of international

agriculture and other relevant agricultural education content areas.

31

It was our hope that cognitive strategies intervention would help students to

construct an identification of themselves capable, of literate individuals who

ultimately, could “find for themselves”. (Underwood & Pearson, 2004)

From the studies it was found that there is a link between competence and

confidence, demonstrating the cognitive and affective impact in writing.

Cognitive and meta cognitive strategies are considered important language

learning strategies by numerous researchers (O’Malley, chamot, Stewner –

Manzares, Kupper & Russo, 1985; Oxford, 1990; Skehan, 1989, Wong – Fillmore,

1976, 1979).

According to these researchers, while cognitive strategies are more directly

related to the individual learning tasks, which include making predictions,

translating, summarizing, linking with prior knowledge or experience, applying

grammar rules, and guessing more meaning from contexts. Meta cognitive

strategies involve thinking about learning process, planning for learning,

monitoring of comprehension, production and self – evaluation of learning.

A major study in the 1980s was conducted by O’ Malley at al., (1985) in

the United States. Based on interviews with secondary –school ESL learners,

interviews with their teachers and observations, O’ Malley et al. (1985) uncovered

twenty – six strategies among which, nine were meta cognitive strategies (advance

organizers, directed orientation, selective attention, self management, advance

preparation, self –monitoring, delayed production, self –evaluation and self -

reinforcement) and sixteen were cognitive strategies (repetition, resourcing,

directed physical response, translation, grouping, note – taking, deduction,

recombination, imagery, auditory representation, key word, contextualization,

elaboration, transfer, inference and clarification). The most strategy generating

activities were vocabulary learning, pronunciation and oral drills. Fewer strategies

32

were used in more complex activities like analysis, inference and making

presentations.

Several studies and research articles show that the cognitive and affective

intervention strategies play a vital role in developing English especially in

enhancing writing skill.

That is, specialized brain circuits process specific cognitive and emotional

aspects of our experiences, and these circuits may be interconnected. These

characteristics of cognition and emotion have led some to suggest that co- varying

relationship exists between the two.

Kolb and Whishaw have suggested that measures of cognitive behavior

might be related to measures of emotional behavior in the same normal subjects.

Cognition and emotion appear to be localized in the brain via multiple neural

networks may be automatically connected. This would provide a neurological

basis for the proposed relationship between the two functions. Sometimes the

brain lesions that invoke particular emotional changes are also responsible for

cognitive impairments.

Emotions and memory: Emotions are signal. The explanation of emotions

and information processing has been stated, described as “ emotion exist for the

sake of signaling states of the world that have to be responded to, or that no longer

need response” (Frijda, 1988,p.354)

This explanation of emotions is termed cognitive turning (Schwarz, 1990).

Cognitive turning suggests that the appropriate cognitive processing is cued by the

present affective state. Positive affect signals that a situation is brought, whereas

negative affect indicates a problem.

33

Educators Joann Crandall, Ann Jaramillo, and Jry Dreeft Peyton (2002) are

looking for ways to help students achieve at high academic levels, which involve

writing English well, understanding academic discourse, writing coherently and

writing English at cognitively complex and abstract levels. Crandall enlisted five

ways to develop students English language and literacy skills which would help to

develop writing skills.

1. Build conceptual frameworks for new knowledge.

Use various methods to help students, see how ideas/ concepts relate to one

another, Provide graphic organizers, spatial, visual to be studied.

2. Teaching – learning strategies.

Chamot & O’ Malley’s work (1994) with second language learners

reinforces the notion that students who learn to constantly, to consciously monitor

their own learning and who have a store house of strategies to use when learning

becomes difficult do better than students who do not have such strategies. When

teaching a learning strategy, indentify the strategy, explain why it is useful,

demonstrate its use, give students practice in applying it to a learning situation,

and show term how to evaluate its effectiveness and what to do if it does not

work (Duffy et.al.1986)

3. Focusing on reading and writing in all classes.

We can use a variety of strategies to ensure that students are actively

engaged in reading and writing like questioning, predicting, clarifying and

summarizing.

4. Giving students opportunities for free reading and writing:

To develop students’ vocabulary making, readings, consolidate their ideas,

feelings and thoughts, more time may be extended.

34

5. Helping students move beyond the text.

At the end, we can plan tasks move students back to the content to

reexamine, reconnect and rethink the major ideas or concepts, ‘beyond the text’

they think with a different purpose in mind.

Differential success in second or foreign language learning has been

attributed to individual differences such as intelligence, aptitudes, personality,

interest, motivation and anxiety.

In second language learning, this affective approach manifested itself in

methods such as community language learning, Curran (1972) and Suggestopeia

(Lozanov, 1979). Schemann (1997,2001), informed by recent development in

cognition research (Damasio, 1994; Ledoux, 1996), proposed that the psychology

and neuro biology of stimulus appraisal determine the extent to which second

language learning is achieved. These theories regarding the important role of

affect in learning have resonated strongly with the intuitions of many second and

foreign language teachers.

Over the past three decades, research in second language acquisition has

confirmed hypotheses that language learning is indeed enhanced by attention to

affect. Gardner 1985: Gadner and Lambert, 1972; Gardner and Mae Intyre, 1993)

conducted extensive investigations of individual differences in language learning

success.

A series of interventions conducted by Moskowitz (1981,1999) with high

school second and foreign language students reported positive correlations

between the use of humanistic exercises and student’s attitudes towards language

learning.

35

As chamot (2001) stated, there is a continuing need for more intervention

studies to determine the effects of strategy training in language learning and

proficiency language learning strategies in foreign language learning and teaching.

It summarizes the back ground of language learning strategies, defines the

concept of a language learning strategy and outlines the taxonomy of language

learning strategies proposed by several researchers. It also takes into account the

teacher’s role in strategy training.

The term language learning strategy has been defined by many researchers.

Wenden and Rubin (1987) define learning strategies as “…any sets of operations,

steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage,

retrieval and use of information”.

Richards and Platt (1992) state that learning strategies are “internal

behavior and thoughts used by learners strategies interlink “ intentional behavior

and thoughts used by learners during learning so as to better help them understand,

learn or remember new information”.

“Faerch Claus and Casper (1983) stress that a learning strategy is “an

attempt to develop linguistic and socio linguistic competence in the target

language”. All language learners use language learning strategies either

consciously or unconsciously when processing new information and performing

tasks in the language classroom.

Rubin, pioneered much of the work in the field of strategies, cognitive

learning strategies, made the distinction between strategies contributing directly to

learning and cognitive learning strategies contributing directly to the development

of the language system constructed by the learner. They refer to the steps or

operations used in learning or problem solving that require direct analysis,

36

transformation or synthesis of learning materials. Rubin indentified six main

cognitive learning strategies contributing directly to language learning.

• Classification / Verification.

• Guessing / Inductive Inference

• Deductive Reasoning.

• Practice

• Memorization.

• Monitoring.

In Oxford’s (1990) systems, meta cognitive strategies help learners to

regulate their learning.

Affective strategies are concerned with the learner’s emotional

requirements such as confidence, while social strategies lead to increased

interaction with the target language.

Cognitive strategies are the mental strategies that learners use to make the

sense of their learning, memory strategies are those used for storage of

information and compensation strategies help learners to overcome knowledge

gaps to continue the communication.

Memory strategies are

creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviewing well,

employing action, practicing are interlinked with five affective intervention

strategies namely emotion, motivation, interest, attention, and intuition to get

effectiveness in English writing.

O’ Malley et.al(1985) divide language learning strategies into three main

categories.

37

• Meta cognitive strategies.

• Cognitive strategies

• Socio affective strategies.

Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and they

involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself. Repetition,

resourcing, recombination, imagery, auditory representation, key word,

contextualization, elaboration, transfer, inference are among the most important

cognitive strategies.

Stern (1992) has pointed five main language learning strategies as

• Management and Planning strategies

• Cognitive strategies

• Communicative – Experimental Strategies.

• Interpersonal strategies and

• Affect strategies.

It is evident that good language learners employ distinct affective

strategies. Language learning can be frustrating in some cases. In some cases, the

feelings of strangeness can be scrolled by the foreign language. In some other

cases learners may have negative feelings about native speakers. Good language

learners are more or less conscious of these emotional problems of positive affect

towards the foreign language and its speakers as well as towards the learning

activities involved. Learning training can help students to face up to the emotional

difficulties and to overcome them by drawing attention to the potential frustration

or pointing out as they arise (Stern 1992)

Since the amount of information to be processed by language learners is

high in language class, learners use different language learning strategies (ie more

cognitive and affective strategies) conveying the tasks and processing the new

38

input they face, can improve the language skills especially writing skills in a better

way.

Cognitive strategies that Underline the Reading and Writing Process

Researchers agree that reading and writing are both complex acts of critical

thinking. For Example, La Berge and Samuels (1974) note that reading is probably

one of the most complex skills in the repertoire of the most complex skills in the

repertoire of the average adult. Flower and Hayes (1981) identify writing as

“among the most complex of all human mental activities”. These mental activities

are powerful cognitive strategies that are fundamental to the construction of

meaning. This is the care of the reading writing connection. Experienced readers

and writers select and implement appropriate strategies and monitor and regulate

their use in order to construct and refine meaning. Reading and writing are not

sequential stage. Processes in which meaning making progresses in a relatively

predictable order. Experienced readers and writers go back in order to go forward

and that they have the knowledge and motivation to access their tool kit of

cognitive strategies when the need arises without being constrained by any fixed

order: Both procedural and substantive plans help a writer to set goals. (Flower

and Hayes, 1981; Tierney and Pearson, 1983) This involves in eight steps, they

are:

• Planning and goal setting.

• Tapping prior knowledge

• Asking questions and making predictions

• Constructing the gist.

• Monitoring

• Revising meaning; reconstructing the draft.

• Reflecting and relating.

• Evaluating.

39

The most frequently used learning strategies employed in the name of

generative learning are underlining and note-taking. Learners meaningfully relate

what they read to information they already know (Richards, 1979). Similarly a

learner naturally engages in generative activity through paraphrasing sentences to

combine ideas from the passage, or to relate them to prior knowledge. Hence one

can be old enough to understand the relationship between cognition and affective

domain in developing writing skill in English.

1.2. Rationale of the study

Our age has been variously called the age of Science, the Atomic Age, the

space Age and the Age of crisis. (De Boer.J.John and Martha Dallman, 1960)

There are various methods of ways in which language symbols have become the

means of bringing together the human beings. But technology has not replaced

writing, it is an indispensable factor in modern life, interwoven with work,

recreation and other activities of all people. Its great value lies in two facts; printed

materials provide the most illuminating and varied records of human experience

that are now available, and they can be examined and restudied time and again at

the learner’s convenience. (Epray and Rogers, 1956)

Writing is the major avenue of communication. It is the means by which

every age is linked to each other. Teaching writing is a humanizing process. At all

levels writing instruction should serve to develop comprehension. It depends on

the background, his vocabulary development and his ability to interpret the

author’s words into concepts. True writing is writing with understanding.

Comprehension includes the correct association of meaning with words symbols,

the evaluation of meanings which are suggested in context, the selection of the

correct meaning, the organization of ideas as they are writing, the intention of

these ideas, and their use in some present or of future activity (Yoakman, Gerald

A, 1951).

40

The investigator being a lecturer of English for more than two decades, the

investigator has observed innumerable mistakes in English sentence structures in

the answer scripts of the students. These mistakes of the students in sentence

structures in written English evince that they are to learn the sentence structures

in a systematic manner. How splendid their answers will be if their sentences in

English are without mistakes: How could they achieve it? These were the

questions that were haunting the investigation for a quite long time. The

investigator found the urgent need for this research study “Effectiveness of

Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies in Enhancing Writing Skill in

English among B.Ed., trainees”.

A significant study seemed not –to have been attempted, so far, on the

importance of enhancing writing skill at B.Ed., level, with the help of these

strategies. Moreover the investigator feels that for effective written

communication at B.Ed. level, proficiency in writing skills is required. To face

different communicational situations and real life situations, all round proficiency

specially in writing skill is required. This experimental methodology equip the

learners and trainees of the B.Ed., to meet any challenge in written

communication. Hence the importance of the present study is felt and an attempt is

made to identify the Effectiveness of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies in Enhancing Writing Skill in English among B.Ed. trainees.

It is a well-known fact that most learners leave school with a poor

command of writing. Even at the university level students require further help in

writing. More and more people are becoming aware of the need to improve their

ability in writing English. There is also a growing realization of the need to

strengthen instruction in writing at all levels. It will not be surprising if learning to

write in English becomes a major educational undertaking in the years to come.

41

In India, English is the second language and a compulsory subject of study

in the school curriculum and also at the undergraduate level and it is the medium

of instruction at higher education. The standard of English in the present day both

at school and at college level is not up to the mark.

Unless appropriate inputs are used in the system of teaching English,

English education in India will not yield the desired results and the standard of

English will be deteriorating in the years to come. Providing desire skills and

practice in English sentence structures will enable the learners acquire mastery

over the language without difficulty. At this juncture the present study entitled as

“Effectiveness of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies in Enhancing

Writing Skill in English among B.Ed., Trainees”, assumes significance because

the findings and recommendations of the study can go long way in improving the

standard of writing in English and fulfilling the objectives for which the English

education is provided to the learners.

1.3. Scope of the study

The investigator feels that the need of preparing an instructional model to

B.Ed trainees on developing writing skills is necessary which will favour to

communicate better in different situations. So the investigator made an attempt to

develop writing skill by means of the newly developed instructional model.

Further this attempt is an innovative method which was not tried earlier at this

level. Hence this research study is a new and challenging one to make or prepare

the B.Ed trainees to develop writing skill for their better performance in the

examination and in the society.

The present study believes that the Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies help the trainees exhibit cognitive processes to analyze and consolidate

their own thinking and ideas in pursuit of knowledge acquisition to write without

mistakes. If the trainees, the future teachers are trained with innovate approaches,

42

the whole student community will be benefited. Therefore this study aims to

develop a design and innovative method using Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategies for enhancing writing skill in English of the B.Ed trainees.

The present study is believed to create awareness of cognitive process,

affective process, to analysis and to manage their own thinking in pursuit of

knowledge acquisition in order to gain insight and creativity, organize their ideas

into their utility, to become good writer in English.

1.4. Statement of the problem

Though the importance of English is realized, the methods of teaching

English are rather unsatisfied in most of the educational institutions in India. The

student-teachers in general do not get an opportunity to think independently and

conceptualize the spirit of the subject while practice their teaching due to lack of

innovative methods in the classes. Infact, the present state of teaching English in

the majority of educational institutions at all levels needs a lot of overhauling.

Hence paramount importance must be given to the fact that the trainees of B.Ed.,

should be trained and oriented with constructivist learning environment with the

following interdependent components of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies which assist the student-teachers to understand, to manipulate their

thinking and ideas, and to enhance their writing skill in English.

The investigator found out that the trainees of B.Ed. committed many

mistakes in written English in the unit tests, and cumulative and session-ending

examinations. The investigator has been fed up with the copious mistakes

committed by the trainees. It is felt that the trainees struggle to frame correct

sentences (Syntax), selecting topics, organizing ideas into paragraphs,

(Organization), to use more idioms, phrases (Vocabulary), to use articles,

prepositions, various forms of tenses and their agreement (Grammar) Content,

(Originality, relevance and clarity) spelling, pronunciation and spacing (visual

43

perception) and purpose (Justification and reasons for writing). Unless they are

thorough with the above skills, their written communication or answers will not be

correct. If the trainees are able to have good grounding in all the skills of writing,

they will be able to frame structurally correct sentences in English and express

fluently in written English. In the words of Widdowson (1978) “The learning of a

language involves the acquiring of the ability to compose correct sentences”.

Hence it is felt an imperative need to undertake a study to identify the mistakes

committed by the learning trainees in their writings, to develop an instructional

model with a view to minimizing the mistakes committed by them, to administer

the model to the trainees and also to assess the effect of the instructional method

on the trainees. Hence the research problem has been selected and stated as

“Effectiveness of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies in Enhancing

Writing skill in English among B.Ed., Trainees”.

1.5. An Overview of the study

Back drop of the study, cognitive perspectives of English writing, Rationale

of the study, Scope of the study, Significance of the study and Statement of the

problem are dealt in the conceptual frame work.

Studies pertaining to the present problem of research for the development

of the model and research design are reviewed in the Second chapter.

Third chapter deals with the development of a model on enhancing writing

skill in English.

Fourth Chapter deals with the design of the study which involves

objectives, hypotheses, research design, construction and validation of the research

tools.

44

Analyses and interpretations drawn from the data are provided in the fifth

chapter.

The final chapter gives summary of the major findings, recommendations,

suggestions and conclusion.

Reference is adhered to APA (American Psychological Association) format

style.

Annexure provides B.Ed., Trainee Assessment Tool for Writing Skills in

English (BTATWSE), B.Ed., Trainee Attitude scale towards writing in English

(BTASWE), four Comprehension Passages used for practicing the model to

enhance writing skill (in CD) and publication of papers.

45

CHAPTER - II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE FOR GAINING

INSIGHTS

“Writing, I think is not apart from living; Writing is a kind of double living;

The writer experiences everything twice. Once is reality and once is that

mirror which waits always before and behind”.

- Catherine Drinker Bowen

Atlantic Dec-1957

(1897-1973)

2.1. Introduction

This chapter deals with the researches already done and influences of the

review of the related literature. A very effective research for specialized

knowledge is possible only with the help of related literature. Walter R.Borg

(1965) rightly says that the literature in any field forms the foundation upon which

all future work will be built. If we fail to build the foundation of knowledge

provided by the review of literature, our work is likely to be shallow and naïve and

will often duplicate work that has already been done better by someone else.

According to Best (1977) a brief summary of previous research writings of

recognized experts provide evidence that the researcher is familiar with what is

already known and with what is still unknown. Since effective research must be

based upon past knowledge, this step helps to eliminate the duplication of what

has been done, and provides useful hypothesis and helpful suggestions for

significant investigation.

The review of related literature helps the researcher to form a conceptual

frame for the research to be undertaken. It also suggests important aspects of

research such as methods, procedures, experimental design, and sources of data

46

and appropriate statistical techniques. The review enables the investigator to

provide a rationale for the study undertaken. Moreover, this helps the researcher

identify a research problem and design the research appropriately.

Man is the only animal that can take advantage of knowledge which has

been preserved or accumulated through the centuries or since the origin of man.

Human knowledge has the three phases: preservation, transmission, and

advancement. This fact is of particular importance in research which operates as a

continuous function of ever-closer approximation to the truth.

The term review means to organize the knowledge of the specific area of

research to evolve an edifice of knowledge to show that the study would be an

addition to this field. The task of review of literature is highly creative and tedious

because researcher has to synthesis the available knowledge of the field in a

unique way to provide the rationale for the study.

It enables the investigator to identify the research gaps if any in order to

create new ground in research. So a review of previous studies in-relevant area of

the present study was attempted and presented in this chapter.

Need for review of related literature

It is essential due to the following reasons

� Quantitative and qualitative review of research usually gives the workers an

indication of the direction.

� It avoids the replication of the study

� The researcher formulates the hypotheses on the basis of review of

literature.

� The review of literature provides some insight regarding strong points and

limitations of the previous studies. It enables to improve own investigation.

47

2.2. Studies Conducted on Written Communication

Many research studies have been conducted in India about written

communication. These studies are presented in nutshell.

Shanmugam (1977) conducted a study on the difficulties in written English

of pre-university students in some of the arts colleges in the city of Madras. The

objectives of the study are: (i) To identity the common type of errors in

organization of sentences and paragraphs. (ii) To assess the general level of

writing ability in English of pre-university students of colleges in the city of

Madras. The major findings of the study are: (i) medium of instruction played an

important role. (ii) Most of the students were good in spoken English rather than

in the written form (iii) students were not given proper training in the organization

of sentences and paragraphs. (iv) Female students were good in written form

when compared to male students.

From the study of Shanmugam (1977) the researcher has taken the view

that proper training was needed in the organization of sentences and paragraphs.

Suderkkodi (1990) conducted a study of common errors committed by the

Hr.Sec. Students in written English. The objectives of the study are: (i) To

identify the errors committed by the students at the higher secondary level in

written English. (ii) To design some suitable remedial teaching programmes to the

slow learners, in order to minimize their errors in written English. (iii) To

implement the designed, remedial teaching programme to the slow learners in

order to minimizing these errors in written English. (iv) To find out the effect of

the remedial teaching programmes implemented to the slow learners.

The major findings of the study are : (i) The achievements of boys are

greater than that of girls in written English. (ii) There was improvement after

48

giving remedial programmes to the slow learners. It was concluded that the

remedial programmes had improved the student’s performance on written English.

Sarma, Madan Mohan (1991) focused on the problem of acquiring English

as a second language in the classroom where English is not the language of

interaction. It also critically examined the learners’ errors as part of their inter –

language system. The objectives of the study are: (i) To identify and describe (in

linguistic terms) the errors in English written by Assamese learners at the higher

secondary level coming from diverse social backgrounds. (ii) To discover and

explain linguistic, psychological, and social factors that cause these errors, and

(iii) to suggest necessary changes in the approach to the teaching of English as a

second language in Assam and consequent changes in the development of teaching

materials and methodology.

The major findings are: (i) About 73.1% of the sentences written by the

learners contained one or more errors. Most frequent errors occurred in the

following areas; Verbs, tenses, passives, articles and prepositions. (ii) About 79%

of the errors emerged as serious. Such serious errors occurred in word order, S-V

concord, verbs, lexical items, sequences of tenses, prepositions, articles and

negative focus – yes – no questions. (iii) The following areas of English grammar

were more difficult for Assamese learners: article, prepositions, S-V concert,

negative questions, sequences of tenses, passives, relative clauses and conditional

clauses. (iv) The strategies adopted by learners generally included: differentiation,

simplification, (Semantic and syntactic), Over-generalization, categorization, and

extension, translation, transfer and communicative strategies of paraphrasing and

circumlocution, (v) only 39.7% of the errors could be traced to a single source.

The major sources of errors are: language transfer (±25%) ignorance of rules, false

assumptions, ignorance of rule restrictions, teaching – learning situation. (iv)

Transfer errors were more frequent at the syntactic level. Such errors were not

49

necessarily more frequent in the production of the rural students. The study

identified four developing stages in the learners inter – language.

The investigator identified from the study of Sarma, Madan Mohan (1991)

students have committed errors in grammar area such as verbs, tenses, articles,

etc., So the researcher has given concentration in developing grammar skill for the

enhancement of writing.

Kamala (2003) has developed communicative strategies to enhance the

written communication skill in English among college students. The researcher

has chosen the task of constructing a story out of a given title or outline. The

strategies developed are proved to be effective. The objectives of the study are: (i)

To introduce a task- based, genre – oriented approach to teaching writing and

measure its effect on written communication. (ii) to find out the influence of the

nature and type of tasks on the performance of the learners. (iii) To find out the

relationship between “input enhancement” and the quality of intake in the process

of enhancing written communication skill. (iv) To study the effect of the teaching

of the process of writing on the enhancement of written communication skill. (v)

To find out the relationship between training in strategy use and skill development

(vi) To find out the relationship between the students knowledge of the subjects

learnt at the major level and written communication skill. (v) To find out the

relationship between training in strategy use and skill development (vi) To find out

the process in content and form in the process of the enhancement of written

communication skill. (vii) To find out the relationship between the students

knowledge of the subjects learnt at the major level and written communication

skill.

The findings of the study are: (i) There is progress both in ‘content’ in

writing and ‘Form’ in writing in the performance of the students over the

progressive tests measuring the development of written communication skill

50

(ii)Literature students employ the strategies of ‘conceptualizing’, coherence

detection, Inference, Word identification, Looping forward in chunks and

knowledge Transforming effectively. Their use of organizing strategy is not

effective. (iii) The use of communicative strategies facilitates the enhancement of

written communication skill.

The study done by Kamala (2003) showed that strategic instruction is

essential for developing writing skill. Hence the investigator attempted to enhance

writing skill by using cognitive and affective intervention strategies.

The researcher made an attempt to study the researchers conducted abroad,

pertaining to written communication.

Hilldenbrand (1985) in a case study research of a Spanish speaking subject

suggested that the mode of writing could influence the writing process. The

creative and personal mode conflicted with the academic mode expected of a

learner. There might be factors beyond linguistic competence, which could

impede the composing process.

Jones (1985) investigated the factors containing writing. The investigator

interviewed nine advanced students and found out that monitoring would not lead

to improve writing. The study concluded that the process oriented writing

instruction would help acquisition of English. Diaz (1985) studied the process

oriented classroom environment that facilitated second language acquisition. The

researcher identified and recommended process strategies and techniques for ESL

(English as Second Language) students.

Friedlander (1990) conducted an experiment on Chinese ESL students.

This study suggested that planning and preliminary considerations of a topic could

be enhanced. It brought out the fact that the use of the language of topic area

51

knowledge could have a positive effect on their planning and writing. The role of

language use in generating content vs researcher. The results confirmed that

translation did not constrain writers either in time or quality as they produced

texts.

Sengupta, Sima (2000) in an exploratory study investigated the effects of

explicit instruction in revision on second language learner’s performance and

perceptions about writing. The learners were from two classes of a secondary

school in Hong Kong, who learned to revise. Both groups received instructions in

revision after they finished writing the first draft. All students completed

questionnaires before and after the study and interviews were conducted with a

selection of students. Writing performance at the beginning and end of the study

was measured holistically and compared with a third group that did not learn

revision strategies but completed the same pre and post study task. The data

indicated that explicit teaching of revision strategies had a measurable influence

on writing performance. Student questionnaires and interview showed a

difference in the way writing and revision were received. It is suggested that

language teachers should consider multiple drafting as an alternative to completing

a new writing task in their classrooms, as explicit instruction on revision may

contribute towards developing an awareness of discourse – related features in

writing.

The study done by Sengupta, Sima (2000) showed that teaching of revision

strategies had a measurable influence on writing performance. Hence the

researcher has adopted repeated practice of using various exercises for developing

writing skill.

Karla John Stone, Hollis Ashbaugh and Terry Warfield (2002) studied the

effects of repeated practice and contextual – writing experiences on college

student’s writing skills. The authors examined the effects of both general and task

52

specific writing experiences on the college student’s writing skill development.

On the basis of theories of expertise development and a cognitive process theory

of writing skill development the authors predicted and repeated practice would be

associated with superior writing skills and that after controlling for repeated

practice writing within a specific task domain would be associated with superior

writing skills. The results were consistent with the predictions.

The investigator gained knowledge from the study of Karla John Stone,

Hollis Ashbaugh and Terry Warfield (2002) as repeated practice is essential for

developing writing skill. It was also implemented by using the strategy

mnemonics.

Bruce saddler and Steve Graham (2005) proved in this study that mastering

sentence construction skills is essential to learning to write. Limited sentence

construction skills may hinder a writer’s ability to translate ideas into text. It may

also inhibit or interfere with other composing processes, as developing writers

must devote considerable cognitive effort to sentence combining skills helped to

improve story writing as well as the use of these skills while revising.

From the study of Bruce Saddler and Steve Graham (2005), mastering

sentence construction skill is essential to learning to write is observed by the

investigator. It was also utilized in the instruction of the model developed by her.

2.3. Studies on English language skills other than writing skills

Sasikala (1997) conducted a study on the effect of communicative tasks and

cognitive strategies, aimed at introducing task-based course material for oral

English Acquisition and finding out its effect upon the performance of the

learners. The study revealed that the acquisition of oral English depended upon

the amount of exposure to English and the number of students participating in

English-speaking situation.

53

The study done by Sasikala (1997) showed that cognitive strategies played

a role in the performance of English learning, speaking and writing. The

researcher made an attempt using cognitive intervention strategies to develop

writing skill in English.

Chellamani (2001) conducted a study on Efficacy of Psycholinguistic

intervention and meta-cognition on reading comprehension among High School

entrants. This study confirms the effect of intervention of psycholinguistic

principles and meta-cognitive strategies on developing reading comprehension.

Chellamani’s (2001) study enlightened the investigator to use intervention

strategies in writing comprehension (cognitive and affective intervention).

Joycilin shermila (2004) conducted a study on cognitive style and reading

comprehension of standard IX students and concluded that cognition, the mental

process that is needed for the accomplishment of any task may be related to

reading, an intellectual task, specific cognitive abilities may be essential for the

acquisition of specific skills such as reading which is often considered as a

powerful means for knowledge acquisition, structuring and application of the

acquired knowledge. Mahendran (2004) attempted a study on Effectiveness of

learner’s attention on facilitating listening comprehension. The study finds out

that listening self-assessment is stronger in enhancing the level of achievement on

listening comprehension.

Joycilin Shermila (2004) stressed that cognition, the mental process is

needed for reading comprehension. The investigator has applied this principle for

writing comprehension.

Aranha, Mabel (1988) attempted to study the reading attitudes of Indian

students in order to find out the ways and means of reading skills of young

54

students in India. The objective of the study is to study the reading attitude among

English medium schools of Bombay. The major findings are: (i) The low language

ability sub-group benefited the most from the sustained silent reading(SSR)

programme. (ii) As regards the sex differences the boys and girls differed

significantly in both experimental and control groups in favour of girls. (iii) When

boys and girls were compared for the effect of intervention only among boys the

SSR programme helped to improve the reading attitude. (iv) The percentage of

students who read more books liked silent reading and wanted to choose their own

reading material were considerably higher in the experimental group as a result of

SSR.

The study of Aranha, Mabel (1988) insisted that attitude is necessary for

learning English. Taking this into account the researcher used a tool to find out the

attitude towards English writing.

Sivakumar (1996) studied the effectiveness of packages developed for

improving oral communication in English among Tamil medium learners at +1

stage. The investigator developed packages for improving the fluency and

accuracy in oral communication in English. The study revealed that there was a

significant improvement in oral communication in English among Tamil medium

learners after the application of the packages. The study was related to the spoken

aspect.

Raimes (1985) found that the students wrote more and exhibited more

commitment to the writing task and produced more content when the process-

oriented approach was adopted. Galvan (1985) investigated the cultural and

linguistic factors in composing processes. The subjects of his ethnographic study

were ten doctoral students of education. The investigator found that the composing

processes were full of pauses and doubts as the students moved between two

55

languages. Zamel (1985) studied the effect of feedback. The findings indicated

that the text quality did not improve as a result of feedback. Rorschach(1986)

examined students’ revising. The findings confirmed that the writers focused on

correctness rather than content when they wrote with the readers in mind. Gaskill

(1986) found out that the writing and revising processes were of similar

importance.

Arnold (1987) analyzed the composing strategies of six Chinese speaking

graduate level students. This study brought out the differences between writing

processes especially related to vocabulary. The investigator suggested that all

writers, whether proficient or not, need help. Cumming (1987) studied the writing

process of six Canadian adult subjects. Contrary to the findings of Johnson (1985),

this study revealed that expert writers did a lot of thinking in French, was used by

expert writers for generating content and checking style especially with regard to

diction.

Hedgcock and Lefkowtz (1996) in a survey on feedback reported that the

learners expected to make improvement in writing when the teachers focused on

grammatical and mechanical mistakes. Manchon Ruiz(1997) studied composing

strategies and worked on relationship between writing ability and proficiency in

composition. The study highlighted the role of ‘restructuring’. Grundy Peter and

Lis Vivian (1998) undertook a study on “Error correction”. The authors claim that

process writing lends itself naturally to a whole range of new response modes

which product oriented approaches never considered. There are alternative

methods like commenting on drafts, conferencing, checklists and portfolios. They

recommend that teachers need to experiment more with these new techniques and

that learners used to be encouraged to take more responsibility for assessing their

own writing.

56

The investigator has attained the enlightenment from the study of Hedcock

and Lefkowtz (1996) to focus more on the grammatical point to develop writing

skill in English.

Shi, Ling(1998) in a survey of forty seven ESL students from three Pre-

university classes, explored Pre-writing discussion under three conditions; Peer

discussion, teacher-led discussion and no-discussion. The study confirmed that

students wrote longer drafts in the condition of no discussion, shorter drafts after

teacher-led talk, and drafts with a greater variety of verbs after peer talk. The

results implied that teacher might usefully balance these pre-writing conditions to

generate various types of thinking and discourse processes that facilitate ESL

students’ writing. The study also highlights the importance of time factor and the

relationship between length and quality in writing.

Berg, Catherine(1999) studied the effects of peer response on students,

revision and writing outcomes of forty-six ESL students. There were two groups,

one trained and another not trained in how to participate in peer response writing.

It is concluded that trained peer response positively affected ESL student revision

types and quality of texts.

Hiroc kobayashi and Carol Rinnert (2002) studied the implications of

second language writing. The study had indicated that Japanese high school

language classes provide significantly more instruction in reading than writing and

significantly less emphasis on writing that American classes. The results of the

study call into question the common assumption that Japanese high school

students receive little training related to writing. The findings suggest specific

ways of teachers to draw on students’ strengths in terms of their literacy

background to help them bridge the gap between their writing skills.

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Holdich and hung (2003) attempted a study on “A Computer Tutor towards

the narrative writing skills of children”. The purpose of this study was to test the

hypothesis that a computer tool can change the way children approach the task of

writing and improve their writing performance. ‘HARRY’ a web-based computer

tutor, was used for this purpose. The study’s hypothesis was confirmed. With

HARRY’S assistance, the children wrote better stories and employed the revision

process characteristic of mature writers.

Wei Zhu (2004) categorized writing assignments required in undergraduate

and graduate business courses and examined the characteristics of skills needed

for completing the assignments. Data sources included ninety-five course syllabi

and handouts on writing assignments.

2.4. Review on Cognitive Processes

Haskew (1956) defined teaching competence as the possession of the

teacher, his knowledge, skills, attitude, personality configuration and the like are

referred to as competencies, they lend the character dimension to teaching.

Edward Tolman (1969), one of the founder of cognitive psychologists has

contributed much in the field at learning, thinking and creative functioning while

explaining the problem solving behaviour of the higher organisms, he expressed

that organism tries to set up mental hypotheses about ways to solve problems and

then set out to test these hypotheses through purposeful behaviour.

Jean Piaget (1969), a Swiss, most prominent among the contemporary

cognitive psychologists has shown keen interest in the study of the development of

cognitive abilities operation of cognitive process in children he has outlined a

definite pattern and stages of the development of cognitive abilities depending

upon the biological readiness of the children.

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Piaget (1973) found the genesis of cognitive function occurring largely

within the developing person and the cognitive capacities are more or less

genetical in nature.

Vygotsky (1978) by contrast, asserts that cognitive abilities emerge develop

and are displayed within a socio-cultural milieu. He considers cognition as

"mediated" activity.

From the view of Piaget (1973), Vygotsky (1978), and Edward Tolman

(1969), the researcher felt that cognition is essential for language learning. And

hence the investigator attempted to develop a model using cognitive and affective

intervention strategies for developing writing skill.

Wohlwill (1973); Flavel (1977); Mccall (1981) studied that the cognitive

development concerns changes with age in relation to the system of what we know

and changes in the way in which that system interacts with other facts of

behaviour. Characteristics of human intellectual functioning such as thinking,

planning, knowing, relating, classifying, creating and problem solving have been

traditionally labelled as cognitive process.

Ann Brown (1975,78,1980), Brown and Compine (1981) Duell (1986) have

investigated students using cognitive strategies and found significant results on

self monitoring the use of cognitive strategies.

Cohen,1977; Glass, Holyoak & Scanta,1979;Ander,1980 are over

simplified sketch of the dominant information processing models is expanded in

many current text, despite the tremendous technological process brought about by

the new cognitive methodologies, such as mental, chronometry, eye movement

tracking and computer simulation, actual advances in our knowledge of cognition

have been slight.

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Emmerich 1964; Wohlwill, 1973 examined cognitive development occur

linearly. When the functional nature of the fact of the mental function remains

unchanged and the growth is quantitative to examine cognitive growth in linear

terms, one or more abilities or achievements (vocabulary, arithmetic, digit-span

memory) would be operationally defined and the ability to handle progressively

larger quantitative or qualitatively related units of similar information would be

measured over the age range.

2.5. Related Studies on Cognitive Strategy Instruction-Cognitive Strategies

The cognitive strategy research of 1975 to 1990 has produced an

impressive series of results, and even more important, has produced a technology

for continuing this line of research and practice.

A cognitive strategy, PEP (Person, Event, Place), was designed to enhance

middle school students comprehension of social studies texts. The PEP strategy is

intended to help teachers scaffold the reading and writing experiences of at risk

students.

It was found that a significant increase in reading comprehension for all

students, improved meta cognitive ability, improved attention, and improved

student academic confidence.

Lubliner, Shira (2002) investigate “The power of clarifying. A comparative

Analysis of strategies that strengthen comprehension”. The objective of the study

is to investigate the effects of cognitive strategy instruction on fifth grade students

reading comprehension and comprehension of words encounter during reading.

The findings reveal that the clarifying groups scores in reading

comprehension and word comprehension were significantly higher than those in

the control group, suggesting that clarifying strategy instruction positively affected

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fifth grade students comprehension of texts and vocabulary encounter during

reading.

Scheid, karen, (2000) investigated “Helping students Become Strategic

Learners Guidelines for Teaching cognitive Training series”

The objectives of the study is to understand instructional practices on

cognitive theories of instruction can better prepare students to become strategic

learner.

The volume synthesizes and distills the finding from current research and

identifies instructional components that enable teachers to implement strategy

instruction is the basic skill areas of reading, writing and mathematics. It also

indicates how classroom resources can be selected and used to support the use of

cognitive strategies. Following an instruction to the use of cognitive strategies,

instruction to the use of cognitive strategies, Designing Educational programmes

for thoughtful Learning. The promise of cognitive strategy Instruction, review the

instructional components for implementing cognitive based reading, writing and

mathematics instruction and indicate the features of classroom media and

materials that support these activities.

The findings of the study revealed that the present examples of methods

designed to increase strategic reading capabilities, composition instruction,

approaches designed to enhance problem solving capabilities, and collaborative

learning methods.

Anderman (1998) investigated “Motivation and cognitive strategy use in

Reading and Writing”.

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The objectives are to examine the relationships among early adolescents’

motivational goal orientations, cognitive processing strategies, self-efficacy and

expectancy-value for literary activities.

Self-report Questionnaire was used as a tool. These factors appear to vary

by gender, academic status and grade level subjects, 678 middle-school students

from a largely ‘blue collar’ district For students who are learning-focused, finding

support use of deep-level cognitive processing strategies such as monitoring of

comprehension, paraphrasing and summarizing, students who are ability-focused

tend to use surface level cognitive processing strategies such as memorization,

copying and rehearsal of information. The relationships between these variables

and performance on several standardized measures of languages and reading

achievement were also measure.

From the study of Anderman (1998), the investigated believed that

affective strategies were the powerful predictor of success when they are

combined with cognitive strategies. Hence she made an attempt to develop a

model by combining these cognitive and affective intervention strategies to

enhance writing skill in English.

Findings of the study revealed that Self efficacy was the most powerful

predictor of success and (2) those students who valued literacy activities and were

learning focused tended to do worse on some standardized tests than their peers,

relationships between motivational and affective factor with strategy usage, rather

than referring to gender and academic classifications such as ‘at risk’ or ‘special

education’ when considering the ways in which adolescents approach reading and

writing activities.

2.6. Studies on Linguistic Theory of Second Language Acquisition

There are different theories about how languages are learnt. The theories

that explain the processes involved in Second Language Acquisition can broadly

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be categorized as Linguistic and Cognitive as they vary in their perspectives. A

linguistic theory of second language acquisition treats linguistic knowledge as

unique and separate from other knowledge systems and acquisition as guided by

mechanisms that are specifically linguistic in nature (Ellis 1994). A cognitive

theory of language acquisition views linguistic knowledge not as different

from other types of knowledge and refer to the mental process involved in the use

of strategies to develop the language system as it is done in other kinds of

learning.

Literature on Cognitive Theory of Second Language Acquisition

Learner was considered a robot and learning a mechanical process till

cognitive theory of learning set its foot on the field of theory of language learning.

The black box between stimulus and response became the object of study of the

researchers. Every study began to emphasize the role of cognition in SLA (Second

Language Acquisition).

Selinker's (1972) Interlanguage Theory is primarily concerned with implicit

English knowledge and the strategies that contribute to its development.

Interlanguage' is a term coined by Selinker to refer to both the internal system that

a learner has constructed at a single point in time and to the series of

interconnected systems that characterize the learner's progress over time. This

theory is a starting point as it attempts to provide an explanation and specify the

mental processes responsible for Second language acquisition.

Krashen's Monitor Model (1981) started as an account of some aspects of

language processing in the 1970's, became an all embracing theory in the early

1980's. Krashen claims that there are two possible linguistic knowledge "acquired

knowledge" and "learnt knowledge" otherwise known as "acquisition" and

"learning" respectively. Acquisition in his terms is fostered by communicative,

natural activities. Learning in his sense can be helped to some limited extent by

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the provision of "appropriate" rules of thumb. Krashen's theory posits a non-

interface position between acquisition and learning. This view is challenged by

Bialystok.

Bates and MacWhinney (1981), MacWhinney (1987) developed the

Competition Model that forms part of a psychological theory of language in which

second language learning forms only one component. This model explains what

happens in an actual language situation and in how people use language. It seeks

to account for the kind of knowledge underlies real-time processing in real life

language behaviour. This model sees the human capacity for language learning as

non-specific (i.e. as resulting from general cognitive mechanisms involved in other

kinds of learning). It is interactionist in the sense that the learner's grammar is

viewed as an emergent property resulting from the interaction between input and

cognitive mechanisms relating to perceptual abilities, channel capacity, and

memory. The form-function mappings are central to this model. Any one form

may realize a number of functions and conversely, any one function can be

realized through a number of forms. The learner has to discover the particular

form-function mappings that characterize the target language.

Tarone's (1983) Variability Theory sought to account for the way in which

learners organized their English knowledge and the strategies they deployed for

both learning and using it. Tarone's theory is more than just an attempt to model

the kind of second language learning knowledge that learners internalise. It also

provides an explanation of how knowledge is acquired and how changes in the

learner's interlanguage take place. She represents the effects of situational context

as a continuam of interlanguage styles namely, vernacular style and careful style.

Her theory posits that new forms enter interlanguage in two ways.

(i) New forms enter directly into the learner's vernacular style and then

`spread' to more formal styles over time.

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(ii) New forms enter initially into the learner's most formal style, and

then `spread' to less formal styles where they replace the forms

already entered.

Thus, development does not consist of sudden jumps, but of gradual

extension of regularities from formal to progressively informal styles on the one

hand and from complex to increasingly complex linguistic contexts on the other.

Hence, (SLA) second language aquisition involves gradual reduction in the degree

of variability as non-target language variants are eliminated in a steadily growing

range of environments.

Ellis (1985) proposed `Variable Competence Model'. His theory was based

on the assumption that the way language is learnt is a reflection of the way it is

used. There are two aspects in his theory. One is the relationship between a

differentiated knowledge store and different types of language use. The other is

the way learners organize their implicit knowledge in terms of form-function

networks. Ellis views second language acquiring knowledge as represented

differently in the mind of the learner according to how `analyzed' and how

'automatic' it is. This view corresponds to that of Bialystok's distinctions of

`analysis' and `control'. Language use is differentiated according to the amount of

planning that takes place. Knowledge is activated for use by means of `processes'.

Primary processes are used in unplanned discourse whereas secondary processes

are utilized in planned discourse. These processes used by a learner are

developmental in the sense that their prominence in second language acquisition

corresponds to the general stages of development. Learning development takes

two forms. Learners learn how to activate items and rules that are available

initially in planned discourse for use in unplanned discourse.

Moreover, learners acquire the rules through participating in different types

of discourse. The idea of form-function networks is associated with the way the

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learners construct variable interlanguage systems. The learners' interlanguage

system is composed of competing rules at any stage of its development.

Sometimes, these rules are systematic as they relate to situational and contextual

factors. At other times, these rules are used arbitrarily _ in free variation. Learners

seek to remove free variation when they have two forms that have total identity of

functions. They eliminate forms that are considered non-standard or unnecessary.

They build form-function networks in which different forms are used to perform

different functions. second language acquisition involves two phases. The

'acquisition phase' refers to the stage where new forms are acquired and used in

free variation. In the 'reorganization phase' the learners sort these forms into

functional pigeonholes. Thus Ellis explains how knowledge is stored in the mind

of the learners and how they use it.

Anderson (1979,1980, 1983, 1984) investigated the operating principles

and explained how learners create and restructure their inter language systems as

a product of participating in verbal interaction with more proficient speakers. This

is called the 'Nativization Model', according to which second language acquisition

consists of two general processes, nativization and denativization. In nativization,

the learners simplify the learning task by forming hypotheses based on knowledge

that they already possess and attend to an internal norm. In denativization, learners

accommodate to an external norm, that is, they adjust their inter language systems

to make them fit with the input, making use of inference strategies. Subsequently,

Anderson (1990) has recognized that nativization and denativization are not two

separate 'forces' but aspects of the same overall process of acquisition. He

attempted to develop the nativization model by further specifying `processes',

‘cognitive operating principle', and ‘communicative strategies'. Anderson has been

strongly influenced by Slobin's (1985) operating principles. Anderson points out

that most of the operating principles he has identified in his own work can be

related to Slobin's. There are seven operating principles that evolved out of

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research that Anderson conducted on the second language acquisition of English

and Spanish.

Anderson (1983) has proposed a cognitive behaviourist model called ACT

which sees learning as building up response strengths through a twofold division

into procedural memory and declarative memory. As declarative facts get better

known they are gradually turned into procedures and several procedures are

combined into one, thus cutting down on the amount of memory involved. The

skill- learning model of Second Language Learning rests on the distinction

between 'declarative' and 'procedural' knowledge. The declarative knowledge is

what we know about or 'static' knowledge or information in memory. The

`procedural knowledge' is what we know how to do or 'dynamic' information in

memory.

McLaughlin (1978, 1980, 1987, 1990, McLaughlin, Rossman and McLeod

1983) discuss the processing limitations and the need for restructuring.

McLaughlin draws heavily on research in cognitive psychology into information

processing. He relates skilled language production to Information Processing

theory. There are certain limitations in processing information. Learners are not

capable of attending to all the information available in the input. Some of it

becomes the object of focused or selective attention, while other parts are attended

to only peripherally. In order to maximize their information processing ability,

learners routine skills. Initially a skill may be available only through controlled

processing. In contrast, "automatic processing involves the activation of certain

nodes in memory every time the appropriate inputs are present". Routinization,

therefore, helps learners to reduce the burden on their information-processing

capacity. It occurs when they have the opportunity to practice controlled

processes. Routinization results in quantitative changes in inter language by

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making an increasing number of information chunks available for automatic

processes.

Information processing capacity is also extended in another way through

'restructuring'. This allows for quantitative changes in inter language. These

changes relate to both the way knowledge is represented in the minds of learners

and also the strategies they employ. Representational change involves a shift from

exemplar-based to rule-based representation. McLaughlin (1990) gives the 'classic'

example of past tense learning in English. Another example of the general

transition from exemplar-based to rule based representation is the change from

formulaic speech to rule analysis. Restructuring is also facilitated by the flexible

use of learning strategies. In a series of experiments, McLaughlin and his

associates were able to show that `expert' language learners display greater

flexibility in restructuring rules and are therefore able to avoid making certain

types of error. McLaughlin (1990) considers that practice is also important for

restructuring. Indeed these review were of helpful to the investigator for the

present study to have attempted to develop a model in enhancing writing skills in

English.

Hosenfeld (1977) studied the reading strategies of successful and

unsuccessful second language learners. The think aloud protocols' are used as data.

It was found that successful readers use -contextual guessing based on inductive

reasoning. Hosenfeld (1979) made an attempt to train learners in the use of reading

strategies.

O'Malley and Chamot (1987,1990) presented three-way division of

strategies drawing on Flavell's concept of Meta cognition: Meta cognitive

strategies, Cognitive strategies and Social-affective strategies. They recognized

affective strategies such as coping with one’s own emotions, motivation and

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enlisting the help of others via appeal. As examples of learner strategies, they are

no less important than Cognitive and Meta cognitive strategies.

Oxford (1990) presented a system of classification, which formed the basis

of the most comprehensive questionnaire, the Strategy Inventory for Language

Learning (SILL), which had three classes of 'direct' strategies- Memory,

Cognitive, and Compensation strategies and three 'indirect strategies'- Meta

cognitive, Affective and Social strategies.

Nunan's (1997) study showed encouraging results for the selection of

learning strategies with his Hong Kong student group. Apart from these

descriptive studies of strategy use and strategy promotion, studies validating the

strategic teaching have been reported. Talbot's (1997) evaluation of a reading

strategy programme and Nunan's (1997) empirical study of the effectiveness of

training in general language-learning strategies are large-scale studies in this area.

Cumming (1987) studied the writing processes of six Canadian adult

subjects. Contrary to the findings of Johnson (1985), this study revealed that

expert writers did a lot of thinking in French. English was used by inexpert writers

for generating content and checking style especially with regard to diction.

Kauffmann (1996) explored the relationship between use of writing

assignments in relation to reading literature texts. It posed open questions as

preparation for class discussion. These were reformulated as topics for essays at

frequent intervals and to re-written assignment. He found that there was higher

motivation for self-correction.

Schultz (1996) conducted a survey to research feedback and error

correction. His survey revealed that the teachers disagreed in the issue of the role

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of explicit grammar and corrective feedback. He emphasized the need for taking

into account the learners' assumptions and teachers' beliefs regarding this question.

Manchon Ruiz (1997) studied composing strategies. He worked on

relationship between writing ability and proficiency in composition. His study

highlighted the role of 'restructuring'.

Porte (1997) explored the revision strategies in writing. His under

achieving writers could describe their revision strategies. It had strong

implications that these were pragmatic reactions to what they thought their

teachers preferred and what seemed to be the message from the feedback they

were given. He therefore guessed that the writer's primary concern with surface

and mechanical text alterations was a product of the learning situations.

Grundy Peter and Li Vivian (1998) undertook a study on "Error

correction". The authors claim that process- writing lends itself naturally to a

whole range of new response models which product oriented approaches never

considered. There are alternative methods like commenting on drafts,

conferencing, checklists and portfolios. They recommend that teachers need to

experiment more with these new techniques and that learners used to be

encouraged to take more responsibility for assessing their own writing.

Henry and Roseberry (1999) analyzed how information is organized in the

introductions of expository texts. Based on their earlier study, teaching materials

for university level second language learners were created with the aim of raising

learner's awareness of the rhetorical organization and salient linguistic features of

the essay. The teaching method relied heavily on explicit instruction and essential

Meta language. An evaluation of these method and materials based on analysis of

students' writing before and after instruction revealed that students had improved

their ability to structure their essay introductions. The students were tending to

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improve their ability to texture their writing. The paper concludes that explicit

genre-based instruction with the attendant meta language can help learners

improve their writing,

Paulus Trena M (1999) analyzed the essays and record of the verbal reports

of 11 ESL students. His study revealed that while majority of revisions that

students made were surface-level revisions, the changes they made as a result of

peer and teacher feedback were more often meaning -level changes than those

revision they made on their own. It was also found that writing multiple drafts

resulted in overall essay improvement.

Chandra Joice (1988) studied the Correlates of written English at the plus

two level. The study attempts to find out why certain groups of learners are

successful in attaining proficiency in written English while others are not, as well

as to study the factors or combination of factors contributing to the success of

some and failure of others. It also attempts to validate a model of second language

learning. The objectives of the study are: (i) To identify linguistic, psychological

and environmental factors associated with proficiency in written English, and (ii)

to study the interrelation among the factors among the pupils at the plus two level.

The tools used were included Questionnaire and Semantic differential. Discrete

Point objective type tests of grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension in

English. The major findings of the study are: (1) Proficiency in written English at

the plus two level was significantly correlated with: knowledge of grammar,

reading comprehension, vocabulary, the ability to predict lexical and syntactical

items and relationship, proficiency in Tamil, positive attitude towards English,

occupational status of the parents, economic status of the family, reading habits,

writing practice, and the use of English outside the formal educational setting. (2)

Proficiency in written English at the plus two level was significantly correlated

with the occupational status of the parents, economic status of the family and the

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educational qualifications of the members of the family. (3) Proficiency in

English was related to all the factors in learning habits covering reading habits,

Writing practice and use of English outside the formal educational setting. (4)

There existed a significant correlation between achievement in English and other

school subjects. (5) There was a significant relationship between pupils' perception

of their performance and their proficiency in written English.

Sarma (1989) made an attempt at designing a course in written English for

High school stage based on the communicative approach after surveying the

present language-learning situation. The objectives of the study are: (i) To find out

selectively from the learners, teachers, parents, and well-informed citizens of the

society the communicative syllabus designed to develop writing skills among the

students (b) reading a passage - analyzing it for writing skills-solving

communicative writing tasks, as a procedure for developing writing skills; (c)

evaluate (not grade)-comment-ask for revision-discuss in a session-as a mode of

correcting the written English assignments.

The major findings of the study are: (1) A large number of students were

poor in written English in comparison to their proficiency in the other language

skills. (2) High school students needed written English for both academic (note-

taking, writing answers for home assignments and tests) and certain specified

social activities. (3) Frequency of writing compositions was very low and a large

number of students needed many writing exercises. (4) Further, the teachers used

`impressionistic method' in their evaluation of assignments and were unaware of

the reference material that could improve their own knowledge of teaching writing

skills. (5) The use of communicative language teaching strategies can bring about

an improvement in the use of skills which they sought to develop. A well-designed

communicative syllabus incorporating the needs of the students can in a tension-

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free, interactive classroom, create a satisfying and positive attitude towards

learning the writing and enhance skills of writing and revising.

Herbert Baskaran (1995) studied the impact of remedial teaching

programmes on the common errors committed by students of Standard XII in

written English. The objectives of the study are (i) To identify and categorise the

errors committed by the students of Standard XII in written English. (ii) to design

some suitable remedial teaching programmes for the students of Standard XII to

minimize these errors in written English, and (iii) to implement the designed

remedial teaching programmes for the students of Standard XII to minimize these

errors in written English.

As the method of inquiry was diagnostic in approach, a case-study

procedure was selected to observe cause and effect. The method of investigation

was experimental.

The major findings of the study are: (1) The students of the control group

did not differ significantly with the experimental group in committing

orthographical errors in written English in the pre-test. (2) The students of the

control group did not differ significantly with the experimental group in their

mean scores in the pre-test. (3) The students of the experimental group did not

differ significantly with the control group in committing orthographical errors in

written English in the post-test.

Antonisamy (1996) conducted a research study on "Effect of Auto-

instructional programme on developing writing skills in English at First year B.E.

Level". The main objectives of the study are: to design and implement a

programme at First year B.E. level to make the students self learners and to find

out the effect of Auto materials instructional package through descriptive

differential and relational analysis. Case study method was followed. The

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investigator made use of an auto instructional technique to improve the writing

skills of First Year B.E. students as their communicative ability in writing was not

satisfactory. This package helped the learners to learn for themselves. The

learners sought only minimum help from the teacher. The educational implication

involved in this auto instructional technique was to minimize the teacher’s work

and to maximize the learners task.

Usha Padmanabhan (1998) in research work on the ‘Analysis of the writing

skills in English of UG students of Technology in Mumbai’ applies

communicative language learning strategies in the class. It has been instructed that

the students (Twelve high achievers, Five low achievers) have to keep the goals

and audience in mind, when they write. They are also motivated to choose the

words and phrases to be used to repeat and practice. The study revealed

improvement in the writing skills of both high and low achievers but in varying

degrees.

Anbalagan (2003) conducted a study on "Enhancing Functional efficiency

of undergraduate students of Engineering in Business Letter writing with special

reference to Tone and `Point of view".

2.7. Review On Affective Strategies

Rajendran. M. (1992) attempted “Activity – centered teaching on English :

An experimental study”. The objective was to study the difference in achievement

in reading and writing skills of the students taught under activity centered

approach to teaching of English. The sample comprised 98 students (62 boys and

36 girls) through an achievement test. The collected data observation and

participated in an interview schedule. Student learning is facilitated when teachers

cultivate and maintain positive, motivating relationships with their students.

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Paz, Leo Silveste (2000) focused on “Motivation, preferred classroom

activities, and learning strategies among college-level heritage language students

of Filipino” to assess the level of motivation preferred classroom activities and

learning strategy components. The study had two components first a survey of 180

language students and second a focused group interview of five students. The

participants in both parts of the study were student enrolled at the elementary or

intermediate level Filipino language courses in twelve colleges or universities in

the United States. The survey contained 91, Likert – type questions with five point

scales, which measured level of the students motivation preferred classroom

activities and learning strategies used. Basic demographic data were used as

predictors of the three key research areas. There was significant correlation

between the key variable components such as intrinsic Motivation – Task Value

Traditional Approach Practical Proficiency Orientation and Challenging

Approaches – practical proficiency orientation.

The study done by Paz, Leo Silveste (2000), showed that motivation played

a significant role in learning language. Has taken this view, the researcher made an

attempt by using motivation as one of the affective intervention strategies to

enhance writing skill in English.

Trawick, Lavergne (1990) investigated “ Effects of a cognitive behavioural

intervention on the motivation volition and achievement of academically under

prepared college students” to develop and evaluate an intervention derived from

contemporary social- cognitive theory to train students in academic volitional

control strategies and to investigate its effect on measure of motivation volitions

and academic achievement. Participating in the study were 79 students enrolled in

a required remedial reading course for four week period at LaGuardia community

college. The design was a pre- post comparison conditions within classes. A

stratified random sampling procedure was used to assure that conditions were

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comparable on academic self- monitoring and academic action control, the

volitional aspects of academic self – regulation. There were favourable comments

regarding the helpfulness of the intervention particularly in increasing awareness

of the handling potential distractions. There was no clear evidence of the

effectiveness of the treatment in improving academic motivation volition or

reading achievement.

Kim, Deog Ja (1990) studied the “ Relationships between attitudes,

motivations and the attained English language proficiency of Korean University

student in Korea” to examine the type of motivation or attitudes that can

contribute to facilitate English proficiency of the college students in Korea 311

students at a Private University in Seoul, Korea completed the two types of

questionnaires on attitudes and motivation. Spolsky’s indirect questionnaire and

Gardner’s direct questionnaire. Their level of attainment in English as a second

language was measured based on a close test of global proficiency. More Korean

college students in Korea were interactively oriented and that their attitudes and

motivation in general correlated with their global English proficiency. Student’s

integrativeness did not positively relate to their English proficiency, while

instrumentality, their intensity of motivation, and positive attitudes toward

America or Americans did correlate with English proficiency.

Green, Anna, L.(2000) studied intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and self –

efficacy as constructs of motivation that were perceived by African American

college students. And indentified other variable of interests were the students

personal characteristics that may influence their perception of motivation. The

research design used to observe and study the motivation of African, American

college student was the instrumental case design. The two data collection

techniques used in the study was the Motivated Strategies for Learning

Questionnaires (MSLQ) and semi- structure interview questions. Participants of

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the study were sixty-one (46 female and 15 males) African American college

students enrolled in two different psychology courses in the South eastern region.

There was no significant difference in the scoring averages between African

American college students enrolled in two different psychology courses.

Shashi Mohan (1991) attempted “A study on the role of aptitude, attitude

and motivation in English acquisition”. The sample comprised 233 students from

these public schools and 313 students from six government schools. A few aspects

of attitude and motivation showed a significant correlation to some aspects of

English learning.

Shih. Ching – Chun (1998) analyzed “ Relationships among student

attitudes, motivation, learning styles, learning strategies, patterns of learning and

achievement: A formative evaluation of distance education via web-based

courses”. It was a population study that included 99 students taking two non major

introductory biology courses offered over the WWW by lowa State University in

the fall of 1997. The students were motivated by competition and high

expectations in Web- Based Learning. Motivation and Learning strategies were

the two significant factors that explained more than one third of student

achievement measured by class grade.

Review of Emotional Intelligence

Hatzes (1996) found emotional intelligence to be a critical factor

contributing to the academic and was conceptualized to include ability to manage

emotions, persistence, interpersonal skills, empathy positive reforming and

explanatory style. Drago (2004) examined the relationship between emotional

intelligence and academic achievement in non-traditional college students. Since

students different in cognitive ability, with some students being better prepared for

the collegiate environment that others. The role of emotional intelligence in

academic achievement must be better understood. Non-cognitive factors such as

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e.i may supplementary enhance student cognitive ability. Parker and others (2005)

examined the impact of emotional intelligence on the successful transition from

high schools to University. Results revealed that academically successful students

had significantly higher levels of several different emotional and social

competencies. These findings suggest that emotional intelligence plays an

important role in the academic success acceding to deficit models of cognition and

intelligence that view ability as a relatively fixed learner characteristic.

From the studies of Hatzes (1996) & Drago (2004) the investigator learned

that emotional intelligence played a vital role along with cognitive abilities in

learning English language. so it was utilized in the model prepared by the

investigator.

Loretta Kasper (1997): Found a potential link performance. This research

has particularly important implications for ESL instruction because developing

English language writing competence presents a major challenge to students. This

study attempted to clarify the relationship between meta cognition and ESL

writing performance by posing the following questions.

1. Does each of the components of the meta cognitive model - personal, task

and strategy - have an equivalent effect upon writing performance of ESL

student.

2. Do these three components impact performance equally at different levels

of English language proficiency

3. How do mete cognitive models evolve as students advance in their English

language development?

Findings:

1. The average meta cognitive ratings are consistently higher for passing

students than for failing students across both levels of English language

proficiency.

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2. There is a significant relationship between personal knowledge and writing

performance

3. Students professed from intermediate to the advanced level.

4. All the three components of meta cognitive model correlate positively and

significantly with performance on the final writing exam.

Judith Ann (2001); examined the cognitive and meta cognitive strategies of

first- grade journal writers in a literature based classroom. The results of this study

suggested that these first grade students were developing cognitive and meta

cognitive strategies when presented learning experiences that provided

instruction through modeling, scaffolding and dialoguing.

Reading strategies are of interest for what they reveal about the way readers

manage their interaction with written text and how these strategies are related to

the text comprehension. Cognitive strategies are used by the learners to transform

or manipulate the language, this includes not - taking, formal practice with the

specific aspects of target language such as sounds, sentence structure,

summarizing, paraphrasing, predicting analyzing and using context clues.

Techniques that help the learner to remember and retrieve information are referred

to as memory strategies. These include creating mental images through grouping

and associating, semantic mapping, using key words, employing word associations

and placing new words into a context. Mata cognitive strategies are behaviours

undertaken by the learners to plan, arrange, and evaluate their own learning.

Learners also use affective strategies, such as self - encouraging behavior, to lower

anxiety and encourage learning. (Ramganesh, 2004).

Bereiter, & Scardamalia (1987) characterize the strategy employed by

children and novice writers as a "Knowledge - telling" strategy and the strategy

employed by adult experts as a "Knowledge - transforming " strategy. They see

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the aim of teaching as the development of more intentional cognition, enabling

students to incorporate communicative goals into the process of writing. Research

with later age groups has tended to focus on the relativeness of different drafting

strategies.

The traditional recommendation here is to make and outline prior to

writing, i.e, to focus on generating and organizing ideas in outline form prior to

providing full text (Collins, & Gentner, 1980; Glynn, Britton, Muth & Dogen,

1982) others (e.g. Elbow, 1981) (Wason, 1980a) recommended rough drafting

strategies in which constraints are relaxed during the production of text itself;

the writer concentrates on getting their ideas down on paper; then this draft is

organized and expression polished during revision. There is some evidence that

outline strategies are associated with improved Quality of writing, whereas rough

drafting are not (Kellegy, 1988) The main implication is that it is important to

differentiate between the different components of the writing process. It also

motivates many of the activities carried out under the process. Thus activities like

brainstorming, outlining, journal keeping, generation and collaboration are

designed to focus on revision.

Moderate reaction has been a move to integrate cognitive and social

prospective on writing by constructing socio- cognitive models of the process

(carter, 1990, Flower, 1994, Hayes, 1996; Nystrand, 1989) This social approach to

writing shares the emphasis on cognitive process, but here writing is treated not

just as an individual process but as an interaction between writer and reader. The

three general aspects of writing are:

� Motivation - how concentration, persistence the tasks engender.

� Cognitive activities, as inferred from temporal features of the

writing process and

� Feature of the text produced, including spelling structure and

accuracy.

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Dachauhi and Pingli (2003) are of the view that scientific cognition as

Model Based Reasoning (MBR) has increasingly occupied the recent literature and

the account of mental modeling have provided an elementary understanding of

cognition as basis of reasoning.

Findings show that cognitive theories emphasize that human mind is an

active and individual processor of information. Active thinking is influenced by

one’s feelings, self concept or identity, beliefs and existing knowledge and in turn

is bound to influence the structure of new thoughts. Knowledge is acquired by

constructing a representation of the outside world. The realities and truths of the

external world direct the knowledge construction. Individuals construct outside

reality by building accurate mental representation such as proportional networks,

concepts, cause and effect relationships and condition the action production rules

that reflect “The way things really are”, Information processing holds this view of

knowledge.

The strategy was based on the consideration that knowledge transformation

is not a one way process from subject matter knowledge, as literature suggests, but

a bidirectional process involving deepening of subject matter knowledge and

increasing learning skills.

Chellamani (2001) conducted a study on Efficacy of psycholinguistic

intervention and Meta – cognition on Reading comprehension among High School

Entrants”. This study confirms the effect of intervention of psycholinguistic

principles and metacognitive strategies on developing reading comprehension.

Fung Law Yong (2010) examined the foundation students' attitude towards

academic writing considering gender and age differences. He adapted a 29- item

questionnaire to collect data on perceptions toward academic writing, expectations

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of academic writing and feed back on academic writing. A two - tailed t-test for

equality of means revealed significant gender differences in four items:

1. Writing was more difficult than speaking;

2. Writing English on the job;

3. Using English to write letters; and

4. Expecting to do a lot of writing in various courses. Significant age

differences were found in only one item, which implied that students

had to take exams in English.

The study done by Fung Law Yong (2010) induced the researcher to find

out the attitude towards English writing. For this purpose, the investigator created

a tool.

According to Jennifer G.Cromley (2010), meta cognition, cognitive

strategy Instruction are important for reading comprehension. The researcher

focused here on understanding the role of meta cognition in reading, sources of

meta cognition problems, and ways to remedy these problems, all of which can be

powerful tools for improving adults' reading comprehension.

The investigator attempted them for written comprehension.

The researcher found both meta cognitive monitoring and control play an

important role in reading comprehension - the goal reading - and there are

promising techniques for improving students' meta cognition when they read. He

reviewed what we know about the ability to monitor One's own thinking during

reading and strategies that can be taught to help readers monitor, and there by

comprehend better. He offered potential causes of low monitoring, including poor

decoding, limited background knowledge, low vocabulary, dysfunctional beliefs

about reading, low strategy use, working memory issues and motivational

barriers.

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People with good reading comprehension tend to monitor their reading

often without being aware of it. Monitoring interacts with background

knowledge or vocabulary knowledge; they might have been taught to pay attention

to meaning (Normal & Malicky, 1987) or to use reading comprehension strategies.

In this case, monitoring interacts with cognitive strategy use. Knowing about the

topic helps the readers know what to notice (Bransford, Brown & cocking 1999).

Brief view of Aizens' theory of planned behaviours (overview Dornyei

1998), explains the relationships between attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour.

According to the theory presented in Kennedy and Kennady 1996, attitudes, as an

affective response, are determined by beliefs, which are basically cognitive. An

attitude towards a certain behaviour is determined by the belief about the outcome

of such behaviour and the evaluation of that outcome. Different fields have

shown that attitudes determine behaviour in a complex way but also emerge as an

outcome (Non - linguistic ) of language learning. They are grounded in underlying

beliefs but also formed or changed in light of new experience. That is why

attitudes may influence the learning process in a significant way. Attitudes are

understood here as individual affective responses to various aspects of writing.

The author discussed the following aspects of attitudes in relation to writing: (1)

the formative nature of writing instruction, (2) attitudes in the process of change

(3) clash between attitudes and behaviour, (4) the individual's nature of attitudes

and (5) the issue of self - expression. The study has shown that, the development

of attitudes towards writing is an integral part of the process of writing

experiences but also have an impact on future writing behaviour.

Grounded in wood, Bruner and Ross's (1976) concept of scaffolding and

consistent with the interaction support in Vygotsky's zone of proxima'l

development, a scaffold provides a temporary framework within which learners

might more readily negotiate and construct meaning. A repertoire of strategies for

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scaffolding reading and writing provides conscious plans, actions, and

frameworks that students can select or adapt to particulars tasks in the post -

secondary classroom. Continues practice and feedback wtih these types of

strategies can potentially produce long - lasting and significant improvements in

students' understanding of new concepts or in the performance of tasks that would

otherwise be beyond their unassisted efforts. The interactional aspect of the

strategies emphasizes the importance of cooperative learning and student

engagement.

This shift from learner to expert has been summarized schematically by

Pearson and Gallagher (1983). In their Model of Explicit Instruction, we see

guided practice or the provision of a series of scaffolds as critical to maintaining

the joint responsibility for instruction between teacher and student

Ultimately, the role of scaffolding in the post- secondary class is to develop

students' ability to engage in the critical application of newly acquired skills and

knowledge.

Student engagement is largely dependent on providing both a challenging

learning environment and one in which students can realize success. Wood,

Bruner and Ross (I976) suggest that educators can provide scaffolding in several

basic ways: 1) Structuring tasks so that learners experience some immediate

success; 2) structuring the task in stages; 3) identifying the critical features of

tasks for the learners; 4) modeling the steps; 5) providing guided practice and

feedback. Within this framework, various degrees of instructional control are

possible. Silliman and Wilkinson (1991, 2000) have identified and elaborated

upon two types of scaffolding. More directive scaffolds, which are by far the more

prevalent, continue to rely on traditional instructional discourse and its emphasis

on passive learning and the reproduction of information. These usually take the

form of the Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE) sequence whereby a

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conversational sequence is followed by a question-answer evaluation (Wells,

1993).

A jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy whereby students are given

different subsections of a unit of study. Students responsible for each subsection

meet in expert groups to plan how to teach their content to others. Once lessons

are planned, groups are reformed to include individuals responsible for each

subsection of the unit of study. In other words, individual representatives from an

expert group meet with individual members of other expert groups and teach each

other the content of their particular subsection of the material. As small groups

convene in these concurrent teaching sessions, the instructor sets time limits for

individual presentations, circulates, and interjects from time to time to move

things along or maintain focus. The role of the instructor during this time is

strictly facilitative.

Teaching reading and writing across the curriculum is an important focus of

adolescent literacy. It was not only scaffold students' understanding of the issue

but provides these teacher candidates with firsthand experience with an

instructional strategy that they can eventually use in their own classrooms. An

important aspect of the course is that we reflect often on both method and content,

students are instructed to read silently and to highlight what they think is

important. After students finish their initial reading, they complete Analysis

individually. Students are then instructed to meet in their expert groups that

consist of other students assigned to the same work and compare what they have

recorded on their graphic organizers. Expert group members work collaboratively

to decide what are the most important ideas presented article and how they will

teach the content to other classmates in a cooperative jigsaw to be held the

following class. Each expert group plans a 15- to 20-minute lesson and while the

method of delivery is a group decision, they are requested to include some time

85

near the end of the lesson to check for student understanding. Consistent with the

guided practice in Pearson and Gallagher's (1983) Model of Explicit Instruction,

students gain more and more instructional autonomy as they move through the

individual and group activities. Based on Vygotsky's social constructivist theories

of mind and language, the following suggestions that optimize the benefits of

scaffolding strategies.

1. Even the simplest of routines, like who goes first and how to take turns, has

to be modeled for students. Whenever possible, the instructor's actual

participation in the activity helps model the routine and sets expectations

2. The instructor is responsible for setting flexible parameters for the activity

including organizing the resources and designing a series of motivating and

challenging learning experiences.

3. The setting and resources should facilitate the instructor's ability to assist

students in the completion of tasks. Sometimes this takes considerable

imagination as we are not always given our choice of classroom. The

university lecture theatre is not an ideal setting for cooperative learning, but

it can be done.

4. The instructor's input should promote the students' ability to problem solve.

5. Above all, each successive activity should build confidence. In the back of

my mind, I am always thinking, "How do we move from the known to the

unknown?"

In summary, it is emphasized that scaffolding student understanding in

cooperative learning situations allows you to do more with less. While educators

at all levels lament the pressure they feel to "cover the territory," what is

ultimately more important, particularly so at the post-secondary level, is that

students achieve a deeper understanding of concepts and ideas and that through

this experience they internalize the skills and knowledge which they can access to

make critical connections to material and phenomena beyond classroom learning.

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Initially, establishing routines for carrying out cooperative learning activities in

the post-secondary classroom take time and practice but are well worth the effort.

The alternatives can be more time-consuming and less effective. Take for

example, the ever-popular whole-class presentation complete with PowerPoint.

Here the general practice is to assign particular topics to groups of four to five

students or have students themselves identify or choose a topic for presentation.

The assumption is that students can come to a topic and put together an

informative and coherent presentation to be delivered within the allotted time limit

while the others listen attentively.

2.8. Synthesis

The following researchers conducted studies on reading skill Aranha,

Mabel (1988) attempted to study the reading attitudes of Indian Students.

Anjilivelli (1989) undertook a study on developing reading comprehension among

first year degree students. Joycilin Sharmila (2004) investigated on cognitive style

and Reading comprehension of standard IX students.

In the researches done overseas on written communication, Hilldenbrand

(1985) suggested that the mode of writing could influence the writing process.

Jones (1985) investigated the factors constraining writing. The study suggested

that the process oriented writing instruction would help acquisition of English.

Diaz(1985) identified and recommended process strategies and techniques for the

learners of English School. Raimes (1985) found that the students wrote more and

exhibited more commitment to the writing task when the process-oriented

approach was adopted.

The studies based on linguistic theory of second language acquisition offer

a number of insights about how learners deal with the grammatical properties of

the language.

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Trawick, Lavergne (1990) investigated that there was no clear evidence of

the effectiveness of the treatment in improving academic motivation, volition or

reading achievement. Kim, Deog Ja (1990) found that student’s attitudes and

motivation in general correlated with their global English proficiency. Green,

Anna, L (2000) found that there were no significant difference in the scoring

averages on the constructs of intrinsic and extrinsic goal orientation.

In the area of Error Analysis, many research studies have been made in India

and a few abroad. Sudarkkodi (1990), Sarma Madhan Mohan (1991) and Joshi

(1989) analysed the different errors committed by the learners at different levels in

written English. The prominent errors analysed were errors in the areas like

spelling, sentence patterns and grammar.

The learner’s difficulties were analysed by shanmugam (1977), Guosh

(1982) and sobhana (2004). They suggested remedial teaching programmes.

Chandra, Joice (1988) studied the correlates of written English at the plus

two stages. Kamala (2003) developed communicated strategies to enhance the

written communication skill in English.

In the research studies stated above, it has been found that some researchers

have evolved methods in ELT (English Language Teaching). Others had either

stopped only with diagnosing and categorizing the errors in written English or

only suggested remedial measures at high school, higher secondary school and

college levels. But none attempted to find out the effectiveness of cognitive and

affective intervention strategies in enhancing the writing skill in English among

B.Ed trainees. So the investigator attempted to find out the effectiveness of it.

Ahuja and Ahuja, Pramila (1988) attempted to analyse reading

comprehension tests used by students at High school level. Joycilin Sharmila

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(2004) investigated on cognitive style and reading comprehension of IX std

students.

Friedlander (1990) conducted an experiment on Chinese English school

Learner students. The study brought out the fact that the use of the language of

topic area knowledge could have a positive effect on the planning and writing of

the students. Joanne Devine, Kavin Railey and Philip Boshoff (1993) in a survey

explored the cognitive models in writing. Sengupta sima (2000) investigated the

effects of explicit instruction in revision on second language learner’s

performance and perceptions about writing.

Karla Johnstone, Hollis Ashbaugh and Terry Warfield (2002) focused on

the implications for teaching writing skills and for general theories of expertise

development in writing. Weizhu (2004) examined faculty news on academic

writing and writing instruction. Bruce saddler and Graham (2005) stated that

mastering sentence construction skills is essential to learning to write.

Some of the studies conducted abroad on writing reported in the literature

point out similarities in writing. Yet a fewothers challenge these and confirm that

there are differences writing. Several studies examined the processes in writing.

Research on writing at the discourse level with different genres is a recent

Phenomenon. Hence, research studies in this area are warranted. It is clear in this

assumption, the present study attempted to enhance writing skills in English

among the student – teachers through Innovative Strategies.

Gage (1965), Wohwill (1973), Havel (1977), Mccall (1981) and Edward

Tolman (1969) considered problem solving has been traditionally labeled as

cognitive processes and mental hypotheses about ways to solve problems. Hence

the present study, has taken cognizance of cognitive Intervention in writing in

English.

89

Piaget [1969], Riding and Ashmore[1980], Riding and Calvey [1981],

Riding and Doughs[1993] and Rading and Rayer[1998] considered the primary

aim of make-believe games is to duplicate behaviourly the product of the

imagination and image are best when the material is concrete.

In the research studies state above, it has been found that some researchers

had evolved methods in ELT. Others had either stopped only with diagnosing and

categorizing the errors in written English or only suggested remedial measures at

high school, higher secondary school and college levels.

Shanmugam (1977) attempted to find out the difficulties in written English.

Thoraya Farghaly Kamel (2004) Suggested Self-learning packages for minimizing

errors in written English. Sasikala (1997) oriented cognitive strategies in

communicative tasks. Chellamani (2001) explored that Psycholinguistic

intervention and meracognition played an important role in reading

comprehension. Arnold (1987), Hedgcock and leftwtz (1996) studied that writing

processes are related to grammar, mechanical mistakes and especially related to

vocabulary. Shi, Ling (1998), Lock, graham and Lockhartm charless (1998)

preferred various thinking processes, revision, genre writing, peer response for

writing outcomes. Badger and White (2000) also preferred genre approach. Hirco

Kobayashi and carol Rinnert (2002) attempted to find out the need for good

writing. They expressed that more training related to writing. Holdich and Hung

(2003) found that computer approach is needed to improve their writing

performance.

Ann Brown (1975, 1978, 1980), Brown and compine (1981) Dwell (1986)

expressed that cognitive strategies are effective in language learning Emmerich

(1964) Wohl will (1973) also expressed the same views. Katims, David S.Harmon

(2001), Anderson, Valerie (1998) stated that cognitive strategic instruction

90

enhances writing. Anderman (1998) viewed that motivation and cognitive strategy

used more in writing.

The models developed by the researchers helped the investigator to gain

cognitive strategic knowledge in language learning especially in writing. These

theories helped the investigator to know the psychological approach and

information processing.

Hosenfeld (1977) – reading strategies, oxford (1990) comprehensive

questionnaire, O’Malley and chamot (1987, 1990) Three way division of

strategies.

Following communicative strategies found out by the researchers also

helped the investigator to utilize them to enhance writing skill.

Kauffmann (1996) – Motivation for self – correction, Schulz (1996) –

feedback and error correction, Manchon Ruiz (1997) composing strategies, role of

re-structuring, Porte (1997) – revision strategies in writing, Sarma (1989)

communicative approach in written English. Herbert Baskaran (1995)-remedial

teaching for minimizing errors, Antonisamy (1996). Auto instructional

progammed for developing writin skill, Usha Padmanabhan (1998) Analysis of

writing skills in English and Anbalagan (2003) English letter writing enhances the

functional efficiency

Loretta Kasper (1997) studied the relationship between meta cognition and

writing performance. Krenn (2001) studied the cognitive process in writing

Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) found that knowledge transforming strategies are

effective in the process of writing. Dachauhi and Pingli (2003) found that

cognition as the basis of reasoning.

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These studies helped the investigator much. The investigator attempted to

find out the cognitive and affective intervention in writing performance. And the

investigator used the strategy spatial competence to enhance writing skill as a

knowledge transforming strategy. The investigator felt that the cognition is needed

for reasoning.

Fung Law yong (2010) attitude towards academic writing, Jennifer

G.cromley (2010) found that cognitive, meta cognitive strategic instruction is

important for reading comprehension. Aizer’s theory said that attitude, belief and

cognition are essential for language learning. Bruner and Ross’s (1976) ascertain

that scaffolding is helpful for the proximed development. Personal and Gallagher

(1983) found that guided practice enhances the writing skill.

From these studies the investigator gained the knowledge as attitude and

cognition (ie. cognitive and Affective intervention) are inter related to each other

in language writing. Scaffolding and guided practices are essential for developing

writing skill. The investigator used these knowledge in developing the

instructional model for enhancing writing skill in English.

The above mentioned various concepts, different studies, reviews helped

the investigator gain insight on the use of cognitive and affective intervention

strategies for the development of English education. These insights indeed threw

some light to gain momentum to integrate cognitive and affective intervention

strategies in the instructional model for the enhancement of writing skill in English

for the present study.

These strategies explored the positive effect of Cognitive and Affective

Intervention Strategies in teaching/ learning. These studies guided the investigator

develop and validate a tool. The two research tools used in the present study,

paved way and contributed a lot to the present investigation for the development

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of a model using Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies on writing skill

in English.

The studies reviewed in the present study enlighten the way for the

development of key components of research design. Although the studies

reviewed are pertinent literature in the present investigation, none of them has

attempted to develop a model using “Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies to enhance writing skill in English among B.Ed., Trainees”. To fulfill

this research gap, the investigator attempted to find out the “Effectiveness of

cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies in Enhancing Wring Skill in

English among B.Ed., trainees”.

2.9. Conclusion

Various types of studies related to writing, other skills of English,

Cognitive strategic instruction, Affective strategic instruction, different models for

developing writing skills were reviewed in this chapter.

Development of the model on enhancing writing skill in English is dealt in

the proceeding chapter.

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CHAPTER – III

DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL ON WRITING SKILL IN ENGLISH

“I love writing, I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle

with human emotions”.

- James A. Michener

(1907-1997)

3.1. Introduction Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies in

Writing English

The findings of several researches examined the effects of affective strategy

instruction on measures of second language proficiency and of self-efficiency.

Differential success in second or foreign language learning has been attributed to

individual differences such as intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation and

anxiety. The development of humanistic psychology, which sought to establish a

holistic approach to learners, led to an increased focus on individual’s emotions

and feelings. Maslow (1971), posited that cognitive and aesthetic goals leading to

self-actualization could not be achieved unless human psychological needs, the

need for safety and security, the need for belonging, and the need for self-esteem

had been satisfied. Roger (1969) argued that learning should be experiential and

convergent with learner goals and that it should take place in a supportive

environment.

Researches in second language acquisition have confirmed hypotheses that

language learning is indeed enhanced by attention to affect. Gardner and

colleagues (Gardner, 1985; Gardner & Clement, 1990; Gardner & Lambert, 1972;

Gardner & Macintyre, 1993;) conducted extensive investigations of individual

differences in language learning success. Young’s (1990) research with language

learners suggested that teachers who used humour and created a friendly,

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supportive and relaxed class room atmosphere that encouraged risk-taking were

most helpful in alleviating foreign language anxiety and facilitating learning.

A series of interventions conducted by Maskowitz (1981, 1999) with high

school second and foreign language students reported positive correlations

between the use of humanistic exercises and students’ attitudes towards language

learning, their classmates and themselves. Results of questionnaires administered

to the teachers also showed improved attitudes towards their classes and enhanced

self-concept and self-awareness. Results in overall performance shown by the

experimental group were attributed to the use of strategies, some of which were

affective; the effect of affective strategy component alone, however, could not be

partial out.

Chamot (2001) stated, “There is a continuing need for more intervention

studies to determine the effects of strategy training on language learning and

proficiency”.

Perceptions of self-efficacy influence motivation. They determine the goals

that individuals set as the effort they expend to achieve those goals, and their

willingness to persist in the face of failure. (Bandura, 1986).

An increasing number of materials have emerged over the years to enhance

affect in second language classrooms. Oxford (1990) delineated three types of

affective strategies that can be used to regulate learner attitudes, motivation and

emotions, self encouragement and for monitoring emotions.

Arnold’s (1999) insights as:

Visualization was chosen as a focus. Discussion of the benefits of using and

practicing mental imagery were followed to enhance performance. “In a relaxed

state, the mind is receptive to a restructuring of one’s self-image and the appraisal

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of one’s abilities (ie Neuro –Linguistic programming) has shown that if you can

imagine yourself doing something, you are more likely to be able to do it”

Developing skills such as meta cognitive, cognitive and affective can help

the language learner build up learner independence and autonomy whereby he can

take control of his own-learning.

Cummig (1995) pointed out the benefits of cognitive modeling in writing

instruction, which involved explicit demonstration of the strategies experienced

writers use when planning, making decisions and revising texts. He also pointed

that self-evaluation as the optimal mode of assessment. In taking cognizance of the

concepts, theories and studies of the researchers, the investigator made an attempt

to develop a model on writing skill in English.

3.2 Selection of a topic

Selection of a topic for the development of cognitive and affective

intervention strategies has its own significance in any subject in general and

English in particular. As far as English subject is concerned, unless a teacher-

educator provides opportunity for student - teachers to participate in group

discussion, to interactive with pear groups teacher educators guidance instruction

about the topic in English the student –teacher finds very difficult to master the

ideas behind those contents. The challenges are met effectively by providing

opportunities for student-teachers to apply knowledge in real world contents and

engage in active participation, exploration and research.

Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies serve to support the

learners as she/he develops internal procedures that enable her/him to perform

tasks that are complex. (Rosenshine, 1979) The use of cognitive and affective

intervention strategies can increase the efficiency of learning with which the

learner approaches a learning task. The academic tasks can include, but not limited

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to, remembering and applying information from course content, constructing

sentences and paragraphs, learning more vocabulary and grammar, putting

appropriate punctuation, editing written work, paraphrasing and classifying

information to be learned.

Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategic model was prepared keeping

all types of learners in the mind to enhance writing skill. Relevant information

pertaining to the mind and topic should be added. Long sentences were divided

into small chunks and keywords were used to keep in memory easily. From the

studies reviewed so far, it is a pioneering effort by the investigator for the

development of a model using Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies.

Selection of the topic was done by keeping the following in mind:

� The topic should be relevant to the student teachers and it should confirm to

the curriculum.

� It must pave the way to provide multisensory experience to the students-

teachers.

� Ensured students’ difficulty in understanding and mastering the content.

� The topic must evoke interest in the learners.

In the present study, the investigator besides keeping the above mentioned

guidelines in her mind, she interviewed the experienced professors of English

about the selection of five comprehension passages . Based on their opinion and

using her expertise as a teacher of English, five comprehension passages have

been indentified for the treatment. i.e. to find out the effectiveness of using

Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies to enhance writing skill in English.

“Understanding the different types of tasks require different strategies,

knowledge about when and why a specific task requires the use of a given

cognitive strategy which is reflective of sophisticated task knowledge”. (Pintrich,

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2002) Different levels of understanding among the student population have been

duly taken into consideration while developing the model. Every minor step

required for easy understanding of the subject was included in the model so as to

make even the low achievers attain mastery.

3.2.1. Rationale for the passage chosen

It is felt that the comprehension passage was the best suitable for

developing writing skill in the Indian scenario. Since comprehension lies in the

middle of the cognitive level (in the understanding level) it was suitable for

assessing both average and above average level student - teachers.

� Assessment of writing skill is possible only when the necessity of

expression is compulsorily by writing, making other ways unsuitable.

� The correct meaning for the expression of the person using the language

could be evidently arrived through writing.

� Comprehension, other than most other strategies gives room for extracting

or initiating the writing skill in English.

� Presenting the concepts or ideas to be presented logically or in proper

sequence is more possible when the option of writing is chosen.

� Comprehension is neither in the basic level nor in the top most level of

cognition; (it is placed in the understanding level). Hence it is suitable for

assessing writing skill of both average and extra-ordinary level of learners.

� If the learners get more practice in comprehension, it is easy for them to

write a matter individually by understanding main points.

� Cognitive strategies like chunking, imagery, mnemonics and spatial

learning are used more in the comprehension passages when compared to

other areas like grammar, poem etc.

� No ambiguous words are used in the comprehension strategy. Clarity in

meanings of words arouses more interest among the learners to learn easily.

It improves their skill in writing.

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� As cohesion and coherence are followed in the comprehension passage, the

learners can obtain the ability of writing any matter in the cogent order.

� Comprehension plays a vital role in developing reading skill and

understanding which are essential for enhancing writing skill.

� Technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation in phrases, clauses and

sentences are followed in the comprehension passages.

� Writing skill taxonomy is perfectly covered in the comprehension passage

which is needed for the learners to improve their writing skill.

� Known answers lead the reader to resort writing with confidence.

� Comprehension forms an assistance to initiate the interest in writing skill.

� Skill of writing is indirectly made compulsive in the comprehension

strategy.

� Comprehension has no other answering alternate except initiating writing.

� Comprehension gives confidence to write and thus pave way for interest in

answering and thus the result is writing skill formation.

� As comprehension strategy is suitable for Indian scenario to assess writing

skill, the researcher has chosen this kind of passage.

3.3. Development of the model to enhance writing skill in English

Revised National Policy on Education (1996) envisaged launching of

national mission for achieving universalization of education and quality of

education. Recent advancement in teaching and learning principles have to be

adopted in order to bring out better results of teaching and learning.

Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies, awareness of one’s

learning and taking active control of their learning strategies thereafter and attitude

towards writing are the two important innovative educational technologies that

have been focused in the present study along with a suitable instructional model,

under experimental research method. Here the concept of cognitive and affective

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intervention strategies for the enhancement of writing skill is used in the

instructional model by the investigator.

The primary objective of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies to

experimental designers was to provide them with a bundle of strategies that will

make them more information processors, learners who monitor, control and

improve their learning activities, making more adaptations as required to ensure

attaining key learning objectives. The specific aim of using Cognitive and

Affective Intervention Strategies to enhance writing skill in English is to enable

the student – teachers to make their thinking visible, to plan in a correct way and

to consolidate their ideas in a coherent manner when they are writing .

In the words of Widdowson (1978), “Learning of a language involved the

acquiring of ability to compose correct sentences”. Hence the investigator felt it an

imperative need to undertake the study to identify the mistakes committed by the

learning students - teachers in their writings and, to enhance their writing skill.

The investigator developed an instructional model using cognitive and affective

intervention strategies, with a view to minimize the mistakes committed by them,

to administer the model to the trainees and also assessed the effectiveness of

cognitive and affective intervention strategies to enhance writing skill in English.

The model is seen significant for learning cognitive and affective skills, to enable

the trainees studying to obtain the Degree of Bachelor of education to regulate

their mental processes and to enhance their writing skill in English.

Different types of models provide a typical strategies to help students learn

a concept, task or process which are frequently used for enhancing writing skill

among B.Ed., trainees.

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Model generation:

A learners mental model is highly individualized and constantly changing

as more input and learning takes place. Lambert and Walker (1995) stated that a

mental model is, “an individual’s” existing understanding and interpretation of a

given concept, which is formed and reformed on the basis of experiences, beliefs,

values, socio –cultural histories and prior perceptions. A mental model affects how

one interprets new concepts and events – Nersessian (2007).

Donald Norman (1988) gave a current definition of mental models: “.....the

models people have of themselves, others, the environment or things with which

they interact. People form mental models through experience, training and

instruction. These models provide predictive and explanatory power for

understanding”

With the directions of the reviews, an initiative of exploration has been

attempted by the investigator to develop and generate a model using cognitive and

affective intervention strategies to enhance writing skill in English among B.Ed.,

trainees.

The model was dealt with five cognitive and five affective intervention

strategies which helped the student teachers to develop their writing skill. Design

of teaching –learning process for acquisition, recording, organization, retrieval,

display and dissemination of information and training aids and materials to suit the

need of the trainees.

Model has been designed with appropriate formative assessment. Formative

assessment is a self –reflective process that intends to promote student – teachers

attainment. Cowie and Bell(1999) defined it as the bidirectional process between

teacher and student to enhance, recognize and respond to the learning,

understanding performance gap. A student –teacher is trained to revise, to practice,

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to monitor his/her activities by doing variety of exercises where he/she could

analyze the performance and overhaul the gap in understanding if any. To be a

competent teacher, B.Ed., trainees should use the knowledge along with the

application in their learning, using cognitive and affective intervention strategies

to enhance writing skill. This innovative model played a pivotal role in teaching –

learning process in English in enhancing writing skill.

To help student - teachers and concretize the instructional model from the

sample comprehension passage ‘Oil’ with the components of writing such as

punctuation, vocabulary, grammar, precise -writing, homophones and descriptive

writing are taught with the above said strategies. To reach the destination, the

following objectives of the model are formulated.

Objectives of the model

The student – teachers after learning the writing skill with the help of

instructional model, four more comprehension passages with various types of

exercises for developing writing skill were used by the investigator. Student -

teachers will be able to:

i) write English without mistakes.

ii) gain knowledge about cognitive and affective intervention strategies.

iii) design a model for teaching / learning English.

iv) develop attitude towards English.

v) use their learning in various situations.

3.4. Components identified to ascertain writing skill in English

The investigator identified that the following components were essential for

developing writing skill. And hence, the researcher has adopted these six

components for her treatment. They were explained and used in a detailed manner

while treating the of B.Ed., trainees.

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3.F.1 Components of writing skill

Punctuation (1) Vocabulary (2)

Descriptive (6) Writing skill Grammar (3)

Writing

Precise writing (5) Homophones (4)

1. Punctuation: Punctuation is a set of conventions which make writing / reading

easier and understand written English better. Following punctuation marks are

needed to write flawless English.

Mark of Punctuation

♣ Full stop (.) The main uses are

& to mark the end of a sentence

& after some abbreviations

& as a decimal point in numerical expressions.

♣ Question Mark (?)

An interrogative sentence or a question tag ends with a question mark.

♣ Exclamation mark (!)

It marks exclamations

In expressions of wonder, awe, danger

etc. (eg) How beautiful this picture is!

& in minor sentences

(eg) Danger ! Keep out !

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♣ Colon (:)

& It introduces a list.

& it introduces a piece of speech.

♣ Semicolon (;)

& used to separate two independent clauses that are related. (eg)

sometimes it is right to forgive; some times it is wrong to

forget .

& Separate a clause and related phrase.

(eg) To err is human; to forgive is divine.

♣ Comma (,)

& to separate items in a list.

& to indicate a break between clauses.

♣ Apostrophe (’)

& in contracted forms.

(eg) It is – it’s , cannot – Can’t.

& Ravi’s shirt.

♣ Inverted Commas(‘ ‘), (“ “)

& in direct speech.

& in a quotation.

& to indicate a book or other title.

♣ Capital letter

& in the beginning of a sentence.

& in the first letter of people’s names.

& in other proper nouns.

& in titles, honours, special expressions.

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♣ Hyphen (-)

& If the word on a line is too long to put on the line, it is

followed by a hyphen, and the rest appears at the beginning of

the next line.

& To join two or more words together.

(eg) and eight – year-old.

♣ Dash (-)

& The dash is a long hyphen.

& to indicate a sharp break in the flow of thought in a sentence.

♣ Brackets and such parentheses

& A pair of brackets and dashes is used within a sentence to

consider the stretch between the parenthetical marks as

additional appended information.

Punctuation helped the student –teachers to develop various marks of

punctuation to put up them in related sequences in a sentence. It is one of the

essential components of writing and for the enhancement of writing skill.

2. Vocabulary: Knowing words is the key to understanding and being understood.

The bulk of learning a new language consists of learning new words.

Importance of words: The word is one of the most important components of

language. Words glisten; words radiate exquisite splendor. Words carry magic and

keep us spell bound..... words are like glamorous bricks that constitute the fabric

of any language.......... words are like roses that make the environment fragrant,”

asserts the writer of a book urging people to improve their vocabulary (Aitchinson,

1997)

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St. John’s gospel in New English Bible pointed out the importance of the

word. “When all things began, the word already was. The word dwelt with God

and what God was, the word was” (Gupta 2006). The new century saw a renewed

interest in the area of vocabulary, Paul Nation, Schmitt, Mac carthy, Renouf and

Michael Lewis are some of the proponents of teaching language through texts.

It is agreed that knowledge of the word form (Pronunciation and spelling),

word structure, the common derivations of the word in a phrase and sentence,

word meaning (multiplicity of meaning and metaphorical extensions of meaning),

lexical relations of the word with other words such as synonymy, antonymy ,

hyponymy, common collocations (Laufer 1977) is essential for a writer. A very

influential view of vocabulary acquisition claims that most of the words are

acquired by exposure to the language input, rather than by deliberately committing

words to the memory (Nagy et.al. 1985, Stemberg 1987) The number of exposures

needed for the mastery of a new word hangs on many other factors such as the

salience of the word in context (Brown, 1993)the richness of the contextual clues,

the learner’s interest and the size and quality of his/her existing repertoire of

vocabulary (Laufer & Hadar 1997).

While traditional studies of vocabulary learning involved learners being

told just to read for comprehension, recent twists to the vocabulary learning

concept have included more demanding tasks beyond reading such as looking up

new words in dictionaries for comprehension (Laufer & Hill, 2000) and recalling

and retelling what is read (Joe, 1998). Results tend to suggest that the more

demanding a task is, the more vocabulary items will be learned. Plausible

strategies are needed for vocabulary development.

The majority of vocabulary is learned receptively through listening or

reading (Nagy, Anderson and Herman, 1987). When a vocabulary is taught in the

class room, learning is also likely to be receptive. Receptive activities like looking

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up the word in a dictionary, matching words with their meanings, or definitions,

guessing from context and learning from word pairs are more common. Findings

by Griffin and Harley indicated that productive tasks may be more effective.

Writing a sentence is more effective method for gaining vocabulary than reading

three sentences.

The research by Bloom, Ingram and Clark (Schmitt 2000) indicated that

“the relation between receptive and productive is not static, but shifts and varies

according to the experience of the individual and his linguistic and cognitive

abilities”. (Bloom & Schmitt 1997)

Jack Richards’s article The Role of Vocabulary Teaching, (1976) layed out a

set of assumptions which characterize the relevant theoretical concerns of linguists

at the time he was writing. They are :

� Knowing a word means knowing the degree of probability of encountering

the word in print. For many words, we also ‘know’ the sort of words most

likely to be found associated with the word.

� Knowing a word implies knowing the limitations imposed on the use of the

word according in variations of function and situation.

� Knowing a word means knowing the syntactic behaviour associated with

that word.

� Knowing a word entails knowledge of the network of association between

that word and the other words in language.

� Knowing a word means knowing the semantic value of a word.

� Knowing a word means knowing many of the different meanings associated

with the word.

Both culture and vocabulary are very closely related aspects in any

language. Culture is expressed through language, and no expression of language

can occur without words. It is through words that the culture of a language is

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transmitted from generation to generation. Therefore, learning vocabulary is also

learning culture. At the same time, vocabulary is also connected with the other

subsystems. Grammar would be empty without words, and word forms are

governed by grammatical function.

Laflamme (1997) stated that recent research has identified vocabulary

knowledge as the single most important factor in comprehension. “Reading and

writing are the two analogous and complementary processes in that both involve

generating ideas, organizing ideas into a logical order, drafting them a number of

times to achieve cohesion, and revising the ideas as appropriate” (Laflamme,

1997). The processes are so closely aligned that some researchers even advocate

teaching writing and reading simultaneously rather than as two separate subjects

(Laflamme, 1997)

Vocabulary influences writing ability. During writing process, the student

does not have the luxury of examining the context in which a word is used.

Therefore, the writer must be able to spontaneously recall words that are known

not only by sight, but that are understood well enough to use correctly. “Mayher

and Brause (1986) have stated that writing is dependent upon the ability to draw

upon new words to describe an event”. (Corona, Spangenberger and Venet, 1989)

The breadth and depth of a student’s vocabulary will have a direct influence

upon the descriptiveness, accuracy and quality of his/her writing. As Ediger

(1999) notes, “Variety in selecting words to convey accurate meanings is

necessary in speaking and writing, the outgoes of the language arts”.

“At any level, written communication is more effective when a depth of

vocabulary and command of language is evident” (Corona, Spangenberger and

Venet (1998))

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As words are the writer’s most important tools, vocabulary development

must be an important and ongoing part of classroom learning/teaching.

� Teachers must offer direct instruction of techniques or procedures for

developing broad and varied vocabulary.

� New vocabulary terms must be connected to students’ previous knowledge

and experiences.

� Students should be able to conceptualize the vocabulary terms they have

learned and use them in society.

� Student – teachers should be encouraged to incorporate new vocabulary

terms into their oral and written reports and presentations.

� Practice and repetition are important methods to become familiar with new

words and understand how they may be used correctly. (Laflamme, 1997).

� The teaching of vocabulary must be an interdisciplinary project, integrated

into the curriculum at every level.

Using vocabulary to improve writing skills: While improved vocabulary

can enhance students’ writing skills, there is no guarantee that it will do so

automatically. Improvement in vocabulary will result in improved writing skills

only if the teacher is able to create a classroom that takes writing seriously. Here

the process and environment are closely intertwined and interdependent.

The importance of learning words in English cannot be exaggerated. When

we say that we know English, we mean that we know the meanings and usage of a

few thousand words in English. Communication is impossible without some

mastery of the words used; it is mainly through using words that compose and

express our thoughts to others – It is essential for writing.

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3. Grammar

There has been discussions in recent years of the question –should we have

grammar as a separate entity in English as a second Language (ESL) classrooms?

The purpose of the grammar is to help the learners to learn English without

mistakes. The general objective is to make better teacher / learner by giving some

insight into the basic structure of English. Example “This is a Pen”. “This pen

are”.

From the above two sentences, the first sentence is acceptable whereas the

second is not. There is a set of rules that govern how units of meaning be

constructed. In English, the present form of ‘be’ in the third person has two

distinct forms – ‘is’ and ‘are’ , the first one is used with a singular subject and the

second one with a plural. We may say that the learner who has internalized such

rules either explicitly or implicitly can apply them to express himself / herself in

acceptable forms.

Communicative grammar is both functional and task – based. The

exponents of grammar are Randolph Quirk, Sidney Green baum, Geoffrey Leech,

Jan Svartik, R.A. Close and H.G. Widdowson. Most of them prefer fluency in the

use of language to accuracy. They analyse errors committed by the users of

language from this point of view and state that once fluency is developed,

appropriateness and accuracy of forms would follow it. Without a basic

knowledge of the grammar of the language, one’s learning of the language is

incomplete. It is essential for learning situations.

Place of grammar in writing

In the language learning (for writing), the bits of the total corpus of

knowledge of language are presented one after the other for gradual, systematic

acquisition. All the components are not presented at once. These components may

be spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar etc. Of these things, grammar

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constitutes the basis for a set of classroom activities during which it becomes

temporarily the main learning objective. The learning of grammar should be seen

in the long term as one of the means of acquiring mastery of the language; the

learning of grammar is not an end in itself. This emphasis is on successful

communication.

Following four stages constitute the frame work with a wide variety of

techniques.

♣ Perception can enable the learners to perceive the form and meaning of the

item either in speech or in written or in both.

♣ Understanding –facilitate the learners to move away from the context and

focus on the grammatical item itself; enable them to understand what the item

looks like and means and how it sounds and functions. Now the rules govern

them are studied.

♣ Absorption is the important stage; enable the learners to do a series of varied

exercises based on the grammatical item and enough practice should be given.

Discrete items as well as transformation exercises can be thought of and

communicative tasks can be given.

♣ Demonstration, should administer tests to the learners so that they can

demonstrate how well they have learnt the item. The main objective is here to

provide a feed back to the learners.

Proper techniques and well-designed activities are inducted in learning

grammar, the student teachers realized that grammar could be as simulating as

fiction. All sorts of grammar are taken to attain skills in writing.

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The figure 3.F.2 showed the various sub skills of writing which are taken

into account for developing writing skill among the student-teachers.

3.F.2.Writing – Sub Skills

� Visual perception was helpful to learn spelling, pronunciation and

spacing.

� Syntax is meant for the word order and the sentence structure.

� Vocabulary learning enlightened learning more idioms and phrases

Syntax

Visual Perception Vocabulary

Grammatical

accuracy

Grammar Writing –Sub

skills

Fluency of

thought

Comprehensiveness Logical coherence

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� Grammar Use of articles, prepositions, tense, voices and their

agreement are learnt through grammar. Grammar played a vital role in

developing writing skill in English.

All the above items constituted make the student – teachers’ mastery in

English language especially in writing.

4. Homophones

One of the difficulties in learning English language and being able to spell

well is to be able to cope with those many words which sound exactly the same or

very much alike but which are spelt differently.

People from every walk of life, regardless of their educational level and

background, make mistakes when spelling words such as ‘principle’ and

‘principal’, ‘desert’ and ‘dessert’, ‘stationery’ and ‘stationary’, as well as many

other same – sounding, every day words, i.e.-the homophones.

This problem arises because just as a simple combination may produce a

number of different sounds in English, different symbol combinations, i.e. the

homophonic combinations, also make the same sound – or a sound that is very

similar.

Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different meanings

and spellings. A source of wonder, then, might be that despite their identical

sounds; different homophones awaken different emotions, associations, meanings

– in short , each retains its individual character.

Based on the various homophones covered, the students can develop

images / metaphors to distinguish them. For variety, the investigator might focus

on different categories for each homophone family (e.g. animals, seasons, food,

fairy tale characters)

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Some homophones belong to word families which have similar spellings

and sounds. (e.g. ale / ail , -ead/ -ed). These patterns and ‘rule breakers’ could be

explored (e.g. lead/led read/red, bead /bed) Poems (such as limericks) could be

written using various homophones, bringing out their individual characteristics

where possible.

Students could make drawings which incorporate the meanings of the both

homophones (e.g. – the ‘eye’ of and ‘I’; the ‘right’ to ‘write’). Here Rhythm,

Rhyme or predictability patterns are used.

The detective interviews various homophones (e.g. Pear/pair / pare;

read/red) to try to discover. Wordplays in drama, such as Gilbert and sullivan’s

Pirates of Penzance (Pilot/Pirate; orphan/ often) could be viewed or performed by

the class. Here they were encouraged and aided to contribute to or retell it using

their own words/ gestures / actions.

Hence, the differences in meaning and spelling of such words just have to

be learnt and committed to memory which are highly useful for developing writing

skills in English. Mastering these words and understanding their meanings will

significantly enhance the learner’s general literacy and language skills, spelling

confidence and especially writing skill.

5. Precise – writing.

A precise is a clear, orderly, concise, summary which preserves the

organization and principal content of the original. A precise is shorter than the

original. The word ‘Precise’ is cognate to the word ‘Precise’ coming from a Latin

word meaning ‘to cut’. It has been variously referred to as ‘abbreviation’

‘subtraction’, ‘abstract’, ‘summary’ and ‘condensation’.

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A precise is a cut version of the original, retaining the main ideas and

omitting all secondary ideas. Precise writing involves summarizing a document to

extract the maximum number of words; it is usually necessary to paraphrase from

the original document. Paraphrasing means expressing ideas from the original

document in own words. When you paraphrase, cutting out all the unnecessary

verbiage, always be very careful not to lose or distort the original meaning.

Paraphrase elevated the writing skill.

As per the Oxford dictionary, precise is a summary or a condensed

composition of bare facts; precise denotes a brief, concise, clear and well

connected abstract, summary or gist of a given passage which develop writing

skill.

Precise helped to identify the main themes and to distinguish the key ideas

and concepts from the unimportant ones. Key ideas and concepts were underlined.

Each paragraph should have one key topic, the rest of the paragraph clarifies,

supports and develops. Repetitions or irrelevant details were eliminated. It

emphasized the coherence.

‘Brainstorming’ – a technique of using ideas from the passage to provide

ongoing stimulation to create more ideas, when brain storms on your own. It was

helpful to use mind maps to arrange and develop ideas. Mental images are

developed by this technique. Precise –writing helped the learner to arrange the

ideas, thoughts and main theme with its supportive points which developed writing

skill.

6. Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing is an imperative factor and it has its own significance

for the enhancement of writing skill. Information using the senses is vital to -

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writing .Imagination is a kind of sense which helped to form mental images with

the flow of thoughts, ideas and feelings.

Descriptive writing is about using the power of words to arouse and capture

the reader’s attention and create impact; defined as a type of expository writing . It

means writers feel that whatever they are writing is describing what they are

writing about and the reader must be satisfied from it means describing the

statement in such a way that the reader get the basic and important information

from it easily. The student-teachers learnt basic imagination which led them to

form mental images.

More than this descriptive writing strives to invoke a thought and involved

experience. It is often considered as one of the most creative forms of writing

since it is basically about being able to evoke emotions in the reader through the

power of words. It has the ability to arouse the reader’s senses and create a lasting

impact on his or her mind. The effect of writing was achieved by detailed

descriptions and observations.

Descriptive writing was taken as one of the components of writing skill.

Mental imagery a cognitive intervention strategy is highly developed by the

descriptive writing which enhanced the writing skill. As it give significance to

senses, it played a vital role in the development of writing skill.

3.5. Strategy and expected performance

Association of all these Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies

meant the process through which the memory images were associated, related and

ordered. It is an integral part of the cognitive process. The activity of combining

present sensation and perception with past experience and memories makes up

what we usually think of knowing. An infinite amount of information are

organized using mental pictures and mental images. After learning these strategies,

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the expected performance is good writing skill and competence in the teaching

learning process. Memory device helped to retrieve. Transfer of knowledge helped

to gain all round exposure and well developed knowledge. Meta cognitive

evaluation helped to know the level of performance and ability to write well.

3.F.3 Strategy –Process – Expected Performance

The investigator verbalized the process they go through to help students

develop their own plans of action. One type of plan of action is a ‘planning think

sheet’ uses a series of sequential structured prompts. It specifies the topic and asks

the questions, ‘who am I writing for? “why am I writing?”, “what do I know?”

“How can I group my ideas?” and “How will I organize my ideas”?

Another technique used was semantic mapping using mental images to

help students plan their writing. The plan of action provided a permanent reminder

of the content and structure of the writing task. It also gave the student –teachers

and investigator a common language to use in discussing the writing. The dialogue

between the two represented a major advance in writing instruction over

traditional methods that required students to work in relative isolation.

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Revising and editing skills are critical to the writing process. Developing

methods help students refine and edit their work. Here the student – teachers used

peer editing and altered their roles as student –writer and student critic. They

identified ambiguities in their writings and asked for clarification. With the help of

the investigator, they made revisions. The teacher provided the students with

feedback on clarity and on the cogency of the supportive arguments; then moved

on to correct capitalization, spelling and punctuation. Through this process, the

interactive dialogues, helped to understand each other’s perspective. In this way

the trainees developed their writing skill in English.

Feedback to student –teachers on the overall quality of writing, missing

elements and strengths was given. When the feedback was combined with

instruction in the writing process, they would attend to the surface features of

writing like spelling and punctuation as well as to the presentation of ideas.

Cognitive intervention strategy instruction in writing included brain

storming strategies for preparing to write, organizing strategies to relate and

categorize the ideas, comprehension strategies as students read and gather

information for their writing, and monitoring strategies as they clarify their

thoughts and the relationships among their items of information. All of these

strategies are applied prior to the actual writing. These strategies are grouped

under spatial competence.

Here, for the present study the ‘investigator has taken five cognitive

intervention strategies namely Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics, Spatial

competence and Meta cognitive Evaluation. And five affective intervention

strategies such as Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional

intelligence. All these strategies were inter related to each other to develop writing

skill in English.

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3.6 Adaptation of Cognitive Intervention Strategies in the treatment

The researcher prepared and designed some imaginative tasks that are

culturally appropriate and related to the learner’s day to day life. student-teachers

are asked to imagine the matter. The student-teachers were given proper guidance

and help to use the strategies for learning.

Five cognitive intervention strategies were illustrated with various example

and they were utilized now and then in the comprehension passage ‘Oil’ during

the treatment. Trainees were given adequate knowledge for using specific

strategies for the necessary situation.

I. Chunking

Formation of individual units of information into larger units. This was

often used as a means of overcoming short-term memory limitations. Grouping

together a number of items of information so that they are processed cognitively as

a single entity called ‘Chunk’ – perceived, interpreted and easily remembered as a

single one. Breaking a complex task into small and tractable tasks which was

useful to handle complex task of writing and to organize infinite information is

known as chunking. This information processing strategy grouped bits of

information into more meaningful and processable units. Trainees were asked to

chunk their writing into manageable units that can also make their writing easier to

read, to remember and to write, by chunking it.

Illustration was given to student - teachers as follows

You are chunking your writing when you break up long sentences into

shorter ones and divide long paragraphs into shorter paragraphs. You can also

break paragraphs into manageable chunks by inserting numbers that mark off

units. For example, for several reasons, you can’t count-on scores from

standardized tests to predict a student’s performance accurately.

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1. Test doesn’t measure perseverance, a crucial quality for success.

2. They don’t test a person’s study habits or ability to set priorities.

3. Tests don’t reflect the value of students’ family places on grades and

intellectual achievement.

4. Tests don’t measure a student’s confidence and maturity.

� Notice how the numbers break the paragraphs into chunks but also retain its

unity. They also act as nudges that move the reader into right direction.

� Another good way to break up a long sentence or paragraph is to display

the contents in a list.

� You would probably lose your reader’s attention half –way through long

sentence. Successful teachers know the factors that make the learning as a

significant one.

There’s just too much information jammed together. But if you break the

same information out into a list, readers can absorb it. You can also break your

writing into chunks by setting off material in boxes, pasting in graphics or pictures

to break up long passages of text, creating charts or dividing your writing into

columns if you are creating a brochure or a news letter.

Keep your writing tight and unified, whatever you are writing, you want

your readers to be able to move through it smoothly without getting lost or having

to track back and re read. You can achieve that necessary unit by following any of

the organizational patterns and by using transitions throughout.

Here are some key transition devices which were used by the investigator:

� Directional terms.

� Repeated works

� Conjunctions at the beginning of sentences.

� Links and nudges.

� Links are words and phrases that hold writing together by signalling

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Connections:

Nudges are terms that give readers a little push from one point to the next

and keep them moving in the right direction. All writers need to have stock of such

terms at their fingertips and to develop a sense of when and where these terms are

needed.

Here some of the most common links used are: Also, Although, Moreover,

For example, In addition, However, In spite of , Neverthless, And, Similarly, Not

only, Because etc..

Nudges: This, That, These, Those, First, Since, Consequently, Therefore,

Hence, Thus, Next, As a result, For instance.

� Repeated words:

Although you will often want to edit repetitions language as you revise,

occasionally you may choose to unify your writing by deliberately repeating a key

word or phrase.

Using conjunctions to connect sentences or paragraphs you may remember

some authority telling you that you shouldn’t start a sentence with and, or, but

because they are conjunctions whose purpose is to join parts of sentences. Well,

they are connections and they do join things, so you wouldn’t want to use either

one as the very first word of a piece of writing. But they are also strong signal

words that can work well for beginning a sentence or a new paragraph when you

want to emphasize a connection or to show a contrast. They also help hold the

parts to your writing together. Both words can serve as important hooks to unify

their writing.

� Sentences and paragraphs to a reasonable length.

Keep your sentences and paragraphs to a reasonable length. Because, it is a

fact that many of us quickly become impatient with lengthy sentences or

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paragraphs especially when we are reading on line and have to scroll the text up a

few lines at a time. That’s when we may stop reading, so it’s definitely in a

writer’s best interest to try to keep sentences and paragraphs reasonably short.

� Paragraphs

You can check on paragraphs length in a different way: but the simple is

just to look at what you have written. If you are trying to cover too much in one

stretch, it is better to focus on one small point at a time. Readers can process only

a limited amount of information at a time and if we crowd too much data into a

few paragraphs, they will lose interest.

� Sentences

Your sense of your audience should help you decide how long to make

your sentences. If you are writing an opinion column for a news letter or an

editorial, you can assume that your readers are probably reading hurriedly and

won’t take time to process long complex or rambling sentences. You also would

intuitively write relatively short sentences if you were creating a web page for a

club you belong to or writing a presentation you will be giving orally. You can and

you will probably improve it in the process.

� Avoid extreme adjectives such as vicious immoral and intolerable.

Here the comprehension text “Oil” is divided into several paragraphs with

reasonable length; each having one main theme with supported points. Links and

Nudges are used at necessary places. Operationalise chunking and Questioning for

use. First the student –teachers are ‘Directed Reading-Thinking Activity. It

involved extensive reading and writing and writing of materials. It gave

comprehension skills through making predictions about the passage and finding

evidence to support or refute those predictions. The text was divided into chunks

of varying lengths to maintain their interest. Others respond and the teacher can

guide student –teachers thinking by asking questions such as “why do you think

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so?” or “Can you prove it?” “Can you understand?” Student –teachers then have

an opportunity to revise their predictions if necessary, set new predictions for the

next chunk of text, and continued the process. Chunking improved comprehension

as well as writing and spelling skills. This activated prior knowledge, modeling

and reducing anxiety, promotes motivation. In this way, chunking process was

going on. For more structured versions the investigator directed them, cloze

exercises, comprehension monitoring activities and error detection tasks are given.

After a guided instruction in the use of instructional strategy, student –teachers are

asked to use the strategy independently to read, understand a piece of text and

write a paragraph based on it. The investigator measured the number of main and

subordinate ideas student –teachers recalled and coded that the ideas had been

transferred into writing. Positive reinforcement was used through out the treatment

to motivate the student –teachers.

II. Imagery

Mental imagery refered to our ability to create and manipulate mental

images. It is of crucial importance in many of our cognitive activities such as map

reading or imagining the possible rearrangements of units. It was used to

investigate the nature of mental transformations. Idea development can occur

using imagery only. Internal processes such as perception, interpretation,

imagination and recall are used interactively with what occurs ‘outside’ the mind

such as modeling and sketching. Use of imagery was a tool for idea development

for generating thoughts on the fly without a sketch sheet. it can support

brainstorming process; this might have the potential to improve idea development.

This stored knowledge becomes readily available for performing writing tasks; to

enhance idea generation. Imagination is an important ability that is related to

cognitive, affective and coping skills (Donahue & Tuber 1993, Pickard 1990,

singer & Singer (1981)

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Understanding the relationship among concepts helped student –teachers

grasp them more quickly and efficiently and develop well – structured mental

pictures about the content.

The act or process of forming mental images was by memory and

imagination like dual coding, read, remember-write, make a picture in mind. This

activity led learners through the process of adding detail to sentence starters to

create mental images of what they are writing. This activity helped to improve

writing assignments regardless of the subject matter by drawing on the

experiences of the learners and using these experiences to vary and expand the

vocabulary they use in writing.

Objective

Learners will visualize what they are writing about in order to expand their

use of a wider vocabulary and improve written communication.

Skill:- Convey ideas in writing

Learners needs and goals;

In discussing why learners thought writing was difficult, they said that they

didn’t know what they wanted to say. This cognitive intervention strategy helped

learners to see now visualizing more of the details of what they were writing about

would help them incorporate more details into their writing.

� There is an array of possibilities where imagery could be implemented to make

one writing more detailed.

� Discuss the problems and methods used to help them write effectively. Remind

learners that writing is just speech written down. If they can think what they

want to say half the battle is won.

� Discuss the use of imagery (forming mental pictures of what you see or say) in

increasing one’s writing skill. If an individual can clearly visualize a certain

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scene or event in his mind it greatly expands his ability to write about that

scene or event.

� Put a sentence starter (a subject and a verb) on the black board that might tell

of an action strengths:

& Information in multiple modes improved comprehension.

& Organization improved memory.

& Complex relationships or processes can be easier to

understand.

Ex: ‘Customer chose’

Let each learner add one word at a time to complete the thought of the

person being described. The final result should be a complete picture of a certain

customer buying a particular product.

Here is, how a class might develop this sentence starter.

� Customer chose

� Old customer chose.

� An old, customer carefully chose food.

� An old , grey-haired customer carefully chose food.

� An old grey-haired, customer carefully chose canned food and

crackers.

� An old, grey –haired, stooped customer with a cane carefully chose canned

food and crackers.

� An old, grey haired, stooped customer with a cane carefully chose canned

cat food and crackers in the grocery store.

With the addition of each word, the details of the picture become clearer

and the picture becomes easier to visualize. The final sentence in the series above

showed a much clear picture of the customer as he picked out his items.

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� This exercise was repeated several times with the whole class, each time

using different sentence starter, a different picture will be developed.

Learners will be surprised that not only changes their visual image of what

the customer did change as the verb is changed, the picture in the learners minds

of the customer himself also varies each time a new sentence is created. With each

different sentence created, learners should see that forming a visual image helped

them have a better understanding of what they want to write.

As an individual assignment, gave learners two or three sentence starters

and asked them to add words to expand each sentence to create a strong visual

image.

Assessment

Learners were able to complete the assignment without too much difficulty.

Reflection

This activity helped the learners see how making a picture in our mind

allowed us to add details in a sentence to create a more vivid image in the mind of

the reader. The learners were not only able to increase their vocabulary usage by

using this idea with visual images, but they were able to expand and begin to write

paragraphs and even short stories. In the class room, increase in vocabulary was

necessary in order to develop their writing skill.

III. Mnemonics

A technique used to aid memory – a useful and effective technique for

memorizing collections of items is called mnemonics.

Imagery transformation, identify new word, find familiar word, similarities

some sounding word, creating an image linking new and familiar words, practice

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and remembering image is called as mnemonics. It was explained in the following

manner.

Plan : Pay attention to the prompts.

List main ideas

Add supporting ideas

Number your ideas.

Mnemonics is a memorization tool, showing information into the brain in

large amounts can be absolutely over whelming.

� Ex: Make a fun sentence out of a series of information, not only it learns

the information quicker, but retain the information over time.

� Active memorization: Transfer the words from the pages of the book to

a word document, choose most important information, implant the

information in their minds.

� Make love of learning; They don’t get too tired out.

� Write the vocabulary word on the front of the note card.

� On the back of the note card, write definition of the word, the parts of

speech and a sample sentence.

� Student can quiz himself by looking at the front of the vocabulary cards,

reciting the answer on the back.

� Key word mnemonics are useful memory tools.

� Cognitive structuring memory devices that facilitate recall via

elaboration and chunking.

Mnemonic instruction was a set of strategies designed to help students

improve their memory of new information. Mnemonics instruction linked new

information to prior knowledge through the use of usual and /or acoustic cues.

These strategies have been proven effective with students at a wide range of

ability levels (gifted normally achieving and those with mild and moderate

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disabilities) and at all grade levels. Mnemonics are particularly helpful in teaching

students who have difficulty recalling verbal and content –area information as they

are effective with any type of verbal content.

Three basic types of Mnemonic strategies are used as follows :

1) Keyword : A key word was a familiar word that sounds similar to the word

or idea being taught. Key words were generally used with an illustration of

some type. The teacher created a picture on other graphic that links the old

and new information in the students memory.

2) Peg word: Peg words referred to a set of rhyming words that are used to

help students remember information involving numbers or other

information in a particular order

3) Letter: Letter strategies included acronyms and acrostics (or sentence

mnemonic) Acrostics are sentences in which the first letter of the words

corresponds to the first letters of the information. Students are expected to

remember.

Of three types of mnemonic strategies letter strategies were used more often

in teaching writing. Keywords can sometimes be used as well as in the following

example. The purpose of using mnemonics in teaching writing is to help students

remember the steps in the process of a particular kind of writing such as narrative

paragraph or paragraphs. Keywords can be used either alone or with a graphic

organizer to help students construct paragraphs, either singly or in a series, and to

help them remember that writing always has to have a structure to be effective.

Implementation

In teaching new content good teachers not only tell their students what is

important to remember, they also give them ways to remember it

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The researcher attempted to

� create the memories themselves and must be explicit in their instruction, tilling

students.

� go through the specific steps involved in using mnemonics to show students

how to use it to retrieve information.

� practice all steps of the strategies with the students, until they can

practice them independently and retrieve the information correctly.

Key word strategy explanation was given by the researcher as follows

One key word strategy for teaching writing helped the students to

remember the constructions of a paragraph. Whenever you start to write a

paragraph, remember the keyword. At the top, you have the topic sentence, which

tells the readers what your paragraph will be about. In the middle is the body of

your paragraph. This is where you write the sentences telling the readers what you

want them to know about your topic. At the bottom, is the end of the your

paragraph. This is where you write a sentence finishing your paragraph by

summarizing what you told your readers. The key word mnemonic was useful

when students were first learning what a paragraph is and how to write one.

It is important to go through the steps with students, every time they write a

paragraph until they can use the mnemonic independently. Repeated use made a

mnemonic most effective. Formative evaluation was another key to the effective

use of mnemonics. Until students become proficient in writing paragraphs,

evaluate their use of the mnemonics and the result, to determine where

instructional changes may be needed.

Letter strategy

Letter strategies involved the use of acronyms and acrostics. (sentence

mnemonics) One acronym used in teaching writing was DEFENDS, which was a

task –specific writing strategy used in conjunction with an organizer to cue

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students through the writing process. This strategy was effective with student –

teachers in the following manner. Illustration followed as ,

Ex: DEFENDS

� Decide on goals and theme :

& Decide what is written and what you hope will happen when

they do.

& Decide what kind of information you need of communicate.

& Decide what your theme will be about.

& Note the theme on your planning form.

� Estimate main ideas and details

& Think at least two main ideas that will explain your theme.

& Make sure the main ideas are different.

& Note the main ideas on your planning form.

& Note at least three details that can be used to explain each

main idea.

� Figure best order of main ideas and details:

& Decide which main idea to write about first, second, etc and

on the planning form.

& For each main idea note the best order for presenting the

details on the planning form.

& Make sure the orders are logical.

� Express the theme in the first sentence:

& The first sentence of the essay should state what the essay is

about.

� Note each main idea and supporting point.

& Note your first main idea using a complete sentence, explain

this main idea using the details you ordered earlier.

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& Tell yourself positive statements about your writing and tell

yourself to write more.

& Repeat for each of the other main ideas.

� Drive home the message in the last sentence:

& Restate what your theme was about in the last sentence.

& Make sure you used wording different than that in the first

sentence.

� Search for errors and correct:

& Look for different kinds of errors in essay and correct them.

IV. Spatial competence

Capacity to perform tasks requiring the mental manipulation of spatial

relationships such as mental rotation, mirror drawing; Map –reading or finding

one’s way around an unfamiliar environment is spatial competence.

Prior knowledge activation, reading the facts, ask different questions,

listing words, first find out, then use it to create alternate words, replace new

words, to make sense, transfer of knowledge all are related to spatial competence.

Special relations continue to be fundamental to reasoning and to understanding.

� For ex getting skill in writing by imagining relationships such as cause and

effect, scheduling, comparing and contrasting, anticipating needed items

for organizing an essay or a letter and understanding when it is one’s turn to

talk in social conversation. Understanding spatial relations is basic to

carrying out many tasks related to writing.

� Spatial competence as (1) the ability to perceptually and cognitively

understand space. (2) the capacity to move through space and act upon the

environment. The two neural ‘What’ and ‘Where’ systems capture object

characteristics and spatial location respectively. Links can be made between

the development of spatial competence and the design of their

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environments. These two components could be called

receptive/constructive and interactive aspects of spatial competence.

� For Gardner (1983) every person possesses multiple intelligences that are

expressed to varying degrees according to endowment and development.

He described “Spatial intelligence” as the ability to perceive the visual

world accurately, transform and modify perceptions and re-create visual

experiences even without physical stimuli. Motor skills which allowed

them to explore the world and expand their spatial understanding of the

world.

� Neural structures of spatial competence

Many neural systems were involved in visual object and space perception

‘What’ system captured the characteristics of objects and involved the inferior

temporal cortex: the ‘Where’ system described the situation of objects and

involved posterior of the parietal cortex. Despite the distinction both systems,

especially the ‘Where’ system recruit other parts of the brain. It summarizes the

neural systems in our brains in three categories (though they are not necessarily

differentiated from each other) recognition; strategic and affective networks.

These networks have implications for the presentation of information, the methods

of expression offered to them and the emotional responses to the learning

environment. In the same way it aims to intuitively appeal to students’ mind

/brains.

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3.F.4 Interactive experiences through action

Receptive Constructive experiences through perception

Representational re description

as a mechanism for

developing over time

through different types

of interactions with the

environment

Spatial information processing is a component of many tasks and cognitive

activities. Humans have the ability to maintain and manipulate mental images to

perform a number of tasks and activities, from mental rotation to image

composition, to mental simulation. The ability to transform images and inspect the

results is an essential component of spatial reasoning.

Active memorization, manipulation and transformation of ideas and

thoughts helped to transfer the knowledge from partial to whole. This

manipulation helped the student - teachers to enhance writing skill.

V. Meta cognitive Evaluation

Evaluating the plan of action:

Student teachers are asked to repeat or go over something in order to

commit it to memory or to retain it in memory. To recall on enumerate items of

information repeatedly in order to retain them in short term memory or long term

memory.

Spatial

competence

Experiences with

different spatial

relationships

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Trainees relating, transforming, reading text, identifying main ideas,

writing summary in own words, combining summary in a paragraph, multiple line

of approach in language use, perceiving relations among ideas, vocabulary,

sentence, structure and style in different situations were evaluated as follows:

1. Storage skill

Purpose

Abstract based

2. Retrieval skill Summarise

Coherence

Anticipation

3. Cohesion

4. Ellipsis (omission of words and phrases)

Comprehension

5. Note making Identification

Distinguishing main factor

Priority

6. Substitution (used to avoid repetition)

Reviewing

7. Editing Rethinking

Re-organization

8. Miniturizing – Logical development and balance of the original are

important; it helped to retain the overall meaning and impression.

Meta cognitive evaluation is a very important strategy. This involved to

checking oneself the way one learned and the strategies he was using, and

modifying them according to the task and situation, leading to enhancement in

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performance of writing skill. The researcher guided them and helped them to

evaluate their writings wherever needed by the student –teachers.

3.7 Affective Intervention Strategies in the Treatment

Following Affective Intervention Strategies are inter linked with the above

said cognitive intervention strategies in the treatment.

I. Intuition:

The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational

processes, immediate cognition, knowledge gained by the use of this faculty, a

perceptive insight is called as intuition. Also a sense of something not evident or

deducible an impression mind of thought is intuition.

Writing and Intuition:

As a developed skill writing can be as much of an intuitive process as any

other. Intuition being something that we know about subconsciously but we may

not consciously recognize .It is something that we are generally wise to listen,

intuition is generally the result of quiet listening, perceiving and awareness while

writing is a conscious and active process.

Intuition is defined as “immediate apprehension” Intuition is “to know

anything immediately, without the intervention of any reasoning process” Intuition

has both intrinsic and instrumental value that are closely related. Intuition is

accompanied by positive emotion. The strategy intuition motivated student-

teachers to get immediate cognition which enhanced writing skill.

II. Interest:

Interest is a strategy for enhancing memory and comprehension, thinking

and writing. It is more or less consistent pattern of affective cognitive, and

conative behavioural responses of feeling and thinking.

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Interest arouses motivation and attention in any work process. Here it

activated student – teachers writing ability.

III. Attention:

Attention was the process of getting an object of thought clearly before the

mind (Ross-1951)

Attention was being keenly alive to some specific factor in our

environment. It was a preparatory adjustment for response (Morgan &Galliard

(1942))

All these definitions highlighted the following facts which were needed for

developing writing skill.

1. Attention is essentially a process, and not a product.

2. It helped in our awareness or consciousness of our environment.

3. This awareness or consciousness was selective.

4. At any one time we can concentrate or focus our consciousness on one

particular object, matter or event only.

5. The concentration or focus provided by the process of attention helped the

trainees in the clear understanding of the perceived object or phenomenon

(in the writing process).

6. For providing an appropriate response, one has to give proper attention to

the stimulus to reach the stage of preparedness or alertness both mental and

physical which may be required.

7. Attention was not merely a cognitive function but was essentially

determined by emotional and curative factors of interest, attitude and

striving.

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Effects of attention used in the process as,

1. Attention helped in bringing about mental alertness, and preparedness. As a

result trainees attempted to apply their mental powers as effectively as

possible.

2. Attention helped in providing proper deep concentration by focusing their

consciousness upon one event at one time rather than on any others.

3. It marked us better equipped to distinguish or to identify the object of

affection from others.

4. Attention acted as a reinforcement of the sensory process and helped in the

better organization of the perceptual field for maximum clarity and

understanding of the object or phenomenon under observation.

5. Attention provided strength and ability to continue the task of cognitive

functioning despite the obstacles presented by the forces of distraction like

noise and unfavourable weather conditions.

6. When attention was paid to an object even the process or phenomenon yield

better results in the form of the amount and quality of learning,

remembering, transfer of training, thinking, reasoning and problem solving

as displaying the inventive abilities and creative functioning like writing.

Interest and attention:

Interest as well as close attention were essential for useful learning and

memorization. A person who has no interest in what he learns, will not give due

attention to it and consequently will not be able to learn it. Interest is the mother of

attention and attention is the mother of memory.

Attention helped to learn more without any distraction. Student-teachers’

attention helped them to listen the comprehension without any external barriers

affecting their learning process of writing. Attention helped them to develop

writing ability.

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IV. Motivation

Motivation is the activation or energization of goal oriented behaviour.

Motivation may be internal or external. In education motivation deals with the

problem of setting up conditions so that learners will perform to the best of their

abilities in writing English. It can:

� direct behaviour toward particular goal. ie to develop writing skill in English.

� lead to increase effort and energy.

� increase initiation of and persistence in, activities.

� enhance cognitive processing.

� determine what consequences are reinforming.

� lead to improve performance in writing.

First requirement to motivate students, was to get their attention and sustain

it. Generating answers to write. An internal state that energizes, directs and

maintains behaviour.

Writing motivation is one’s desire to put more effort into writing activity. It

is framed with one’s appraisal of the relationship between writing activity and

writing outcome. Writing involved memory retrieval, goal setting, planning, and

evaluation. Motivation can also be the purpose or reason for a piece of literature.

Motivation for writing occurs at three levels

1. Specific level: Focusing the processes between goal setting and writing

sentences.

2. Intermediate level: Focusing the structure between goal setting and

writing sentences.

3. General level: Focusing on overall structure of a piece of writing.

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V. Emotional intelligence

A short term evaluative, affective, intentional psychological state including

feelings – ability to perceive, appraise and evoke emotions when they facilitate

cognition is called as emotional intelligence.

� ability to comprehend emotional messages and to make use of

emotional information.

� ability to regulate one’s own emotions to promote growth and well-

being.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and

generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional

knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and

intellectual growth. Teachers particularly need to develop emotional skills because

teachers are the people who handle human beings with emotions.

Benefits of Emotional intelligence were

� Increased performance

� Improved motivation

� Enhanced innovation

� Trust in the work

� Effective management and leadership

� Excellent team work.

In the words of Kothari commission, yesterday’s education system cannot

satisfy the present needs and even less so the tomorrow’s needs. The emotional

intelligence which has the significance in the education is needed to enhance

writing skill along with cognition. Emotional intelligence allowed us to think more

creatively and to use our emotions to solve problems, language acquisition, to

achieve the goal of writing.

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Human mind is made up of two parts – one that thinks and one that feels. It

is found that emotional mind acts faster than the rational mind. It springs into

action without pausing even a moment to consider what is doing. Good mood

enhances the ability to think flexibly making it easier to find solutions to

intellectual problems. In the present study emotional intelligence along with

cognition helped to enhance writing skill in English by maintaining harmony

between the head and the heart. Hence, the intellect cannot work at its best without

emotional intelligence.

Affective intervention strategies produced indirect effect in enhancing

writing skill. With the help of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies, the

comprehension passage “Oil” was taught with the instructional model developed

by the investigator. The researcher helped the student-teachers improve their

writing skills by (a) increasing student –teacher motivation to have good writing

skills, (b) providing instruction in writing processes and rules, (c) providing

writing practice, and (d) providing constructive feedback about the student –

teachers writing. With high motivation, trainees found ways to improve their

writing and persistence in the effort. To write well, trainees need to apply

appropriate processes, to apply rules of writing such as grammar rules etc. Writing

practice helped most when students received clear, specific feedback about what to

do the same and what to do differently in the future.

After having gone through various steps and strategies suggested by various

researches incorporating the essential characters in the model, the following

cognitive and affective intervention strategies were carefully identified for the

development of a model for enhancing writing skill among the B.Ed., trainees.

Cognitive intervention strategies

1. Chunking

2. Imagery

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3. Mnemonics

4. Spatial competence

5. Meta cognitive evaluation

Affective intervention strategies

1. Intuition

2. Interest

3. Attention

4. Motivation

5. Emotional Intelligence

After identifying the above cognitive and affective intervention strategies

they are organized to meet the demands of developing writing skill in English.

Based on the opinion of the experts in English writing, the different components of

the model are appropriately edited. It is believed out of the research findings of the

presents study that any kind of passage in English can be taught through this

model to enhance the writing skill in English. The following model show called

“Vanaja’s model on writing skill in English” explains the detailed functions of

cognitive and affective intervention strategies in which writing skill in English

could be developed in B.Ed., trainees.

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3.F.5. VANAJA'S MODEL ON WRITING SKILL IN ENGLISH

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Cognitive intervention strategies such as Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics,

Spatial competence and Meta cognitive Evaluation and Affective intervention

strategies namely Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional

intelligence were organized according to the need and the researcher would have

implemented them throughout the treatment. Other than the passage ‘oil’ four

more passages with different exercise were practiced for getting mastery in

English writing skill.

1. OIL - G.C. Thornley

1. There are three main groups of oils: animals, vegetable and mineral. Great

quantities of animal oil come from whales, those enormous creatures of the sea

which are the largest remaining animals in the world. To protect the whale

from the cold of the Arctic seas, nature has provided it with a thick covering of

fat called blubber. When the whale is killed, the blubber is stripped off and

boiled down, either on board ship or on shore. It produces a great quantity of

oil which can be made into food for human consumption. A few other

creatures yield oil, but none so much as the whale. The livers oil and halibut

liver oil are given to sick children and other invalids who need certain

vitamins. These oils may be bought at any chemist’s. (Chunking, motivation,

spatial competence)

2. Vegetable oil has been known from antiquity. No household can get on

without it, for it is used in cooking. Perfumes may be made from the oils of

certain flowers. Soaps are made from vegetable and animal oils. (Imagery)

3. To the ordinary man, one kind of oil may be as important as another. But

when the politician or the engineer refers to oil, he almost always means

mineral oil, the oil that drivers tanks, aeroplanes and warships, motor-cars and

diesel locomotives; the oil that is used to lubricate all kinds of machinery. This

is the oil that has changed the life of the common man. When it is refined into

petrol it is used to drive the internal combustion engine. To it we owe the

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existence of the motor-car, which has replaced the private carriage drawn by

the horse. To it we owe the possibility of fling. It has changed the methods of

warfare on land and sea. This kind of oil comes out of the earth. Because it

burns well, it is used as fuel and in some ways it is superior to coal in this

respect. Many big ships now burn oil instead of coal. Because it burns

brightly, it is used for illumination; countless homes are still illuminated with

oil-burning lamps. Because it is very slippery, it is used for lubrication. Two

metal surfaces rubbing together cause friction and heat; but if they are

separated by a thin film of oil, the friction and heat are reduced. No machine

would work for long if it were not properly lubricated. The oil used for this

purpose must be of the correct thickness; if it is too thin if will not give

sufficient lubrication, and if it is too thick it will not reach all parts that must be

lubricated. (chunking, spatial competence, cohesion, coherent, meta cognitive

evaluation)

4. The existence of oil wells has been known for a long time. Some of the

Indians of North America used to collect and sell the oil from the wells of

Pennsylvania. No one, however, seems to have realized the importance of this

oil until it was found that paraffin-oil could be made from it; this led to the

development of the wells and to the making of enormous profits. When the

internal combustion engine was invented, oil became of world wide

importance. (Imagery)

5. What was the origin of the oil which now drives our motor-cars and air-craft?

Scientists are confident about the formation of coal, but they do not seem so

sure when asked about oil. They think that the oil under the surface of the

earth originated in the distant past, and was formed form living thins in the sea.

Countless billions of minute sea creatures and plants lived and sank to the sea

bed. They were covered with huge deposits of mud; and by processes of

chemistry, pressure and temperature were changed through long ages into what

we know as oil. For these creatures to become oil, it was necessary that they

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should be imprisoned between layers of rock for an enormous length of time.

The statement that oil originated in the sea is confirmed by a glance at a map

showing the chief oilfields of the world; very few of them are far distant from

the oceans of today. In some places gas and oil come up to the surface of the

sea from its bed. The rocks in which oil is found are of marine origin too.

They are sedimentary rocks, rocks which were laid down by the action of water

on the bed of the ocean. Almost always the remains of shells, and other proofs

of sea life, are found close to the oil. A very common sedimentary rock is

called shale, which is a soft rock and was obviously formed by being deposited

on the sea bed. And where there is shale there is likely to be oil. (spatial

competence, imagery, chunking, interest)

6. Geologists, scientists who study rocks, indicate the likely places to the oil

drillers. In some cases oil comes out of the ground without any drilling at all

and has been used for hundreds of years. In the island of Trinidad the oil is in

the form of asphalt, a substance used for making roads. Sir Walter Raleigh

visited the famous pitch lake of Trinidad in 1595; it is said to contain nine

thousand million tons of asphalt. There are probably huge quantities of crude

oil beneath the surface. (paragraph reasonable length)

7. The king of the oil field is the driller. He is a very skilled man. Sometimes he

sends his drill more than a mile into the earth. During the process of drilling,

gas and oil at great pressure may suddenly be met, and if this rushes out and

catches fire the oil well many never b brought into operation at all. This

danger is well known and steps are always taken to prevent it.

8. There is a lot of luck in drilling for oil. The drill may just miss the oil

although it is near; on the other hand, it may strike oil at a fairly high level.

When the drill goes down, it brings up soil. The samples of soil from various

depths are examined for traces of oil. If they are disappointed at one place, the

drillers go to another. Great sums of money have been spent, for example in

the deserts of Egypt, in prospecting for oil. Sometimes little is found. When

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we buy a few gallons of petrol for our cars, we pay not only the cost of the

petrol, but also part of the cost of the search that is always going on. (spatial

competence, transfer of knowledge)

9. When the crude oil is obtained from the field, it is taken to the refineries to be

treated. The commonest form of treatment is heating. When the oil is heated,

the first vapours to rise are cooled and become the finest petrol. Petrol has a

low boiling point; if a little is poured into the hand, it soon vaporizes. Gas that

comes off the oil later is condensed into paraffin. Last of all the lubricating

oils of various grades are produced. What remains is heavy oil that is used as

fuel. (chunking, mnemonics, spatial competence)

10. There are four main areas of the world where deposits of oil appear. The first

is that of the Middle East, and includes the regions near the Caspian Sea, the

Black sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Another is the area between

North and South America, and the third, between Asia and Australia includes

the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java. (Chunking, Mnemonics, spatial

competence)

11. The fourth area is the part near the North Pole. When all the present oil fields

are exhausted, it is possible that this cold region may become the scene of oil

activity. Yet the difficulties will be great, and the costs may be so high that no

company will undertake the work. If progress in using atomic power to drive

machines is fast enough, it is possible that oil-driven engines may give place to

the new kind of engine. In that case the demand for oil will fall, the oilfields

will gradually disappear, and the deposits at the North Pole may rest where

they are forever.

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Comprehension – I

1. Do the first three paragraphs talk about the same thing or about different

things? What do they talk about?

2. Mineral oil is described in this essay from the third paragraph onwards. This

description can be sub-divided into four parts. The first two parts are given

below. Give the other two.

(1) Its uses and importance :para 3 (2) Its history and origin: paras 4 and 5

3. In what connection are the following things mentioned in the essay? (The first

two items have been answered; answer the rest in the same way).

(1) Blubber: animal oils, whales (3) Friction between metal surfaces:

(2) Perfumes: vegetable oils, their use (4) Sedimentary rocks:

(5) The danger of fire. (6) Atomic power:

4. The third paragraph mentions three main purpose for which mineral oil is used.

What are they?

5. The author points out four pieces of evidence that confirm the theory that oil

originated in the sea. What are they?

6. How does the author express the importance of the driller? What is the

greatest danger which has to be faced in drilling for oil?

7. What are the four main products of oil refineries?

8. Name the four areas of the world where oil deposits are found.

Comprehension – II

Answer the following questions by choosing the best alternative (a, b, c or

d) under each. Think carefully and, if necessary, refer back to the text before you

make your choice.

1. Whales are

(a) the largest animals that have ever lived in the world.

(b) the largest animals living on land.

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(c) the largest animals now living in the world.

(d) the largest animals living in the Caspian Sea.

2. Vegetable oil

(a) was unknown in ancient times.

(b) was known to people long ago.

(c) was known only to old people.

(d) Is known only to old people.

3. The term ‘mineral oil’ is used by the author to refer to

(a) the oil from which petrol is made.

(b) petrol only.

(c) cod liver oil.

(d) any oil that burns

4. Oil-burning lamps

(a) are used in more and more homes nowadays.

(b) are not used very much now.

(c) burn more brightly than any other kind of lamp

(d) are used by a large number of people, although not so many as previously.

5. The purpose of lubrication is

(a) to produce heat

(b) to reduce friction

(c) to reach all parts of a machine

(d) to produce oil of the right thickness.

6. Mineral oil became very important only when

(a) the internal combustion engine was invented

(b) the oil wells in Pennsylvania were developed

(c) lubricating oils were made from it

(d) American Indians began to collect and sell it

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7. Scientists think that

(a) coal was formed from shale under the surface of the earth.

(b) oil was formed from large deposits of mud on the sea bed.

(c) oil was formed form sea creatures caught between layers of rock.

(d) oil was formed from sea water by processes of chemistry, pressure and

temperature.

8. ‘Where there is shale, there is likely to be oil’. The author says this in order to

show that

(a) oil was first formed under the sea.

(b) shale is a sedimentary rock.

(c) oil was made from shale.

(d) shale is another from of oil.

9. The author mentions Trinidad because

(a) it is an example of a place where drilling is not necessary to obtain oil.

(b) it has a famous lake which was visited by Sir Walter Raleigh.

(c) it probably has large quantities of crude oil under the surface.

(d) its asphalt is very good for making roads.

10. The oil drill

(a) should always go at lest a mile into the earth.

(b) Cannot go more than a mile into the earth

(c) Often goes up to a mile into the earth

(d) Occasionally goes more than a mile into the earth

11. The driller is unlucky when

(a) the drill brings up soil

(b) the drill strikes oil at a high level

(c) the drill goes very near the oil without striking it.

(d) the drill does not bring up any soil

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12. The cost of unsuccessful drilling

(a) is met by the driller

(b) is paid by the refineries

(c) is paid by the government

(d) is included in the selling price of petrol

13. When crude oil is heated, petrol rises from it first, because

(a) it has a low boiling point

(b) we want to collect it first

(c) it can be cooled easily

(d) it is the most important product of crude oil

14. Three areas of oil deposits are mentioned in a single paragraph, whereas the

fourth area is mentioned in a separate paragraph. This is because

(a) the fourth area is a long way from North America

(b) the fourth area has not been developed yet and may never be developed

(c) its oilfields are already exhausted

(d) the fourth area is a good place to develop atomic power.

15. Progress in using atomic power may

(a) remove many of the difficulties of drilling for oil

(b) give rise to a new kind of oil-driven engine

(c) reduce the cost of drilling near the North Pole

(d) make it unnecessary to drill near the North Pole

Spelling

Here is a list of word wrongly spelt. Insert a letter in each word to make it correct.

1. Seprate 6. aroplane

2. consumtion 7. vegtable

3. aspalt 8. minral

4. orginate 9. parafin

5. diffcult 10. carrage

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Pronunciation

(a) In the following words the letters in italics are pronounced / e/ as in ‘paper’, or

/e/ as in further. Arrange the words in two lists under /e/ or /e/

certain world

atomic existence

earth statement

desert (n) purpose

vapour internal

Find ten more words in the passage, five of each type, and add them to your

lists.

(b) When we speak or read English aloud, not all the words in the sentences are

said with the same force. Only the more important words in them, like nouns,

interrogative pronouns, main verbs, adjectives, demonstratives and adverbs are

generally stressed. Observe how only certain words are stressed in the

following sentences:

1. Great quantities of animal oil come from whales.

2. These oils may be bought at any chemist’s

3. The existence of oil wells has been known for a long time

4. What was the origin of the oil?

5. A very common sedimentary rock is called shale

Now mark the stresses in the following sentences and practice saying them:

1. This oil has changed the life of the common man

2. They were covered with huge deposits of mud.

3. Which animals are the biggest in the world?

4. The engineer always refers to mineral oil.

5. Many big ships now burn oil instead of coal.

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Practice saying the following words with the correct stress:

1. de’posit 6. ge’ologist

2. con’firm 7. possi’bility

3. in’valid (adj) 8. poli’tician

4. engi’neer 9. ma’rine

5. de’velopment 10. ex’istence

Vocabulary – I

Find single words in the passage which have roughly the meaning given below:

1. separated by a thin film of oil

2. sick people

3. exploring an area for a mineral such as oil

4. form of oil used for making roads

5. pieces of evidence

6. any substance that can be burned to give heat

Vocabulary – II

Match the words given under A with the meanings given under B. List B

has some extra items.

A B

1. originate (a) very big

2. minute (adj) (b) prove that something is right

3. marine (c) have one’s beginning

4. enormous (d) march

5. antiquity (e) something real

6. confirm (f) very small

(g) very old

(h) the distant past

(i) found in the sea

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Vocabulary – III

Copy out the following passage and fill in the blanks with words chosen from this

list. Make changes in the forms of the words as necessary.

1. illuminate 4. billion 7. enormous 10. strip 13. marine

2. fuel 5. mineral 8. invalid 11. lubricate 14. originate

3. antiquity 6. consumption 9. confirm 12. region 15. exhaust

The oil used for ……….. as food or as a tonic by ……… is different from the

…… oil which is used in industry ……. quantities of this are to be found in the

Middle East and Arctic …….. But this will soon be ……. if we used it as……

for….. at the present rate.

Grammar – I

Observe the following sentences:

(a) The whale yields a great deal of oil.

(b) The cod and the halibut also yield oil.

The verb in the first sentence is yields, because the subject (the whale) is

singular in number. In the second sentence the verb is yield, because the subject

(the cod and the halibut) is plural in number.

Fill in the blanks in the following with suitable forms of the verbs given in

brackets. Use only simple present tense forms (e.g. yield, is yielded, do not yield,

etc).

Drilling for oil …(be) a difficult process. First, geologists …. (indicate) the

places where oil …. (be) likely to be found. Then the driller … (send) his drill

into the earth, sometimes more than a mile deep. From time to time, samples to

see if any traces of oil… (be) present. If he … (not find) any evidence of oil, the

driller…. (stop) drilling and … (move) to another place.

Now here is a paragraph with all its sentences in passive voice. Fill in the

blanks in it with suitable passive forms of the verbs given in brackets.

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The crude oil which ….. (obtain) from the oil well …. (take) to the refinery. There

it ….. (treat) with heat. The first vapours rising from it …. Collect and cool) to

form petrol. The gas that ….. (obtain) next …… (condense) into paraffin. Then

oils of different grades….. (produce), which ….. (use) for lubrication. Last of all,

a thick oil ….. (leave behind), which ….. (burn) as fuel.

Grammar – II


(a) The blubber of whales is boiled down to produce oil.

(b) The livers of certain fish yield nourishing oil.

The definite article is used here at the beginning because there is an of phrase (of

whales, of certain fish) after the noun.

Here are some sentences with blanks in them. Only some of the blanks

require the definite article; the others do not require anything. Study the sentences

and put in the definite article wherever it is necessary.

1. …….. existence of oil wells has been known for …… centuries

2. No one seems to have realized …… importance of ….. oil collected by the

Indians of North America until it was found that …… paraffin-oil could be

made from it.

3. What was ….. origin of ….. mineral oil?

4. …… scientists are confident about ….. formation of ….. coal, but they

seem less sure when asked about …. Oil.

5. Oil is found in ……. Sedimentary rocks, i.e.rocks which were laid down by

…… action of water on……. bed of the ocean.

Composition – I

Think of the kind of paragraph we discussed in a previous lesson – the one

in which we make a general statement at the beginning and then support it with

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details, one by one. The following five sentences can make up such a paragraph,

but they are not in the proper order. Study them first.

1. All these have internal combustion engines which require petrol or diesel.

2. Modern society depends a great deal on mineral oil.

3. Secondly, there would be no motor-cars, aeroplanes or diesel engines for

trains.

4. Without it, there would be no paraffin-oil for lighting or cooking.

5. Thirdly, modern warfar would be impossible because there would be no

tanks or fast warships, which also have petrol-driven engines.

These sentence can be rearranged in such a way that they make a good,

continuous paragraph. The proper arrangement is: 2+4+3+1+5. You can see this

from the following:

Modern society depends a great deal on mineral oil. Without it, there

would be no paraffin-oil for lighting or cooking. Secondly, there would be no

motor-cars, aeroplanes or diesel engines for trains. All these have internal

combustion engines which require petrol or diesel. Thirdly, modern warfare

would be impossible because there would be no tanks or fast warships, which also

have petrol-driven engines.

Now, here are two sets of sentences. Each set can be rearranged in such a

way that it makes a well-built, continuous paragraph. Study the sentences and

then rearrange them properly.

(a) 1. Shale, for example, is a sedimentary rock, and where there is shale,

there is likely to be oil.

2. First, almost all the oil-fields of the world are near the oceans of today.

3. The theory that oil originated in the sea is supported by several facts.

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4. In some place, oil is in fact found in the sea, where it comes up to the

surface from the bed of the sea.

5. Lastly, shells and other proofs of sea life are usually found near an oil well.

6. Further, the rocks in which oil is found are sedimentary rocks, which were

formed originally in the sea.

(a) 1. Motor-cars, aeroplanes and ships use such engines.

2. It burns well and is therefore used as fuel for internal combustion

engines.

3. Mineral oil has several properties which make it useful in oil lamps.

4. Secondly, it burns brightly and can therefore be used in oil lamps

5. A lubricant is used to reduce friction between metal surfaces.

6. Thirdly, mineral oil is very slippery and therefore acts as a good

lubricant.

7. A great many people in the world depend on oil lamps for illumination.

Composition – II

Just as a paragraph require a proper arrangement of sentences, so an essay

requires a proper arrangement of paragraphs. The paragraphs in an essay should

be so arranged that different aspects of the subject are described, one by one. For

example, look at the way in which mineral oil has been described in the essay you

have read. See the list under question 2 of Comprehension – I.

Now, here are a number of points which could from the basis of an essay on

coconut oil. Study them and then arrange them in such a way that they make a

plan for a short essay of three paragraphs.

1. Used mainly as food, in cooking

2. Made from coconuts

3. A vegetable oil

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4. Widely used in tropical areas where coconuts are plentiful.

5. Used as a hair oil.

6. The kernels of coconuts are dried, to remove their moisture.

7. Soap – makers also use it.

8. The dry kernels are put into a mill which squeezes out their oil content

9. Put into bottles and tins for marketing.

10. Has been made and used for many centuries in countries such as India and

Ceylon.

2. THE FUN THEY HAD - Isaac Asimov

3. A ROBOT ABUT THE HOUSE - M.W.Thring

4. A WRONG MAN IN WORKERS PARADISE - Rabindranath Tagore

5. MAKING SURGERY SAFE - Horace Shipp

The above four more comprehension passages were practiced by the

student –teachers with all sorts of components of writing skill, doing various

exercises. Needed help and guidance was given by the investigator then and there.

Various assessment focus on writing skill were done to notice their enhancement

in writing skill. They in the enclosed C.D.

3.8. Implementation of the model :

The passage ‘oil’ – has infinite number of information.

� Items of information – Main groups of oils such as animal, vegetable and

mineral, refineries and drilling, their uses etc.

� Divided into eleven paragraphs.

� Description can be sub-divided into several parts as uses, importance,

history, origin, availability risk factors etc.

� Inserting numbers that mark off units.

� More links and nudges are used to hold writing together by signaling

connections and keep moving in right direction.

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� Each paragraph expresses a new item but shows connection to the previous

one.

� More vocabularies are used.

� Paragraphs are kept in reasonable length.

� Most of the sentences used in the comprehension passage are simple and

easy to understand the meaning without vague.

� To emphazise the concerned things conjunctions are used at the beginning

of the sentences.

� Key transition devices are used.

� Relatively short sentences are used. Extreme adjectives such vicious,

immoral are avoided.

� Trainees imagined main group of oils as animal oil from whales; vegetable

oil from flowers; engineers refer to oil means mineral oil.

� Learn more synonyms for difficult and significant words, Example

illumination, lubrication, locomotives, warships, all kinds of machinery,

combustion drive tanks etc..

� To memorize the terms repetition and keywords, acronyms are used.

� Using mental imagery helps to formulate ideas, thoughts and manipulate

them in their writings.

� Adequate practice makes the trainees’ enhancement in writing skill.

� Spatial knowledge helps them to see the things as a whole, for transfer of

knowledge and to manipulate them in writing.

� Mental images are mental representations of perceptual experiences. They

are used in mnemonics, techniques that improve the chances of recalling

information. They functions in some ways like internal pictures,

undergoing certain kinds of mental operations and transformations.

� Visual perception has received the most attention.

� Finally evaluation is done with peer groups and by the teacher-educator.

� Reinforcement was done.

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This comprehension passage ‘Oil’ was taught to the student – teachers for

five weeks with more number of exercises which covered the components of

writing skill as punctuation, vocabulary, grammar, homophones, precise-writing

and descriptive writing. Four more comprehension passages were practiced for the

enrichment of writing skill in English.

The model developed by the investigator helped the student –teachers by

gaining strategic awareness in the initial stage. But at later stage the trainees

obtained thorough knowledge which resulted in the enhancement of writing skill.

The investigator has taken five cognitive intervention strategies namely chunking,

imagery, mnemonics, spatial competence and meta cognitive evaluation and five

affective intervention strategies namely intuition, interest, attention, motivation

and emotional intelligence for the development of the model to enhance writing

skill in English.

Writing never occurs in a vacuum”. The student-teacher tap prior

knowledge; ie, they draw upon long-term memory to access a vast store house of

back ground information. The student - teachers search the existing schemata. to

make sense of information from the text.

“Schemata are like mental file cabinets, and new information is organized

with prior knowledge in filing system”. Envisionment is created in their mind as

they begin to write. It was continued to change and deepen as they continued to

make meaning. At the initial stage they are stepping into an envisionment. At this

point they might have somewhat distant relationship with the text and they are

trying to become more familiar with it. As the trainees began to tap prior

knowledge, naturally they started to ask questions and made predictions when the

researcher used the cognitive and affective intervention strategies. That would

have helped them to find focus and to direct their attention while composing. Their

predictions made them to foster their forward momentum and become confirming

159

and revising meaning. They continued to ask questions throughout writing

process. From the felt sense the student - teachers summoned the image, words,

ideas and feelings that would be transformed into written words. As the student-

teachers constructed the gist, they would also identify main ideas and organize

information, sequencing and prioritizing the events or ideas into main and

supporting details.

The student –teachers were able not only to select cognitive and affective

intervention strategies but also to monitor and regulate their use. The monitor has

been called an executive function and evaluation. They returned to rewrite the bits

of text to revise meaning and reconstruct the draft with the help of the researcher.

Finally “Stepping out and objectifying the experience” was evaluation.

Quality of writing was assessed by the researcher in the following ways.

Writing Skill Taxonomy was followed during the treatment. The coverage

includes

1. Organization (Sentences / Phrases / Paragraphs in order)

2. Grammar (Correct use of nouns, pronouns, verbs)

3. Syntax (Writing clear and coherent sentences)

4. Punctuation

5. Capitalization

6. Spelling

7. Vocabulary (Using correct word given situation)

Reinforcement: Ensured the mastery over the process of attaining writing

skill in English, among the student –teachers by asking certain relevant questions.

To enhance the retention capacity students attention should be focused on the key

terms of the topic. Due attention needed was given for making them to understand

the important terms pertaining to the comprehension. After the treatment the

student – teachers acquired various competencies and skills:

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� Undergoes a continuous professional development in teaching practice and

life long learning.

� Utilizes a variety of appropriate technologies, strategies to promote skills of

writing.

� Understands how a student’s physical, social, emotional, ethical and

cognitive development influences writing. This kind of knowledge is

required in order to effectively monitor students and to address such issues

when planning instruction, selecting materials and teaching/guiding

students to knowledge acquisition.

� To be able to educate effectively and guide students toward new

cognitive structures and meaningful educational out comes

using proven techniques and personal skill.

� Uses innovative approaches to knowledge development in students since

such innovations can lead to increase motivation.

� Should map knowledge to be acquired using a concept map of forming

mental imagery.

� Confidence in learning writing skill in English with the help of the

instructional model.

� Able to understand grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary etc using

different comprehension passages, doing variety of exercises with the help

of cognitive and affective intervention strategic techniques.

� Able to use in different situations to attain mastery over writing skill.

� Revision as required: Update the strategies, if certain objectives are not

achieved go through the process once again.

� Different types of passages for comprehension were given for practice and

enhancement of writing skill was observed.

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3.9 ASSESSMENT FOCUS :

The aspects of writing were assessed by the researcher to evaluate student –

teachers ability as follows :

AF1 Write imaginative and thoughtful texts

AF2 Produce texts which are appropriate to task, reader, writer and purpose

AF3 Organize and present whole texts effectively, sequencing and structuring

information, ideas and events

AF4 Construct paragraphs and use cohesion within and between paragraphs

AF5 Vary sentences for clarity, purpose and effect

AF6 Write with technical accuracy of syntax and punctuation in phrases, clauses

and sentences

AF7 Select appropriate and effective vocabulary

AF8 Use correct spelling, order, events and tone

The researcher helped the student- teachers to attain mastery in English

writing in the following ways and assessed their quality of writing.

WRITING ASSESSMENT :

Teaching learning Strategies for Writing

(1)

• Connect ideas together, eg. in time

sequence or by number (AF3)

• Understand how full stops are used

to mark the beginning and ending

of sentences; (AF6)

• Add-ed and-ing to different roots,

verbs, eg. stopped, digging (AF8)

(2)

• Use time-related words and phrases

to structure and sequence writing;

(AF3)

• Use connectives to form complex

sentences, eg. because, so, if (AF5)

• Demarcate sentences accurately in

different types of tasks; (AF6)

• Select nouns and verbs for clarity and

precision (AF7)

• Spell vowel digraphs and split

digraphs in common words; (AF8)

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(3)

• Sequence narrative writing by

using time-related words or

phrases, (AF3)

• Vary simple and compound

sentences to clarify meaning; (AF5)

• Demonstrate consistency in the use

of past and present tense, eg in

dialogue and narration; (AF6)

• Use capital letters and full stops in

narrative tasks; (AF6)

• Spell and write consonant clusters

at the end of words, eg. bench,

climb (AF8)

(4)

• Make connections between themes,

characters, events

• Use connectives to link clauses in

complex sentences, eg, when, after

if... then, (AF5)

• Use a range of vocabulary and ideas

to engage the readers interest, eg.

humour, anticipation in description;

(AF7)

• Spell and write polysyllabic words

using knowledge of structure; (AF8)

• Add interest to narrative by the

addition of detail that portrays eg,

the feelings, or intentions of the

main theme(s); (AF1)

• Maintain focus on purpose and

reader when selecting and

organising material; (AF2)

• Structure narrative writing into

paragraphs, eg. indicating shifts in

time and place; (AF3)

• Use a range of connectives to vary

the organisation of complex

sentences (because which, where);

(AF5)

• Add descriptive detail in narrative,

rather than relying on dialogue, to

establish and develop theme (AF1)

• Link sections of writing together,

signalling transitions and changes of

emphasis; (AF3)

• Group related ideas and information

within paragraphs; (AF4)

• Use connectives to link or compare

ideas and events within and between

complex sentences (Whilst, although,

until); (AF5)

• Use commas to separate clauses and

inverted commas to mark direct

speech; (AF6)

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• Use capital letters and full stops to

mark sentence boundaries; (AF6)

• Add detail to their writing through

the use of well-placed adjectives

and adverbials and by expanding

noun and verb phrases to enhance

meaning; (AF7)

(5)

• Use different strategies for

conveying authorial point of view

in narrative and in writing, eg by

presenting characters in stories

through eyes of narrator or other

characters; (AF1)

• Organise paragraphs carefully,

varying focus and pace; (AF1)

• Use a wider range of particularly in

non-fiction texts; (AF6)Maintain

the purpose and view point of the

writing throughout eg. maintain

objective reporting rather than

lapsing into narrative; (AF2)

• Use paragraphs to structure texts,

developing main ideas by including

relevant detail and comment; (AF3)

• Use connectives (although, until) to

link or compare ideas and events

within and between complex

sentences; (AF5)

(6)

• Sustain a chosen view Point and

move between objective and

objective Perspectives appropriately ;

(AF2)

• Draw on a range of stylistic fearers

(rhetorical questions, repetition of

words of cohesive devices such as

topic sentences, repetition of words

and Phrases to shape the reader’s

response (AF2)

• 2use a variety of cohesive devices

such as topic sentences, adverbials

and structural Patterning to make

links within and between Paragraphs:

(AF4)

• use varied sentence structure to

convey cause and effect, and to

elaborate ideas : (AF5)

• Incorporate direct and indirect speech

accurately, managing transitions

between them; (AF6).

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• Very past tense forms (were

swimming, had been seen) and use

modal verbs (could, should, may,

must) to suggest consequence,

possibility, or to quality opinions;

(AF5)

• Recognise sentence boundaries and

demarcate them accurately; (AF6)

(7)

• Vary form and style to interest and

challenge the writer; (AF2)

• Use a range of stylistic features to

position the writer and convey view

point effectively; (AF2)

• Provide clear links within and

between paragraphs, shaping texts

by incorporating summative or

reflective comment; (AF4)

• Vary clause and sentence

structures, eg embedded adverbials,

for emphasis and effect; (AF5)

Use a wide range of punctuation to

achieve clarity, control the

development of ideas, and guide

writers’ responses; (AF5)

(8)

• Use different strategies for conveying

authorial point of view in narrative

and in writing, eg by presenting

characters in stories through eyes of

narrator or other characters; (AF1)

• Organise paragraphs carefully,

varying focus and pace; (AF1)

Use a wider range of particularly in non-

fiction texts; (AF6)

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3.10. Conclusion

Development of the model was the result of the effort. It was not the

product of a sudden insight but a slower step-by-step, model evolution process.

The student –teachers were engaged in a number of processes that correspond to

enhancement of writing skill in English. The diagrammatic notation developed

was capable of showing each of the processes and the contribution made for the

teaching /learning process.

The objectives of the study, formulation of the hypotheses, research design,

experimentation, construction and validation of the tools used are discussed in the

following chapter.

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CHAPTER – IV

DESIGN OF THE STUDY

“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops

of blood form on your fore-head”

Gene Fowler

(1890-1960)

4.1. Introduction

The design of the study provides an understanding of how the research is

conducted and organized in order to obtain information that could be helpful for

developing the research components. The way in which research is conducted

may be conceived of in terms of the research strategy employed and the research

instruments utilized in pursuit of a goal, the research objectives, the quest for the

solution of a problem and the research question. The purpose of this chapter is to:

� spell out the objectives to be achieved.

� formulate the hypotheses

� expound the research strategy, including research methodologies adopted.

� introduce the research instruments that are developed and utilized in pursuit

of the objectives.

4.2. Objectives of the study

The aim of the present study is to find out the effectiveness of Cognitive

and Affective Intervention strategies in enhancing writing skill in English among

the B.Ed trainees:

Based on the aim of the present study, following objectives are to be

accomplished:

• To evolve Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies on writing skill

in English.

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• To design and develop a model on writing skill in English based on

Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies for the B.Ed trainees.

• To prepare orientation on writing in English on the basis of Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategies for the B.Ed trainees.

• To determine the effectiveness of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies on writing skill in English among the B.Ed, trainees.

• To find out the influence of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies

on Attitude towards writing in English among the B.Ed, trainees.

• To find out the relationship between achievement in writing and attitude

towards writing among the B.Ed. trainees.

• To find out whether there is any association in the following demographic

variables (i) Gender, (ii) Locale, and (iii) Discipline (Arts / Science).

• To enable the learners to apply Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies in developing their writing skill in English.

• To evolve recommendations on the basis of the findings of the study for the

future policy and planning on writing skills in English in teacher-education

programmes at secondary levels.

4.3. Formulation of hypotheses

For the accomplishment of the objectives, the following hypotheses are

formulated for testing.

1. B.Ed trainees in Control group do not differ significantly in English writing

between the pre-test and the post-test.

2. B.Ed. trainees in Experimental group using Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategies do differ significantly in English writing between the

pre-test and the post-test.

3. B.Ed. trainees in Control group and Experimental group do not differ

significantly in enhancing writing skill in English in the pre-test.

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4. B.Ed trainees in Control group and Experimental group do differ

significantly in enhancing writing skill in English in the post-test.

5. B.Ed. trainees in Control group do not differ significantly in their Attitude

towards writing in English between the pre-test and the post test.

6. B.Ed. trainees in Experimental group differ significantly in their Attitude

towards writing in English between the pre-test and the post-test.

7. The following Demographic variables of the Control group of B.Ed.

trainees are associated to writing skill in English in the pre test.

(i) Gender (ii) Locale (iii) Discipline

8. The following Demographic Variables of the Control group of B.Ed,

trainees are associated to writing skill in English in the post-test.


9. The following Demographic Variables of the Experimental group of B.Ed.

trainees are associated to writing skill in English in the pre-test.


10. The following Demographic variables of the Experimental group of B.Ed.

trainees are associated to writing skill in English in the post-test.


11. B.Ed., trainees in the Control group and the Experimental group do not

differ significantly in different dimensions of writing skill in English in the

pre – test.

12. B.Ed., trainees in the Control group and the Experimental group do not

differ significantly in different dimensions of writing skill in English in the

post – test.

13. B.Ed., trainees in the Control group do not differ significantly in the

dimensions of writing skill in English between the pre-test and the post-

test.

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14. B.Ed. trainees in the Experimental group do not differ significantly in the

dimensions of writing skill in English between the pre-test and the post-test.

15. There is no influence among the dimensions of Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategies on writing skill of B.Ed. trainees of the Experimental

group in the pre-test.

16. There is no influence among the dimensions of Cognitive and Affective

Intervention Strategies on writing skill of B.Ed. trainees of the

Experimental group in the post-test.

17. There is no significant relationship between Attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English among the B.Ed. trainees of the Control group in

the pre-test.


writing skill in English among the B.Ed trainees of the Control group in the

post-test.


writing skill in English among the B.Ed trainees of the Experimental group

in the pre-test.

20. There is significant relationship between Attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English among the B.Ed trainees of the Experimental group

in the post-test.

4.4. Research design

The research design is the conceptual structure of the research procedure. It

provides planning on selection of subjects, data gathering devices and data

analysis techniques in relation to objectives of research. The experimental method

is the best for determining the causal effect of an isolated, single independent

variable on dependent variables and it also allows for precise control of variables.

It provides a systematic and logical way for answering the research questions. It is

the best way to establish cause-effect relationship between variables and there is

170

consistency in a causal relationship. This method is considered to be the best one

because it provides a high degree of control over extraneous variables and the

manipulation of variables. It reduces bias and increases reliability. It helps to test

hypotheses of causal relationship between variables. It also permits drawing

inferences. The magnitude of the correlation is great, Experimental research

enables the researcher to go beyond description, prediction and identification of

relationship to partial determination of what causes them. Based on the above

advantages of experimental research, the investigator adopted “Experimental

Research Method” as two group (experimental group and control group) design

with pre-test and post-test for the present investigation and designed accordingly:

171

4.F.1. RESEARCH DESIGN

172

4.4.1. Operational definition of the key terms

Effectiveness

Effectiveness refers to the quality of being effective or the quality of being

able to bring about an effect. As far as the present study, effectiveness is the

achievement of the desired level of change in the learner’s writing ability.

Cognition

It is a phenomenon which refers to a mental process that transforms the

input in various ways, store it in memory and retrieve it for later use. It includes all

higher mental processes like perception, thinking, attention, language, reasoning,

memory etc which are used for enhancing writing skill.

Affect

The word affect includes a wide range of concepts and phenomena,

including feelings, emotions, motivation, interest, attention and certain drives and

instincts. It embraces a variety of constructs and processes which help to develop

writing skill.

Strategy

Strategy is a tool, plan and method used for accomplishing the effectiveness

in writing skill.

Intervention

Intervention involves the process of writing like identifying, talking about

thinking, keeping a thinking journal, planning and self-regulation, developing

thinking process, reciprocal and self – evaluation and in these processes writing

skill is enhanced. Intervention refers that something promotes writing skill in

English.

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Intervention strategy comprising, Acquisition phase: Here the student –

teachers are taught to apply the strategy in a supported setting;

Generalization phase: They learn to apply the strategy in the general educational

setting.

Enhance

It means intensifying or improving something already existing. In the

present study, it refers to improve the gaining of writing skill, perform well, apply

the strategy and peer group evaluation skills, practice to gain mastery in English

writing.

Writing skill

Writing skill is the special ability and expertise to perform writing well in

English through special training and orientation, obtained competence to write

well and effectively among student - teachers.

Cognitive Intervention Strategy

Cognitive intervention is referred as a tool to develop writing skill in

English among the prospective student-teachers through five cognitive

intervention strategies such as Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics, Spatial

Competence and Meta cognitive evaluation for the enhancement of writing skill.

Affective Intervention Strategy

Affective intervention strategy is defined as a tool to develop writing skill

in English among the teachers through affective components such as Intuition,

Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional intelligence.

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4.4.2. Variables

The present investigation is an attempt to develop and enhance writing skill

in English among the B.Ed. trainees using Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies. The variables are:

a. Independent variable

Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies.

b. Dependent variable

Writing skill in English

c. Intervening variable

� Awareness of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies.

� Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategic Instructional model.

� Knowledge regarding components of writing skill and

� Attitude towards writing in English.

4.4.3. Sample for the study

The experimentation took place in a college of Education at Pudukkottai,

Tamil Nadu where one hundred students were admitted for B.Ed course. Of them,

the researcher has chosen 80 student –teachers of B.Ed programme who opted

teaching of English as optional-I. Based on their performance in the unit test in

teaching English the randomization of parallel group was done. Their performance

in the test was taken for the division of two groups. Scores obtained were

distributed in different ranges and then they were equally shared in both groups

such as control group and experimental group which are detailed as follows.

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Range No.of students Control group Experimental group

41-45 13 07 06

46-50 20 10 10

51-55 28 14 14

56-60 15 07 08

61-65 04 02 02

Total 80 40 40

The researcher randomly divided the number of student –teachers who are

distributed over different ranges for control group and experimental group in such

a way both the groups shall likely to have equal number of students in all ranges.

In that way, equality of two groups was ensured.

To promote the sensitivity of the experimental inputs, the researcher

wanted to have control group and experimental group in the same institution. If at

all any of the group is chosen in any other similar institution, the method of

teaching will vary and that may cause damage to the equality of two groups.

Hence the researcher had both control group and experimental group in the same

college of Education.

Each group consisted of 40 student - teachers. The control group

was given the conventional treatment. Experimental group was given treatment

with orientation for developing writing skill in English with an innovative

instructional model using selective Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies

namely Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics, Spatial Competence and Meta cognitive

Evaluation with Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional

Intelligence.

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It was noted that the mean scores of control group and experimental group

did not differ significantly in their writing skill in English in the pre-test. Equality

of variances proved insignificant which indicated that these two groups were

balanced as far as their writing skill was concerned.

4.4.4. Experimentation in phases

The treatment was given for the experimental group for a period of five

weeks. Experimentation included several phases and the writing skill was

developed gradually. In the beginning tools were administered and pre-test was

conducted for both groups. Strategic components were identified and developed at

latter stage. Orientation was also given for the experimental group of student-

teachers. Cognitive and affective intervention strategies were explained and

utilized with the help of the model developed by the investigator, illustrated

through the comprehension passage “Oil”. After discussion and reorientation post

– test was conducted for both control group and experimental group of B.Ed.,

trainee

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4.F.2. EXPERIMENTATION IN PHASES

178

4.4.5. Duration of the treatment

During experimentation and treatment, time schedule was maintained for

each and every activity with particular concept. Administering the tools,

Identifying and developing the cognitive and affective intervention strategies were

improved through orientation and they were used throughout the treatment of the

programme. Various components of writing skill like punctuation, vocabulary,

homophone, grammar, descriptive writing were developed with the help of the

instructional model developed by the investigator. Post – test was conducted and

the assessment of the writing skill was done. The duration of the whole treatment

was five weeks.

4.T.1 Time schedule for all the activities of the experimentation,

administering tools and test construction was tabulated as shown below:

S.

No

Experi

mental

Phase

Activity Concept Duration

1 Phase I Administering the tools,

administering the pre-test

for Control group and

Experimental group

(i) B.Ed., Trainees’

Assessment Tool for writing

skills in English (BTATWSE)

(ii) B.Ed., trainees’ attitude

scale towards writing in

English. (BTASTWE)

One day

2 Phase II Identifying the

components to the

student – teachers of the

experimental group

1. Cognitive

2. Affective

3. Intervention

Strategies

4. Understanding

Strategies

One day

3 Phase III Developing orientation to

experimental group,

Developing strategies for

inculcation

1. Grammar,

2. Sub-skills of writing.

3. Developing English

Vocabulary.

4. Components of writing skill.

Two days

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4 Phase

IV

Theoretical orientation

about Cognition, Affective,

Intervention, Attitude

towards English writing.

1. Exercises.

2. Interaction

3. Attitude

4. Identification

Two days

5 Phase V Theoretical orientation

with examples.

Model passage for

comprehension. (The passage

‘Oil’)

6 Phase

VI

Developing a model

Discussing the details.

Mental Process.

Intervening thoughts,

ideas, facts,

1. Comprehension passage –

Illustration, Explanation.

2.Cognitive process

3. Affective Intervention

strategy

4. Writing components.

Seven days

7 Phase

VII

Treatment given

Explaining various skills

using comprehension

passage.

1. Components of writing

Skill – Punctuation,

Vocabulary, Grammar,

Homophones, Precise

writing, Descriptive

writing.

2. Various techniques using

Cognitive intervention

strategies like Chunking,

Imagery Mnemonics,

Spatial competence and

Meta Cognitive Evaluation.

Using Affective intervention

strategies like Intuition, Interest,

Attention, Motivation and

Emotional Intelligence.

3. Developing Attitude.

Seven days

8 Phase

VIII

Demonstration,

Explanation, Illustration

through various

comprehension passages.

1. Role of Cognitive and

Affective Intervention

strategies in developing


2. sub-skills of writing

Five days

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9 Phase

IX

Grouping on the basis of

pre-test scores and

discussion

1. Guiding and helping the

student-teachers.

2. Learning the writing skill

using the above said

strategies.

3. Group discussion to get more

ideas, thoughts and usage.

Three days

10 Phase X Re-Orientation. Trainees

doubt clarified. Trainees

use the model in various

situations.

1. Gained knowledge about the

strategic applications.

2. Apply the Cognitive and

Affective Intervention

strategies in different

situations.

3. Enhancement of writing

skill.

Three days.

11 Phase

XI

Administering post-test

for both control group

and experimental group

1. To assess the writing skill.

One day

12 Phase

XII

Statistical treatment of

the data.

Assessment through statistical

methods.

Two days.

Total duration of the experimentation was five weeks.

4.4.6. Threats to internal validity

Experimental design should enhance experimental validity and precision.

Careful control of extraneous variables characterizes a good experimental

research. There are usually many possible ways to explain the outcomes of a

study. The possibilities of such alternate explanations are usually referred as

“Threats of Internal Validity”. Threat to internal validity leads to ambiguous

explanation of the data. According to Campbell and Stanley (1963) the threats of

experimental validity may be classified into two categories.

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(i) Threats to internal validity

(ii) Threats to external validity

Internal validity depends upon the ways in which the process of

experimentation itself may affect the results obtained.

History threat

Unanticipated events affect the dependent variable and this may occur

while the experiment is in progress. Occasionally, one or more unanticipated and

unplanned events which can affect the responses of the subjects may occur during

the course of study. Such events are referred as “History threat” in educational

research. During this experiment unexpected events did not occur. This kind of

threat was eliminated.

Selection threat

In this study, in the total number of 80 students – teachers, two

groups of each 40 student – teachers were selected with various optionals. There

were low and high achievers, undergraduate and post graduate student – teachers.

No Selection threat occurred.

Testing threat

The effect of taking one test upon the scores of a subsequent test is called

testing threat. In experimental studies, it is common to test subjects at the

beginning and at the end of the study. By testing, we mean the use of any form of

instrument. If considerable improvement is found in the post-test score, the

researcher may conclude that the improvement is due to the experimentation. An

alternative explanation is that it may be due to the use of pre-test. In this study,

pre-test and post-test were conducted. Hence this type of threat was eliminated.

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Instrumentation

The way in which instruments are used may also constitute a threat to the

internal validity. Instrument can create problems if the nature of the instruments is

changed in some way or the other. This is referred as instrument decay. The same

pattern of questionnaire was administered throughout the study and thereby this

kind of threat was nullified.

Mortality

Though the subjects of a study are selected carefully, it is common to lose

some aspects as the study progresses. For example some individuals may drop out

of the study or absent themselves during the period of data collection. No student

was neither absent not dropped out. So there was no chance for this threat.

4.4.7. Threats to external validity

External validity refers to difficulties in generalizing the findings of

experimental research, interaction effect of selection biases and the experimental

treatment that may not be the case if the group had been randomly formed. The

subjects were said technically, randomly selected from low and high achievers in

teaching of English and this threat was also eliminated.

Multiple treatment interference

When the same subject receives two or more treatments, there may be a

carryover effect between treatments such that the results could not be generalized

to single treatment. Here, only one treatment was given to each group through out

the study. Hence this type of threat was eliminated.

Selection of particular experimental design is based on the purpose of the

experiment, the type of variables to be manipulated and the conditions or limiting

factors under which it is conducted. The design deals with, as how the subjects

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are to be assigned, the way variables are to be manipulated and controlled, how

observations are to be made and the types of statistical analysis to be employed in

interpreting data relationship. In the present investigation, the investigator has

adopted pre-test, post-test, two group design which serves the purpose.

4.5. Construction and validation of research instruments

Following research tools were developed by the investigator for

administering with the sample. Details of construction and validation of them are

discussed as follows:

The investigator has constructed and validated two research tools for

quantitative analysis. It is to state that the number of studies reviewed has

contributed for the development of these research tools.

� B.Ed., Trainee Assessment Tool for Writing Skill in English (BTATWSE)

� B.Ed. Trainee Attitude Scale Towards Writing in English (BTASTWE)

4.5.1. B.Ed., Trainees’ Assessment Tool For Writing Skill in English

(BTATWSE)

The BTATWSE was developed by the investigator based on the

experimentation and reviews done in the second chapter. The assessment tool

covers the components of writing skill taken by the investigator. The tool has been

divided mainly into three parts. In the part-I, the item 1 has four sub-divisions to

fill up the correct words which are related to the nuclear weapons. This develops

the student –teachers vocabulary learning which is essential for developing writing

skill; the item 2 is related to grammar, plays a vital part of writing; the item 3 is

related to homophones which helps to learn more words which are similar in

pronunciation but with different spelling and different meaning. This is useful to

put up correct words in related sequences; item 4 is related to phonetic symbols. It

184

is needed for correct pronunciation to pursue words with correct spelling; item 5 is

related to parenthesis, develops to learn vocabulary with one or two letters

changed.

In the part-II, the item 1 is related to punctuation which is part and parcel in

the development of writing skill. The items 2, 3, 4 and 5 are related to grammar.

In the part- III, item 1 is used for developing paragraph and descriptive

writing which are the components of writing skill; item 2,3 and 4 are given for the

development of paragraph writing. The item 5 is for developing English writing

through precise-writing. It develops cohesion, coherence and sentence structure.

Item 6 is to solve the puzzle using clues which in turn helps to learn more words

of vocabulary. It is necessary for developing writing skill. Item 7 and 8 are related

to grammar, idioms and phrases Item 9 is related to paragraph writing which helps

to find out the main ideas and supported by more related items. Item 10 is helpful

to learn descriptive writing which increases the student – teachers word order,

sentence structure and consolidating their ideas through writing.

Hence, it is noted that the above assessment tool is focused on the

components of writing skill which are taken by the investigator. This would help

the student – teachers to develop their writing skill in English.

The maximum mark 100 is distributed to the following components of

writing as punctuation – 4 marks, vocabulary -22 marks, grammar -20 marks,

homophones – 12 marks, precise writing- 5 marks and descriptive writing – 37

marks.

The tool was given to the experts in the field of English language teaching

for obtaining their opinion. Based on their opinion modifications such as

rewording, rephrasing, addition or deletion were done.

185

Reliability of a tool refers to the dependability or consistency of the

measure provided by it. In the present investigation, the split-half method of

reliability was established and it was found as 0.78.

4.5.2 B.Ed. Trainees’ Attitude Scale Towards Writing in English

(BTASTWE)

The study examined the effect of cognitive and affective intervention

strategies on writing skill of B.Ed., trainees in English. One aspect of this study is

to find out the influence of Attitude of B.Ed., trainees towards writing in English

on their performance in writing. Since B.Ed., trainees’ attitude towards writing in

English is a focus of this study, it is necessary to carefully validate the instrument

to measure this factor in order to get results that can be meaningfully interpreted.

This instrument consists of 40 items, 20 of which are positively worded and

the other 20 or negatively worded. The instrument uses five point likert type

scale: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. The focus of

the 40 items is on usefulness and importance of writing in English. Positive items

responses were coded as 1,2,3,4 and 5 correspondingly to the categories strongly

disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree; negatively worded statements

were reversely scored to keep the scale’s scoring consistently.

Table 4.T.2 shows the summary of the items in this scale, their nature (eg.

Positive statement or Negative statement), their item code equivalent to

indicate reverse scoring and item tents.

Items tent Nature of statement Items code to indicate

reverse scoring.

Positive

Negative

None.

Reverse scoring.

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This instrument’s 40 items therefore are divided into five groups; 9 items

assessing attitude of English writing towards Chunking, 9 items assessing

Imagery, 7 items assessing Mnemonics, 7 items assessing Spatial competence and

8 items assessing Meta cognitive Evaluation. In fact these five cognitive

intervention strategies are interlinked with five affective intervention strategies

namely Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional intelligence.

4.5.3 Test properties

Validity and reliability are significant attributes of any test instrument. This

validity requirement is a major concern not the least because an instrument’s

reliability is very much influenced by its validity.

Face validity

Face validity is a measure of how representative, a research instrument is.

In many ways, face validity offers a contrast to content validity, which attempts to

measure how accurately an experiment represents what is trying to measure.

The difference is that content validity is carefully evaluated, whereas face

validity is more general measure and the subjects often have input. In that way the

attitude scale was given to the experts in the field of English and Psychology for

obtaining their opinion. Necessary rewording and rephrasing of the items in the

scale have been carried out with the help of experts.

Content validity

Content validity is concerned with sample population representativeness,

i.e. the knowledge and the skills covered by the test items should be representative

of the larger domain of knowledge and skills.

187

Cognitive models of writing generally assume that translation of

meaningful ideas into linguistic form is one of the main components of the writing

process.

(Alamargot & Chanquiri , 2001 Bereiter and Scardamalia 1987, Hayes and

flower, 1980 Kellog , 1996). Fluent writer’s use relatively large chunks of

language. (Anderson, 1995, Chenoweth and Hays, 2001). The benefit of using

mental imagery is used in the content of creativity for facilitating discoveries. It is

believed to produce concepts and ideas and to further develop and elaborate them

(Fish and Scrivener, 1990 and Murty and Purcell, AT, 2003). Paul vernaeghan,

Tibor Palfai and Michael P.Johnson (2006) experimented the verbal labeling as an

assimilation of mnemonics for abstract visual stimuli and found out that it was

effective in language acquisition. The findings of Sean H, et. al, (2008) provide

additional evidence that mnemonic benefits the phenomenon of language

acquisition. Spatial competence as a cognitive component helps one to understand

how the parts or features of an object combine to form an organized whole (Stiles,

2001).

In addition, Celce – Murcia and Larson Freeman (1998) observed that use

of spatial competence was important to match up well the preposition in language.

In that way, the researcher established content validity in such a way the

knowledge and skills covered in the questionnaire be representation of the larger

domains.

Reliability

Reliability of a tool refers to the dependability or consistency of the

measures provided by it. There are two ways of looking at dependability. One is

compatibility of measures provided by the different parts of the same test i.e.

internal consistency. The second is the comparability of measures provided by the

test on different occasions i.e. temporal stability.

188

The internal consistency of BTASTWE instrument was based on the

Crownbach’s Alpha value. Based on a sample of 40 B.Ed trainees, the investigator

calculated the Crownbach’s Alpha for the following components of the

instrument.

Chunking = 0.68

Imagery = 0.72

Mnemonics = 0.69

Spatial competence = 0.74

Meta cognitive Evaluation = 0.73 and

Total scale = 0.72

It is also reported that component correlations using two – tailed tests

ranging from 0.59 to 0.75 and components correlated with the scale from 0.69 to

0.74 with all correlations significant at P < 0.05.

After administering the scale twice to a sample of 40 B.Ed., trainees over a

two week interval, a Pearson correlation coefficient as high as 0.70 indicating that

the BTASTWE instrument has adequate test-re-test reliability. Bromfeld, Clarke

and Lynch (2001) reported a similar figure in their study. More over, testing their

instrument’s criterion validity they reported a value of t (1.74 at P<0.05) to

indicate that this is successfully distinguished between groups with low and

medium levels of experience. In this study the sample of 80 B.Ed., trainees from

the disciplines of Arts and Science opted English as their optional, were chosen.

Construct validity

This type of validity focuses on whether the test items adequately cover the

dimensions chosen.

189

As mentioned earlier the attitude scale was developed with the bench marks

of cognitive strategies towards writing in English and was arrived at

independently. The proportion of the corroborated key ideas of each content area

of the scale is 22.5% of Chunking, 22.5% of Imagery, 17.5% Mnemonics, 17.5 %

of Spatial competence and 20 % of Meta cognitive evaluation.

Predictor measures

Validation of the adapted BTASTWE with the sample of 40 student –

teachers were commenced with principal components of factor analysis, followed

by varimax rotation. The Crownbach’s Alpha reliability was also used as an index

of scale for internal consistency.

Factor analysis is the most approximate for use in exploring the data set. In

this present study and alpha reliability of the predictor and outcome measures by

using SPSS for windows version 11.0 in relation to the data form 40 student –

teachers. SPSS 11 was used to develop the factor analysis and select factors in

both actual form and the preferred form of BTASTWE.

From the 68 items of the scale, 28 items were deleted as they had a loading

less than 0.40 on the factor analysis.

Table 4.T.3 shows the results of factor loading for remaining 40 items from

the adapted BTASTWE Questionnaire.

190

4.T.3 TABLE –FACTOR LOADING OF ITEMS

S.No Items Factor

Loading

01 Writing letters in English is enjoyable 0.42

02 Sharing English writing with others need not be given much

importance.

0.46

03 Improvement of writing skill is involved with correct

punctuation.

0.62

04 Spending more time to write in English is not preferred 0.46

05 Memory is made possible by dividing the content into smaller

bits

0.71

06 No interest is shown to find out the alternate words for a single

word while writing.

0.54

07 Acquirement of writing ability is assisted by mental

manipulation.

0.53

08 Lecture in English shall not be noted in English only 0.61

09 Writing the known matter in English is fascinating 0.46

10 Spare time is not made useful by writing in English 0.58

11 Writing skill in English is enhanced by imagery. 0.65

12 Writing in English is not easy. 0.62

13 Writing paragraphs in English is easier with memory images. 0.58

14 Resorting to write in English does not need compulsion. 0.52

15 Mechanical errors are witnessed in English writing 0.48

16 Compulsiveness does not lead to write in English 0.72

17 Similies, Metaphors and Personification are perceived with

interest.

0.68

18 Social proficiency is indispensable for optimum utilization of

writing skill.

0.46

19 Adequate revision results better English writing 0.72

20 Writing in English is not a suitable instrument to express one’s

feelings

0.68

21 Improvement in writing is made possible by using mnemonics. 0.52

191

22 Writing in English has not become a part of the job. 0.56

23 Confidence paves way to write in English. 0.44

24 Writing in English does not need monitoring 0.48

25 Spatial competency is used to develop meaning acquisition and

writing skill.

0.45

26 Writing stories in English is not interesting 0.54

27 Imagery is very close to grapheme 0.63

28 Early writing in English is not outdated by later English. 0.72

29 Motivation is required to improve writing. 0.70

30 Learning correct pronunciation does not elevate writing skill. 0.78

31 Flow of writing in English is influenced by imagination 0.70

32 Evaluation is not so encourageous to writing 0.42

33 While writing in English, ideas dominate more than the novelty

of sentences

0.48

34 Spelling skill does not depend only on the dictionary usage. 0.48

35 English Thesaurus enriches the power of vocabulary 0.56

36 Dramatization does not induce writing skill 0.72

37 Analytical thinking and organization are the two sides of

writing ability in English.

0.68

38 Writing ability is not substantiated by conversation. 0.62

39 Selective attention invariably leads to develop writing skill. 0.64

40 Arranged ideas do not speed up writing 0.65

Over all reliability 0.79

S.No Chunking (9) Factor Loading

01 Writing letters in English is enjoyable 0.42

04 Spending more time to write in English is not

preferred

0.46

09 Writing the known matter in English is fascinating 0.46

10 Spare time is not made useful by writing in English 0.58

12 Writing in English is not easy. 0.62

192

20 Writing in English is not a suitable instrument to

express one’s feelings

0.68

26 Writing stories in English is not interesting 0.54

33 While writing in English, ideas dominate more than

the novelty of sentences

0.48

37 Analytical thinking and organization are the two

sides of writing ability in English

0.68

Overall reliability - 0.68

S.No Imagery (9) Factor Loading

06 No interest is shown to find out the alternate words

for a single word while writing.

0.54

07 Acquirement of writing ability is assisted by

mental manipulation.

0.53

11 Writing skill in English is enhanced by imagery. 0.65

13 Writing paragraphs in English is easier with

memory images.

0.58

16 Compulsiveness does not lead to write in English 0.72

27 Imagery is very close to grapheme 0.63

30 Learning correct pronunciation does not elevate

writing skill.

0.78

31 Flow of writing in English is influenced by

imagination

0.70

36 Dramatization does not induce writing skill 0.72

Overall reliability – 0.72

S.No Mnemonics (7) Factor Loading

05 Memory is made possible by dividing the content

into smaller bits

0.71

14 Resorting to write in English does not need

compulsion

0.52

193

15 Mechanical errors are witnessed in English writing 0.48

19 Adequate revision results better English writing 0.72

21 Improvement in writing is made possible by using

mnemonics

0.52

34 Spelling skill does not depend only on the

dictionary usage.

0.48

39 Selective attention invariably leads to develop

writing skill.

0.64


S.No Spatial Competence (7) Factor Loading

03 Improvement of writing skill is involved with

correct punctuation.

0.62

17 Similies, Metaphors and personification are

perceived with interest.

0.68

23 Confidence paves way to write in English 0.44

25 Spatial competency is used to develop meaning

acquisition and writing skill

0.45

29 Motivation is required to improve writing. 0.70

35 English Thesaurus enriches the power of

vocabulary

0.56

40 Arranged ideas do not speed up writing 0.65


S.No Meta cognitive Evaluation (8) Factor Loading

02 Sharing English writing with others need not be

given much importance

0.46

08 Lecture in English shall not be noted in English

only

0.61

18 Social proficiency is indispensable for optimum

utilization of writing skill.

0.46

22 Writing in English has not become a part of the

job.

0.56

194

24 Writing in English does not need monitoring 0.48

28 Early writing in English is not outdated by later

English

0.72

32 Evaluation is not so encourageous to writing 0.42

38 Writing ability is not substantiated by conversation 0.62


4.6. Data collection

Data Collection was planned and executed in such a way that it would not

affect its acceptability. It has been ensured that it has not seen in any way as a

threat, but as a co-operative, helpful and positive affair. Experience of being part

of this careful and thoughtful, evaluation will be a valuable part of student -

teachers development. In the present study, the data were collected from the

sample and the experts by administering the above mentioned tools during

experimentation.

4.7. Conclusion

The current chapter has thus presented the modus operandi followed for

this study. The quantitative data thus obtained were subject to analysis and

interpretation which lead to chapter-V of this thesis.

195

CHAPTER – V

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

“Bare facts, objective data, never determine anything. They become

significant only as interpreted in the light of accepted standards and

assumptions. Interpretation is determined by the purpose to which we

relate the facts”

Martz

(1908 – 1989)

5.1. Introduction

Ensuring the validity of the data collected is of immense importance on the

part of a researcher. Since researchers can never be fundamentally certain about

the validity of research methods, it will always be required to make assumptions.

The investigator of the present study has attempted a quantitative methodological

analysis to ensure the valid assumptions. The analyses are presented in this

chapter.

5.2. Scheme of analysis

According Ferguson, G.A., (1981) “The process of interpretation is

essentially one of the stating what the results show, what do they mean, what is

their significance, what is the answer to the original problem”. Interpretation is the

most important step in the total procedure of research. It calls for a critical

examination of the limitations of the data collected and the subjective attitude. To

avoid subjectivity one must be critical in one’s own thinking and must have

adequate knowledge of techniques of research.

196

5.3. Descriptive analysis

Descriptive analysis was a set of brief, descriptive co-efficient that

summarized the given set of data. The measures used to describe the data set were

measures of central tendency and measures of variability or dispersion. This

included the mean, median and mode while measures of variability included the

standard deviation, the minimum and maximum variables, kurtosis and skewness.

Descriptive statics was the discipline of quantitatively describing the main

features of the collection of data. This provided powerful summaries about the

sample and the measures together with simple graphs. The standard deviation

allowed to reach some conclusions about specific scores in our distribution.

The dimensions of writing skill such as punctuation, vocabulary, grammar,

homophones, precise – writing and descriptive writing were analyzed for both

control group and experimental group of B.Ed., trainees.

In the present investigation the scores secured by the 40 B.Ed., trainees of

the control group and the 40 B.Ed., trainees of the Experimental group were

tabulated.

Table 5.T.1. Descriptive analysis for Control group and Experimental group.

Pre-test Post – test

Group N Mean SD

Skew

ness Kurtosis Mean SD

Skew

ness

Kur

tosis

Control

group

44.68

8.176

1.022

0.967 48.40 9.470 1.150 1.291

Experi

mental

group

40

50.05

12.320 0.311 0.248 66.65 14.309 0.025 0.405

197

The above table 5.T.1. shows that the distribution of Mean, Standard

deviation, Skewness and Kurtosis of Control group and Experimental group in the

pre-test and the post-test of the student – teachers.

The data revealed that there is an increase in the mean score of Control

group in the post-test in enhancing writing skill in English, from the pre-test

although the treatment was not given to them. This shows that the significant

influence of conventional method on enhancing writing skill in English of the

student – teachers of control group is observed. It is also noted that there is no

much difference in the values of standard deviation between the pre-test and the

post-test. Positive values of kurtosis of control group in the post-test indicates that

the distribution is more peaked than the normal. The negative value of kurtosis in

enhancing writing skill in English indicates that the shape is flatter than normal

Positive Skewness of control group in enhancing writing skill in English towards

writing in the post-test indicated a greater number of smaller values and negative

Skewness denotes a greater number of larger values.

It can be seen from the above table that there is a significant increase in the

mean scores of Experimental group in the post-test in enhancing writing skill in

English, than in the pre-test. This increase in the post-test is comparatively greater

than that of the control group. This clearly indicates that significant influence of

strategies. Negative skewness indicates greater number of larger values. Also the

positive values of kurtosis for the above said variable indicate a distribution more

peaked than normal.

The tremendous increase in post-test scores of Experimental group in

enhancing writing skill in English, shows the strategy is more effective as this

increase is greater than that of control group.

198

44.6

8 50.0

5

8.1

76

12.3

2

48.4

66.6

5

9.4

7

14.3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Mean SD Mean SD

Pre-test Post-test

Chart 5.F.1

Descriptive analysis for Control group and

Experimental Group

Control Group

Experimental Group

Table 5.T.2. Descriptive analysis of dimensions of writing skill for Control

group and Experimental group.

Pre-test Post-test

Group and Dimension Mean SD Skewness

Kur

tosis Mean SD

Skew

ness

Kur

tosis

Control group (40)

1. Punctuation 02.55 0.639 0.737 0.395 02.90 0.591 0.016 0.008

2.Vocabulary 08.85 2.095 1.055 2.206 09.92 2.018 1.724 3.206

3. Grammar 08.973 1.881 0.372 0.222 08.75 2.072 1.299 2.604

4. Homophones 05.83 1.338 1.487 2.982 05.98 1.717 1.352 0.994

5. Precise writing 02.62 0.586 0.290 -0.662 02.90 0.545 -0.080 0.510

6. Descriptive Writing 16.10 3.455 0.422 -0.815 17.95 4.006 0.386 0.360

Experimental Group (40)

1. Punctuation 02.50 0.641 0.924 -0.136 03.40 0.871 -1.881 4.662

2.Vocabulary 09.82 2.626 0.687 0.432 13.75 3.927 -0.284 -0.626

3. Grammar 10.20 2.919 0.534 -0.220 12.45 3.021 -0.057 0.111

4. Homophones 06.87 1.786 0.567 -0.725 09.03 1.747 -0.314 -0.415

5. Precise writing 02.87 0.607 0.057 -0.190 03.37 0.540 0.016 -0.970

6. Descriptive Writing 17.77 5.265 0.214 0.462 24.65 6.200 -0.033 -0.455

199

The table 5.T.2 shows the distributions of Mean, Standard deviation,

Skewness and Kurtosis of Control group and Experimental group in the pre -test

and the post - test in enhancing writing skill in English among the B.Ed., trainees

in the dimensions of writing skill. The effectiveness of using the components of

Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics, Spatial competence and Meta Cognitive

Evaluation of Cognitive Intervention strategies with components of Intuition,

Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional Intelligence of Affective

Intervention strategies. The dimensions of writing skill namely punctuation,

vocabulary, grammar, homophones, precise – writing and descriptive writing are

analyzed. The data revealed that there is an increase in the mean score of control

group in the post – test in enhancing writing skill in English from the pre – test

although the treatment was not given to them. This shows that the significant

influence of conventional method on enhancing writing skill in English of student

– teachers of control group. It is noted also, that there is no much difference in the

values between the post – test and the pre- test. Positive value of Kurtosis of

control group in dimensions of writing skill in the post - test indicates that the

distribution is more peaked than the normal. The negative value of Kurtosis in the

dimensions of writing skill indicates that the shape is flatter than normal. Positive

skewness denotes a smaller number of smaller values and negative skewness

denotes a greater number of larger values of the student – teachers in the control

group of B.Ed trainees.

It can be seen from the above table that there is a significant increase in the

mean scores of Experimental group in the post – test in enhancing writing skill in

English, using various dimensions of writing skill, than in the pre – test. This

increase in the post – test is comparatively greater than that of the control group.

This clearly indicates that significant influence of strategies and negative

Skewness of above said variables of punctuation, vocabulary, grammar,

homophones, precise writing and descriptive writing in enhancing writing skill in

English indicates greater number of larger values. Also positive values of kurtosis

for the above said dimensions indicate a distribution is more peaked than normal.

200

The enormous increase in post – test scores of Experimental group in

enhancing writing skill in English in various dimensions of writing skill showed

the strategy was effective as this increase is greater than that of control group.

2.5

5

8.8

5

8.9

73

5.8

3

2.6

2

16.1

0.6

39 2.0

95

1.8

81

1.3

38

0.5

86

3.4

55

2.9

9.9

2

8.7

5

5.9

8

2.9

17.9

5

0.5

91

2.0

18

2.0

72

1.7

17

0.5

45

4.0

06

0

5

10

15

20

25

Mean SD Mean SD

Pre-test Post-test

Chart 5.F.2a

Descriptive analysis for dimensions of writing skill

for Control group

Punctuation

Vocabulary

Grammar

Homophones

Precise Writing

Descriptive Writing

2.5

9.8

2 10.2

6.8

7

2.8

7

17.7

7

0.6

41

2.6

26

2.9

19

1.7

86

0.6

07

5.2

65

3.4

13.7

5

12.4

5

9.0

33.3

7

24.6

5

0.8

71

3.9

27

3.0

21

1.7

47

0.5

45

6.2

0

5

10

15

20

25

Mean SD Mean SD

Pre-test Post-test

Chart 5.F.2b

Descriptive analysis for dimensions of writing skill

for Experimental group

Punctuation

Vocabulary

Grammar

Homophones

Precise Writing

Descriptive Writing

201

5.4. B.Ed., Trainees’ Attitude Scale Towards Writing in English (BTASTWE)

Chunking

As far as item 1 in the attitude scale is concerned, as many as 92.5% of

student-teachers of the experimental group in the post-test expressed that they

enjoy writing letters in English. But only 62.5% of student-teachers of control

group revealed that Writing letters in English is enjoyable. It is disheartening to

note that 7.5% of experimental group and 37.5% of control group disagreed for the

item .1. ie “Writing letters in English is enjoyable”.

Analysis of item -4 revealed that 37.5% of student-teacher of experimental

group in the post - test expressed that preference should not be given for spending

more time to write English. At the same time, 82.5% of student – teachers of the

control group revealed that spending more time to write English is agreed. From

this, about 62.5% of experimental group and 17.5% of control group disagreed the

item 4. ie “Spending more time to write in English is not preferred”. It is noted

that since this statement is negative, students –teachers of major numbers wanted

to spend more time in English writing.

It can be seen that the item – 9 in the attitude scale showed that 80% of

B.Ed trainees in the experimental group accepted that writing the known matter in

English is fascinating. But 45% of the control group agreed this item. 20% of

experimental group and 55% of control group trainees disagreed this statement. It

is really worried ie. for “writing the known matter in English fascinating”.

As far as the item 10 is concerned, as many as 75% of the B.Ed. trainees in

the experimental group agreed that spare time is not made useful by writing in

English. In this case, 57.5% of control group agreed this item as it is not made

useful. Really it is panic to note that more number of percentage of the trainees are

202

not made useful by writing in English ie. “spare time is not made useful by writing

in English”.

Analysis of item 12 in the attitude scale revealed that 35% of control group

and 60% of experimental group of B.Ed trainees accepted that writing in English

is not easy. But 65% of control group 40% of experimental group showed it is

difficult for them. It shows that enough practice is necessary. ie “Writing in

English is not easy”.

It is evident from the item 20. as many as 75% of the student teachers of

experimental group and 62.5% of the control group trainees agreed that writing in

English in not a suitable instrument to express one’s feelings. But 25% of the

experimental group and 37.5% of control group disagreed the item. Hence it is

clear that 62.5% of trainees felt that writing does not express one’s feelings as an

instrument. i.e. “Writing in English is not a suitable instrument to express one’s

feelings”.

As far as item 26, showed, as many as 12% of experimental group of B.Ed.,

trainees are not enjoyed writing stories in English, but 60% of the control group of

B.Ed., trainees accepted this item. 88% of experimental group and 40% of control

group of trainees disagreed this item. So most of the B.Ed., trainees wanted to

Enjoy English writing ie “Writing stories in English in not interesting”.

Analysis of item 33 is concerned, as many as 80% of the student –teachers

of experimental group agreed this statement as ideas dominate more than the

novelty; but only 32.5% of the student teachers of control group agreed this item.

Really it is worried to the investigator that 20% of the experimental group and

67.5% of the control group disagreed this item, ie “while Writing in English, ideas

dominate more than the novelty of sentences”.

203

It can be seen that the item 37 revealed that as many as 86.5% of B.Ed.

trainees in the experimental group agreed that thinking and organization are

interrelated to writing ability in English; but 57.5% of B.Ed., trainees in the

control group agreed this statement. It is to note that 13.5% of experimental group

trainees and 42.5% of the control group trainees are disagreed this. It is a puzzle

why is it so? ie “Analytical thinking and organization are the two sides writing

ability in English”.

Imagery

It is observed from the item 6, 38% of student-teachers of experimental

group agreed the statement; and 57.5% of student teachers of control group

accepted the same; ie Interest is not shown to find out synonyms while writing.

But at the same time 62% of experimental group and 42.5% of the control group

disagreed the statement. Hence, it is clear that trainees are interested to find out

more alternate words. It is really a good sign of attitude towards writing. ie “No

interest is shown to find out the alternate words for a single word while writing”

As far as the item 7 is concerned, as many as 82.5% of the trainees of the

experimental group in the post-test expressed that they felt the acquirement of

writing ability is assisted by mental manipulation. But only 40% of the trainees of

the control group accepted this item. It is alarming to note that 17.5% of the

control group and 60% of the experimental group disagreed the item. ie

“Acquirement of writing ability is assisted by mental manipulation”.

Analysis of the item 11 revealed that about 87.5% of the B.Ed trainees of

experimental group agreed the statement of improvement by imagery. At the same

time 66.5% of the B.Ed., trainees of control group also agreed this item. Only

12.5% of experimental group and 33.5% of control group disagreed this item; ie

204

“Writing skill in English is enhanced by imagery. It is happy to note that many of

the trainees accepted that enhancement is obtained by the use of imagery.

It can be seen from the item 13, about 91.5% of the student –teachers of

experimental group agreed the item of dividing into paragraphs is easy for them

with the help of mental imagery. About 80.5% of the student teachers of control

group also agreed the same. It is somewhat disheartening to note that 8.5% of the

experimental group and 19.5% of the control group disagreed the item; ie “Writing

paragraphs in English is easier with memory images”.

As far as item 16 is concerned, 94.5% of the B.Ed., trainees of experimental

group agreed the statement of compulsiveness does not read to write. And 90% of

the B.Ed trainees of control group also agreed the same. But only 5.5% of the

experimental group and 10% of the control group disagreed this. Hence it is

evident that trainees of both groups expected freedom to write in English ie’

“Compulsiveness does not lead to write in English”.

It is observed from the item 27, 89.5% of experimental group of student –

teachers accepted that imagery is essential for writing and 54.5% of the control

group of student-teachers also agreed the same. But at the same time 10.5% of

experimental group and 45.5% of the control group disagreed the item; ie

“Imagery is very close to grapheme” It shows some disappointment to the

investigator.

As far as the item 30 is concerned, only 10% of the B.Ed trainees of

experimental group and 25.5% of the B.Ed trainees of control group agreed that

correct pronunciation does not elevate writing. It is happy to note that 90% of the

experimental group and 74.5% of the control group of trainees disagreed this item;

ie “learning correct pronunciation does not elevate writing skill”.

205

It can be seen from the item 31, 81% of student teachers in the experimental

group agreed that imagination influences the writing. Also 42.5% of the student-

teachers in the control group accepted this statement. But, it is panic to note that

19% of the experimental group and 57.5% of the control group disagreed the item

ie “flow of writing in English is influenced by imagination”.

It is observed from the item 36, as many as 58.5% of the B.Ed trainees of

experimental group agreed that dramatization does not induce writing skill. 60%

of the B.Ed trainees of control group also accepted this view. It is wonder to note

that 41.5% of experimental group and 40% of the control group of trainees

disagreed this item ie “dramatization does not induce writing skill’.

Mnemonics

As far as item 5 in the attitude scale is concerned, as many as 89% of

student – teachers of the experimental group expressed that they felt memory is

retained by dividing the matter into smaller bits. But only 47.5% of the student –

teachers of control group revealed that statement is agreeable. It is panic to note

that 11% of the experimental group and 52.5% of control group disagreed for the

item 5 i.e. “Memory is made possible by dividing the content into smaller bits”.

Analysis of item 14, revealed that 68.5% of the B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group expressed that helping to write does not need compulsion. But

only 35% of the B.Ed., trainees of control group agreed this statement. It is

disheartening to note that 31.5% of the experimental group and 65% of the control

group disagreed the item 14 i.e. “Resorting to write in English does not need

compulsion”

It is observed from item 15, as many as 82.5% of the student-teachers of

experimental group agreed that mechanical errors are common in English writing.

Also 71.5% of the student-teachers of control group are also agreeing the

206

statement. But 17.5% of the experimental group and 28.5% of control group

conflicted this item. i.e. “Mechanical errors are witnessed in English writing”.

As far as item 19 is concerned, as many as 87.5% of the B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group accepted that revision is needed for better English writing.

And 56% of the B.Ed., trainees of control group agreed this statement. But it is

horrible to note that 12.5% of the experimental group and 44% of the control

group disagreed this item i.e. “Adequate revision results better English writing”.

Analysis of item 21 revealed that 94.5% of the student –teachers of

experimental group agreed that the cognitive intervention strategy mnemonics

enhances the writing in English. But, only 42.5% of the student –teachers of

control group consented this statement. It is disheartening to note that 5.5% of the

experimental group and 57.5% of the control group conflicted this item. i.e.

“Improvement in writing is made possible by using mnemonics”.

It is observed from the item 34 in the attitude scale that as many as 65% of

the student –teachers in the experimental group in the post-test expressed that they

are not depending upon the dictionary usage alone for developing speaking skill.

But at the same time 80% of the student –teachers in the control agreed with this

statement. It is a conflict to note that 35% of the experimental group and 20% of

the control group disagreed for this item. i.e. “Spelling skill does not depend only

on the dictionary usage”.

Analysis of the item 39 revealed that 85% of the B.Ed., trainees in the

experimental group agreed that attention invariably leads to the development of

writing skill. But, only 45% of the B.Ed., trainees in the control group consented

this item. It is panic to note that 15% of the experimental group and 55% of the

control group disagreed this item. ie “Selective attention invariably leads to

develop writing skill”.

207

Spatial competence

As far as item 3 in the attitude scale is concerned, as many as 82.5% of the

student –teachers of the experimental group in the post-test expressed that they

agree with the item, improvement of writing skill is involved with correct

punctuation. And 80% of the student –teachers of control group revealed the same

notion. But it is disagreed by 17.5% of the experimental group and 20% of the

control group for this item. i.e. “Improvement of writing skill is involved with

correct punctuation”.

Analysis of item 17 revealed that 87.5% the B.Ed., trainees of the

experimental group accepted that similes, metaphors and personification are

perceived with interest. At the same time only 50% of the B.Ed., trainees of the

control group agreed with this. But 12.5% of the experimental group and 50% of

the control group disagreed this statement. It is really disheartening to the

investigator for this item. ie. “Similes, Metaphors and personification are

perceived with interest”.

The item 23 showed that 70% of the experimental group of student-teachers

and 55% of the control group of student –teachers are agreeing that confidence

paves way to write in English. But it is panic to note that 30% of experimental

group and 45% of control group expressed their disagreement for this item. ie

“Confidence paves way to write in English”.

As far as item 25 is concerned, as many as 85.5% of the B.Ed trainees of

experimental group and 42.5% of the B.Ed trainees of control group expressed that

spatial competency helps to develop meaning acquisition all round knowledge and

writing skill. But it is observed that 14.5% of the experimental group and 57.5% of

the control group disagreed this item. i.e. “Spatial competency is used to develop

meaning acquisition and writing skill”.

208

Analysis of item 29 showed that 80% of the student –teachers of

experimental group and 52.5% of the student –teachers of control group expressed

that motivation is needed to improve the writing. But it is note worthy that 20% of

the experimental group and 47.5% of the control group disagreed this item ie

“Motivation is required to improve writing”.

It can be seen that the item 35 revealed that 78.5% B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group and 55.5% B.Ed., trainees of control group agreed that

English thesaurus enriches the power of vocabulary. But it is disheartening to note

that 21.5% of the experimental group and 44.5% of the control group disagreed

the item. i.e. “English thesaurus enriches the power of vocabulary”.

As far as the item 40 is concerned, as many as 32.5% of the student –

teachers of experimental group and 65% of the student –teachers of control group

expressed that arranged ideas do not speed up writing. At the same time it is note

worthy that 67.5% of experimental group and 35% of control group disagreed this

item. ie “Arranged ideas do not speed up writing”.

Meta cognitive Evaluation

As far as item 2 in the attitude scale is concerned as many as 75% of the

student –teachers of experimental group in the post-test expressed their agree

towards improvement of writing skill in sharing with others need not be given

much importance. But only 45% of the student –teachers of control group agreed

the same. At the same time 25% of the experimental group and 55% of the control

group disagree this item. i.e. “Sharing English writing with others need not be

given much importance”.

The item 8 in the attitude scale showed that 70% of the B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group and 40% of the control group expressed that lecture in English

shall not be noted in English only. They agreed with this statement. But at the

209

same time 30% of the experimental group and 60% of the control group disagreed

this item i.e., “Lecture in English shall not be noted in English only”.

Analysis of the item 18 revealed that as many as 85.5% of the student-

teachers of experimental group and 50% of the student –teachers of control group

agreed that social proficiency is indispensable for optimum utilization of writing

skill. But at the same time, it is disheartening to note that 14.5% of the

experimental group and 50% of the control group disagree this item. i.e. “Social

proficiency is indispensable for optimum utilization of writing skill”.

It can be seen from the item 22 reveals 65% of the B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group and 42.5% of the B.Ed., trainees of control group expressed

that writing in English has not become the part of the job”. At the same time 35%

of the experimental group and 57.5% of the control group disagree the item. ie

“Writing in English has not become the part of the job”.

As far as the item 24 in the attitude scale is concerned, as many as 67.5% of

student –teachers of the experimental group expressed that they felt that writing in

English does not need monitoring. And 43.5% of student –teachers of the control

group revealed the same. But it is panic to note that 32.5% of the experimental

group and 56.5% of the control group disagree for the item. i.e. “Writing in

English does not need monitoring”.

Analysis of item 28 revealed that 80% of the B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group and 42.5% of the B.Ed., trainees of control group agreed that

early writing in English is not outdated by later English. But 20% of the

experimental group and 57.5% of the control group disagreed the item. i.e. “Early

writing in English is not outdated”.

210

It can be seen from the item 32 as many as 32% of the student –teachers of

experimental group and 42.5% of control group student –teachers agreed that

evaluation is not so encourageous to writing. At the same time 68% of the

experimental group and 57.5% of control group disagreed the item”. i.e.

“Evaluation is not so encourageous to writing”.

As far as the item 38 is concerned, 70% of the B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group and 40% of the B.Ed., trainees of control group expressed that

writing ability is not substantiated by conversation. At the same time 30% of the

experimental group and 60% the control group disagreed it. i.e., “Writing ability is

not substantiated by conversation”.

5.4.1. B.Ed., Trainees’ Assessment Tool For Writing Skill In English

(BTATWSE)

Item analysis

Item analysis is a process which examines student responses to individual

test items (dimensions) in order to assess the quality of those items and of the test

as a whole. Item analysis is especially valuable in improving items which will be

used again in later tests, but it can also be used to eliminate ambiguous or

misleading items in a single test administration. In addition item analysis is

valuable for increasing instructor’s skills in test construction, and identifying

specific areas of enhancement in writing skill which need greater emphasis or

clarity.

There are six dimensions in the enhancement of writing skill have been

taken by the investigator for the investigation. Maximum possible score is 100.

The component punctuation carries 04 marks, vocabulary carries 22 marks, 20

marks for the component grammar, 12 marks for the homophones, precise –

writing carries 05 marks and 37 marks have been allotted for descriptive writing

211

skill. The tool was evaluated and validated by the experts in the field of English,

Education and psychology.

A comparative study of the achievement of scores revealed that variation

between the experimental group of B.Ed., trainees and control group of B.Ed.,

trainees is noted.

From the overall scores, it is noted that the performance and the

enhancement in writing skill in English is highly effective with the instructional

model using cognitive and affective intervention strategies. Here five cognitive

intervention strategies such as Chunking, Imagery Mnemonics, Spatial

competence and Meta cognitive Evaluation and five affective intervention

strategies such as Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional

Intelligence are adapted to develop writing skill in this model.

1. Punctuation: As far as the component of writing skill punctuation is

concerned as many as 86.88% of the student –teachers of experimental group

in the post-test answered the item correctly. Whereas only 73.1% of the student

–teachers in the control group in their post-test answered the item correctly.

This showed that the influence of cognitive and affective intervention strategy

on the punctuation skill.

2. Vocabulary: As far as the vocabulary which is one of the components of

writing skill is concerned, as many as 62.5% of the B.Ed., trainees of

experimental group in the post-test used more vocabulary in correct usage. At

the same time only 45.12% of the B.Ed., trainees of the control group in the

post-test used vocabulary correctly. This showed that cognitive and affective

intervention strategies were found effective in vocabulary usage.

3. Grammar : As far as the component of writing skill grammar is concerned, as

many as 83% of student –teachers of the experimental group in the post-test

answered the items related to grammar questions correctly whereas only

212

43.75% of student –teachers of the control group in the post-test answered the

items. It is evinced that cognitive and affective intervention strategies influence

more on the grammar skill in the experimental group.

4. Homophones : As far as the dimension, homophone which is one of the

components of writing skill is concerned as many as 75.2% of the B.Ed.,

trainees of the experimental group in the post –test answered the items related

to homophones correctly whereas only 49.79% of the trainees of the control

group in the post –test answered the item correctly. This shows that cognitive

and affective intervention strategies are highly effective in the use of

homophones.

5. Precise –writing : As far as the component of writing skill precise -writing is

concerned, as many as 67.5% of the student –teachers of the experimental

group in the post-test answered the item precise –writing correctly. At the

same time only 58% of the student-teachers of the control group in the post-

test answered it. This shows that cognitive and affective intervention strategies

influence more on the precise –writing skill.

6. Descriptive Writing: As far as the component descriptive writing is

concerned, as many as 66.62% of the B.Ed., trainees of the experimental group

in the post test answered the items related to descriptive writing correctly.

Whereas only 48.48% of the B.Ed., trainees of the control group in the post-

test answered correctly. This shows that the influence of cognitive and

affective intervention strategies on the descriptive writing is more which helps

to enhance writing skill in English.

5.5. Differential and relational analyses

In the differential relational analyses, hypotheses formulated for the

accomplishment of objectives of the present study are tested with the help of data

collected.

213

Hypothesis 1

B.Ed., trainees in control group do not differ significantly in English

writing between the pre-test and the post-test.

Table 5.T.3. Pre-test and Post-test Comparison of Mean scores of

Control group.

Pre-test Post-test Group N

Mean SD Mean SD ‘r’

‘t’

value Sig

Control

group 40 44.68 8,176 48.40 9.470 0.858 4.845 0.000

From the table 5.T.3 the ‘t’ test analysis indicates that student – teachers of

control group (N=40) differ significantly in their writing skill between the pre-test

and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean score of the post-test

(M=48.40) is greater than that of the pre-test (M=44.68). It is interesting to note

that the classical method could even enhance writing skill in English to some

extent as the respondents are student – teachers with graduation or post graduation

as their qualification.

As far as the standard deviation of the pre-test and post-test of control

group is concerned there is no significant difference (S.D of post test is 9.470 and

S.D of pre-test is 8.176). This showed the consistent learning of English writing

among the Student – teachers of control group. Also a high positive correlation is

obtained from the pre – test and the post – test scores.

As these student – teachers learn English from the schooling it is not a

surprise to note the influence of classical methods.

214

44.6

8

8.1

76

48.4

9.4

7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Mean SD Mean SD

Pre-test Post-test

Chart 5.F.3

Pre-test and Post-test Comparison of Mean Scores of Control

Group

Pre-test Mean

Pre-test SD

Post-test Mean

Post-test SD

Hypothesis – 2

B.Ed., trainees in Experimental group using Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategies do differ significantly in English writing between the pre-

test and the post-test.

Table 5.T.4. Pre-test and Post – test comparison of mean scores of

Experimental Group.

Pre – test Post – test Group N

Mean SD Mean SD ‘r’

‘t’

value sig

Experi

mental

group

40 50.05 12.320 66.65 14.309 0.881 15.490 0.000

From the table 5.T.4 ‘t’ test analysis indicated that student teachers of

Experimental group (N=40) differ significantly in their writing skill in English

between the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The

performance in the post-test is significantly greater than that of the pre-test when

compared to control group. The mean score of the post-test (M=66.65) is greater

215

than that of the pre-test (M-50.05) of the Experimental group. Also it was found

that the gain score of experimental group was greater than that of control group

between the pre-test and post-test.

As far as standard deviation of post-test and pre-test of the experimental

group is concerned there was a significant difference was noted. (S.D. of post test

14.309 and S.D. of pre-test 12.320) This is proved that the Cognitive and

Affective Intervention Strategy influences more in learning English writing among

the student – teachers of Experimental group. A high positive correlation is also

obtained from the pre-test and the post-test. Hence the cognitive and affective

intervention strategies were found effective.

50

.05

12

.32

66

.65

14

.30

9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Mean SD Mean SD

Pre-test Post-test

Chart 5.F.4

Pre-test and Post-test Comparison of Mean Scores of

Experimental Group

Pre-test Mean

Pre-test SD

Post-test Mean

Post-test SD

216

Hypothesis – 3.

B.Ed. trainees in Control group and Experimental group do not differ

significantly in enhancing writing skill in English in the pre-test.

Table 5.T.5. Comparison of mean scores of Control group and Experimental

group in the pre – test.

Control group Experimental

group N

Mean SD Mean SD

Df r

t Sig

Pre-

test 40 44.68 08.176 50.05 12.320 39 0.116

2.432

0.020

It can be seen from the table 5.T.5. that the B.Ed., trainees in control group

and experimental group differ significant in their writing skills in the pre-test, as

‘t’ value was found significant at 0.01 level (p<0.01). Although the groups were

divided on the basis their achievement test, they were found differing significantly

in the pre-test.

It is to infer that the influence of different domains of knowledge,

demographic background and academic climate has to be taken cognizance, for

ascertaining their writing skills. In deed their brought up in English writing at

schools and other higher learning institutions were difficult to be controlled for the

experimentation. Further, although the investigated was committed to divide the

balanced groups, it was found difficult take their disciplines at their under

graduate and post graduate level into account.

217

44.6

8 50.0

5

8.1

76 12.3

2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Mean SD

Pre-test

Chart 5.F.5

Comparison of mean scores of Control group

and Experimental group in the pre-test

Control Group

ExperimentalGroup

Hypothesis – 4.

B.Ed. trainees in Control group and Experimental group do differ

significantly in enhancing writing skill in English, in the Post-test.

Table 5.T.6. comparison of mean scores of Control group and Experimental

group in the post-test.

Control group Experimental

group N

Mean SD Mean SD

Df r t Sig Post

test

40 48.40 9.470 66.65 14.038 39 0.094 7.037 0.000

From the table 5.T.6 ‘t’ test analysis indicated that student – teachers of

Control group (N=40) and student – teachers of Experimental group (N=40) differ

significantly in their writing skill in English in the post-test at 0.01 level. When

the mean scores of pre-test and post-test of Control group and Experimental group

are compared, there is a significant difference in the gain scores of control group.

218

Therefore, it is inferred that conventional method could have its own influence in

improving the writing skill of the control group.

The post – test mean score of Experimental group (M=66.65) is greater

than that of the post-test mean score of control group (M=48.40). As far as the

standard deviation of these two groups are concerned, there is a significant

difference (S.D.of Exp.group is 14.308 and S.D of control group is 9.470). Also a

high positive correlation is obtained between the Experimental group and the

Control group. Hence it is inferred that the Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategy opens up possibilities to influence more in learning of English writing.

The mean scores of Experimental group are greater than that of the mean scores of

the Control group which indicated that Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategic model helped the trainees to improve their writing skill in English.

Hence the enhancement in English writing proved that the strategy was effective.

It can also be seen from the table 5.T.6 that Experimental group outperformed the

Control group in enhancing writing skill in English in the post – test.

48.4

66.6

5

9.4

7 14.0

38

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Mean SD

Pre-test

Chart 5.F.6

Comparison of mean scores of Control group

and Experimental group in the post-test

Control Group

ExperimentalGroup

219

Hypothesis – 5.

B.Ed. trainees in Control group do not differ significantly in their attitude


Table 5.T.7. Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing

of Control group in the pre-test and the post-test.

Over all

attitude

Pre-test

Over all

attitude

Post –test Group N

Mean SD Mean SD

Df

r ‘t’

value Sig

Control

Group 40 77.72 12.930 79.47 12.66 39

0.718 1.152

0.256

From the table 5.T.7, ‘t’ test analysis, B.Ed., trainees of Control group do

not differ significantly in their attitude towards writing. The Control group of

B.Ed. trainees (N=40) do not differ in their attitude between the pre-test and the

post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean score of the post-test (M=79.47)

is very nearer to the mean score of the pre-test (M=77.72).

As far as standard deviation is concerned the standard deviation of pre-test

(S.D=12.930) is very close to the standard deviation of post-test (S.D=12.661)

there was no remarkable variation between the pre-test and the post-test scores.

The pre-test and the post-test scores of the above mentioned are almost

same which showed the B.Ed., trainees of Control group do not differ in their

attitude towards writing in English is proved.

220

77.7

2

12.9

3

79.4

7

12.6

6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Mean SD Mean SD

Overall attitude

Pre-test

Overall attitude

Post-test

Chart 5.F.7

Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing of Control

group in the pre-test and the post-test.

Overall attitudePre-test Mean

Overall attitudePre-test SD

Overall attitudePost-test Mean

Overall attitudePost-test SD

Hypothesis – 6.

B.Ed. trainees in Experimental group differ significantly in their attitude


Table 5.T.8. Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing

of Experimental group in the pre-test and the post-test.

Overall

attitude Pre-

test

Overall

attitude post-

test Group N

Mean SD Mean SD

df

r ‘t’

value Sig

Experi

mental

group

40 75.28 13.066 86.65 13.600 39

0.991 39.197

.000

From the table 5.T.8, ‘t’ test analysis indicated B.Ed. trainees in

Experimental group (N=40) differ significantly in their attitude towards writing in

English between the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level. The attitude mean

221

score of the post-test (M=86.65) is very greater than the attitude mean score of the

pre-test. (M=75.28). This showed the Experimental group of B.Ed. trainees might

have been aware of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies as the scores

showed a great difference.

As far as the standard deviation of the post-test (S.D=13.600) and the pre-

test (S.D = 13.066) scores of the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees are

concerned, there is a significant difference in their attitude towards writing in

English which in turn helped to enhance writing skill. From the above statistics, it

can be seen that Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees have enhanced their writing

skill, as they have significant difference in their attitude towards writing between

the post – test and the pre-test.

It proved that the strategy was found effective to enhance writing skill in

English of Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees.

75.2

8

13.0

66

86.6

5

13.6

-5

5

15

25

35

45

55

65

75

85

95

Mean SD Mean SD

Overall attitude

Pre-test

Overall attitude

Post-test

Chart 5.F.8

Comparison of mean scores of Attitude towards English writing of

Experimental group in the pre-test and the post-test.

Overall attitudePre-test Mean

Overall attitudePre-test SD

Overall attitudePost-test Mean

Overall attitudePost-test SD

222

Hypothesis – 7.

The following Demographic variables of the Control group of B.Ed.,



Table 5.T.9. Demographic variables of Control group in the pre-test.

Group Variable S.No N Df

Pre-test

Low-

High sig

1 20 Boys 10 10 Gender

2 20 Girls 1

10 10 0.100

p> 0.05

Not sig

1 Urban 09 11 Locale

2 40

Rural 1

11 09 0.400

p> 0.05

Not sig

1 Arts 11 10

Control

Group

Discipline 2

40 Science

1 09 10

0.100 p> 0.05

Not sig

It can be seen from the table 5.T.9 that the chi-square value was not

significant (P>0.05) in the pre-test. Thus it was inferred that the gender was not

associated with their writing skill in English of the student – teachers in the

Control group. In fact the chi-square analysis is to observe the actual values and

the expected values with in each cell. Here the observation indicated that the

observed values and the expected values of males and females of student –

teachers are quite similar.

As far as locale of the Control group of B.Ed., trainees in the pre-test

concerned the chi-square value obtained was not significant (P>0.05). Hence

locale of the Control group in the pre-test was not associated with their writing

skill in English. In this case, the expected and observed values are almost similar.

Disciplines of student – teachers of Control group in the pre-test was not

associated with their writing skill in English as the chi-square value was not

significant at 0.05 level of significance. It was noted that the observed and

expected values were quite similar.

Hence the demographic variables like Gender, Locale and Discipline were

not significantly associated with the writing skill in English of Control group of

B.Ed. trainees in the pre-test.

223

Chart - 5.F.9.

Demographic variables of control group in the

pre-test

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Boys Girls Urban Rural Arts Science

Gender Locale Discipline

Low

High

Hypothesis – 8

Following Demographic variables of the Control group of B.Ed. trainees

are associated to writing skill in English in the Post-test.


Table 5.T.10. Demographic variables of Control group in the post-test.

Post –test Group Variable

S.

No N Df

Low High Sig

1 20 Boys 1 10 10 Gender

2 20 Girls 13 7 0.921

p> 0.05

Not sig

1 Urban 1 12 8 Locale

2

40 Rural 11 9 0.102

p> 0.05

Not sig

1 Arts 1 12 9

Control

Group

Discipline 2

40 Science 11 8 0.100

p> 0.05

Not sig

It was seen from the table 5.T.10 that the chi-square value was not

significant (P>0.05) in the post- test. Thus it was inferred that the gender was not

associated with their writing skill in English of the student-teachers in the Control

224

group. In the post-test, the chi-square analysis indicated that the observed values

were more or less same to the values of the pre-test. Irrespective of gender the

actual values of the student – teachers in the Control group are quite similar.

As far as locale of the Control group of B.Ed., trainees in the post-test

concerned the chi-square value obtained was not significant (P>0.05). Hence

locale of the Control group in the post-test was not associated with their writing

skill in English. In this case, the obtained values are almost similar.

Disciplines of B.Ed., – trainees of Control group in the post-test was not


significant at 0.05 level of significance. It was noted that the values obtained were

quite similar.

Hence the demographic variables like Gender, Locale, and Disciplines were

not significantly associated with the writing skill in English of the Control group

of B.Ed., trainees in the post-test.

Chart - 5.F.10.

Demographic variables of control group in the

post-test

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14



Low

High

225

Hypothesis – 9

Following Demographic variables of the Experimental group of B.Ed.



Table 5.T.11 Demographic variables of Experimental group in the pre-test.

Pre-test

Group Variable S.No N Df Low High Sig


2 20 Girls 11 9 0.100

p> 0.05

Not sig


2 40

Rural 18 12 1.212

p> 0.05

Not sig

1 Arts 1 18 14

Experi

mental

Group

Discipline 2

40 Science 3 5

19.558 p> 0.05

Not sig

It can be seen from the table 5.T.11 that the chi-square value was not

significant (P>0.05). Thus it was inferred that the gender was not associated with

their writing skill in English of the student – teachers in the Experimental group.

In fact the chi-square analysis is to observe the actual values and the expected

values with each division. Here the observation indicated that the observed values

and the expected values of males and females of student – teachers were quite

similar.

As far as locale of Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees in the post-test

was concerned the chi-square was not significant. (P>0.05) Hence locale of the

Experimental group in the pre-test was not associated with their writing skill in

English. In this case, the expected and observed values were almost similar.

Disciplines of student – teachers of Experimental group in the pre-test was not


significant at 0.05 level of significance. It was observed that the observed and

expected values are quite similar.

Hence the demographic variables like Gender, Locale and Discipline were

not significantly associated with the writing skill in English of Experimental group

of B.Ed. trainees in the pre-test.

226

Chart - 5.F.11

Demographic variables of experimental group

in the pre-test

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20



Low

High

Hypothesis – 10

Following Demographic variables of Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees

are associated to writing skill in English in the post-test.


Table 5.T.12 Demographic variables of Experimental group

in the post-test.

Post-test Group Variable S.No N Df

Low High Sig


2 20 Girls 10 10

0.100 p> 0.05

Not sig


2 40

Rural 17 13

0.835 p> 0.05

Not sig

1 Arts 1 19 2

Experi

mental

Group

Discipline 2 40 Science 3 16

22.48 p< 0.05

sig

It can be seen from the table 5.T.12, That the chi – square value was not

significant (p>0.05).

227

It was inferred that the gender was not associated with their writing skill in

English of the student - teachers in the Experimental group in the post test. In fact

the chi – square analysis showed that the actual values and the expected values of

each division were identical. Here the observation indicated that both observed

and actual values of Boys and Girls of student -teachers were quite similar. As far

as locale of Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees in the post –test is was

concerned the chi-square values was not significant . (p>0.05) Hence the locale of

the Experimental group in the post – test was not associated with their writing skill

in English. In this case, the expected values and observed values were almost

similar. Discipline of the student –teachers of Experimental group in the post -

test was associated with their writing skill in English as the chi – square value was

significant at 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05) It was observed that there was a

variation and significance in effectiveness of writing skill in English. The

observed values and expected values were not similar. Hence the demographic

variables like Gender and Locale were not significantly associated with the writing

skill in English of the Experimental group in the post – test. But at the same time

the demographic variable discipline was associated significantly with the writing

skill in English of the Experimental group in the post test.

Chart - 5.F.12

Demographic variables of experimental group

in the post-test

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20



Low

High

228

Hypothesis – 11

B.Ed. trainees in the Control group and the Experimental group do not

differ significantly in different dimensions of writing skill in the pre-test.

Table: 5.T.13 Difference between Experimental group and Control group in

their overall pre-test dimensions of writing skill.

Sl.No Group – Experimental and

control Group Mean S.D

Statistical

inference

1 Punctuation

Experimental (n=40) 2.50 0.641

Control (n=40) 2.55 0.639

T = - 0.350

p>0.05

Not sig

2 Vocabulary


Control (n=40) 8.85 2.095

T = 1.838

p>0.05

Not sig

3 Grammar


Control (n=40) 8.73 1.881

T = 2.686

p>0.05

Not sig

4 Homophones


Control (n=40) 5.83 1.338

T = 2.976

p<0.05

Sig

5 Precise Writing


Control (n=40) 2.63 0.586

T = 1.874

p>0.05

Not sig

6 Descriptive Writing


Control (n=40) 16.10 3.455

T = 1.682

p>0.05

Not sig

It can be seen from the table 5.T.13 the ‘t’ test analysis showed that there

was no significant difference between Experimental group and Control group of

the student – teachers and their overall pre – test writing skills of different

dimensions. Hence, the calculated value was greater than the table value (0.024 >

0.05)

229

(i) From the table 5.T.13 ‘t’ test analysis indicated that student teachers of

Control group and student – teachers of Experimental group did not differ

significantly in the punctuation in their writing skill in English at the pre-test 0.05

level. When the mean scores of Control group (m2.55) and mean scores of

Experimental group (m2.50) were compared, there was no significant difference in

the gain scores.

As far as the standard deviation of the two groups were concerned, there

was no significant difference (S.D. of Experimental group was is 0.641 and S.D

of Control group was 0.639) It was inferred that the Control group and the

Experimental group did not differ significantly in punctuation in their pre – test.

(i) It is observed from the table 5T.13 analysis of ‘t’ test indicated that the

student – teachers of Control group and the Experimental group did not

differ significantly in the vocabulary learning in the pre – test which was

one of the components of writing skill. The mean scores of Control group

(m8.85) and mean scores of Experimental group (m9.82) are very close to

each other at 0.05 level of significance.

As far as the standard deviation of the two groups were concerned, (S.D of

Control group 2.095 and S.D. of Experimental group 2.620) the ‘t’ value was

greater than p>0.05, which is not a significant one. Hence it was inferred that the

Control group and the Experimental group were almost same in vocabulary skill in

the pre – test.

(ii) It is learnt from the table 5.T13 which showed the Control group and the

Experimental group did not differ significantly in doing grammar in

English in the pre – test. The mean scores of Control group (m=8.73) and

the mean scores of Experimental group (m=10.20) were almost identical in

the gaining scores As far as the standard deviation was concerned, there

was no significant difference (S.D of Control group is 1.881 and S.D of

230

Experimental group is 2.919) The pre – test scores of the above mentioned

groups were almost same which showed the B.Ed., trainees did not differ

significantly in their grammar skill in English was proved.

(iii) It was seen from the table 5.T.13, the ‘t’ test analysis showed that there was

a significant difference between student – teachers of Control group and

Experimental group in homophones which is one of the components of

writing skill at 0.05 level of significance. When the mean score of Control

group (m=5.83) and the mean score of Experimental group (m=6.88) were

compared, there was some difference in the gaining scores.

As far as the standard deviation was concerned, (S.D. of Control group

1.338 and S.D. of Experimental group 1.786) the student – teachers of Control

group and the Experimental group showed a significant difference, showed the ‘t’

value lesser than 0.05 level of significance in their pre – test.

It was observed that the Control group and the Experimental group of the

student – teachers differed in their skill of using homophones in their pre – test.

(iv) The table 5.T.13 revealed that the student – teachers of Control group and

Experimental group do not differ significantly in their precise writing skill

in the pre – test. It can be seen that there was no gain scores between the

mean score of Experimental group (m=2.63) and the mean score of Control

group (m = 2.88) There was no significance at 0.05 level.

As far as the standard deviation of the two groups are concerned, there was

not significant variation. (S.D. of Control group is 0.586 and S.D of Experimental

group is 0.607)

231

It is inferred that student – teachers of Control group and Experimental

group do not differ significantly in their precise - writing skill in enhancing

writing skill in English in their pre – test .

(v) From the table 5.13, ‘t’ test analysis indicated that the student teachers of

Experimental group and the Control group did not differ significantly in

their descriptive writing, one of the components of writing skill in the

pretest at 0.05 level of significance. The mean score of the Experimental

group is (m =17.77) and the mean score of Control group is (m=16.10)

As far as the standard deviation of the Control group and Experimental

group are concerned, there was no significant difference in their descriptive

writing (S.D. of Control group is 3.455 and S.D. of Experimental group is 5.265)

in the pre-test.

This showed that the student – teachers of Control group and Experimental

group are almost identical in their descriptive writing in the pre – test.

Chart - 5.F.13

Difference between Experimental group and

Control group in their overall pretest dimensions

of writing skill

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

14.00

16.00

18.00

20.00

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

Punctuation Vocabulary Grammar Homophones Precise

Writing

Descriptive

Writing

Experimental (n=40)

Control (n=40)

232

Hypothesis – 12

B.Ed. trainees in the Control group and the Experimental group do not

differ significantly in different dimensions of writing skill in the post-test.

Table: 5.T.14 Difference between Experimental group and Control group in

their overall post- test dimensions of writing skill.

Sl.No Group Mean S.D Statistical

inference

1 Punctuation


Control (n=40) 2.90 0.591

T = 3.005

p<0.05

Sig

2 Vocabulary


Control (n=40) 09.93 2.018

T = 5.479

p<0.05

Sig

3 Grammar


Control (n=40) 08.75 2.072

T = 6.388

p<0.05

Sig

4 Homophones


Control (n=40) 05.98 1.717

T = 7.876

p<0.05

Sig

5 Precise Writing


Control (n=40) 02.90 0.545

T = 3.914

p<0.05

Sig

6 Descriptive Writing


Control (n=40) 17.95 4.006

T = 5.741

p<0.05

Sig

It can be seen from the table 5.T.14, the ‘t’ test analysis indicated that there

was a vast and significant difference between the student – teachers of Experimental

group and Control group and creditable improvement in their over all post – test

writing skills of different dimensions at 0.05 level of significance.

(i) From the table 5.T.14, it was observed that the student-teachers of

Experimental group and Control group differ significantly in their punctuation usage

in the post – test. The mean score of Experimental group (m = 3.40) and the mean

score of Control group is (m =2.90). As far as the standard deviation of the two

233

groups are concerned, there was a significant difference was noted (S.D. of Control

group is 0.591 and S.D of Experimental group is 0.871)

It is inferred that the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees outperformed in

their punctuation skill in the post – test than the B.Ed., trainees of Control group. The

statistical value p<0.05 showed the performance and enhancement in the punctuation,

one of the components of writing skill in English of Experimental group.

(ii) The table 5.T.14 indicated that the student – teachers of Experimental

group and the student – teachers of Control group differ significantly in using

vocabulary which is a component of writing skill in English at 0.05 level. When the

mean score of Control group (m = 9.93) and mean score of Experimental group (m =

13.75) is compared there is a tremendous significant difference in the gain scores in

the post – test of the experimental group.

As far as the standard deviation of the two groups are concerned, there is much

significant difference is observed, (S.D of Experimental group 0.871 and S.D. of

Control group 0.591) in the post test.

It is inferred that the student – teachers of Experimental group showed great

effectiveness of the strategy use in vocabulary skill than the Control group of the

student – teachers. The p value is less than 0.05 (p<0.05) which showed the

significance in writing skill.

(iii) The table 5.T.14 indicated that the student – teachers of Experimental

group in the post –test differ significantly in grammar usage than the student teachers

of the Control group in the post – test. The ‘t’ test analysis showed the p value less

than 0.05 (p< 0.05). When the mean scores of the Experimental group (m= 12.45) and

the mean score of the Control group (m= 8.75) are compared, there is a vast

difference in the gaining scores and the experimental group outperformed the control

group.

234

As far as the standard deviation was concerned, (S.D. of Experimental group

3.021 and S.D. of the Control group 2.072) the student – teachers of Experimental

group showed remarkable difference than the student teachers of Control group in the

post– test.

It was impressive to note that the B.Ed., trainees of Experimental group

learned more grammar usage than the B.Ed., trainees of Control group in the post –

test.

(iv) It was observed from the table5.T.14 ‘t’ test indicated that the student –

teachers of the Experimental group outperformed the Control group and differ

significantly in the homophone learning and using the skill in the post – test, which is

one of the components of writing skill. The mean score of Experimental group

(m=9.03) and the mean score of Control group (m=5.98) are differed much at 0.05

level of significance in the post – teat.

As far as the standard deviation of the two groups are concerned, (S.D. of

Experimental group 1.747 and S.D. of Control group 1.717) the ‘t’ value is less than

0.05 (p<0.05) which is a significant one.

Hence it was felt that the Experimental group of student – teachers are

influenced more and outperformed the Control group in homophone skill which

enhances the writing skill in English in the ‘post – test’.

(v) From the table 5.T.14 ‘t’ test analysis showed that the B.Ed., trainees of

Experimental group and the B.Ed., trainees of Control group differed significantly in

their precise -writing skill in English in the post – test. When the mean scores of

Experimental group (m=3.38) and the mean score of Control group (m = 2.90) are

concerned, there is a significant difference in the gain sores of the Experimental

group.

235

As far as the standard deviation of the two groups are concerned, (S.D of

Experimental group is 0.540 and S.D. of Control group is 0.545) there is a significant

difference is observed. The ‘t’ value is less than 0.05 (p<0.05)

It was inferred that the B.Ed., trainees of Experimental group outperformed the

Control group of B.Ed., trainees in precise – writing in the post – test. This showed

the enhancement of writing skill in English.

(vi) From the table 5.14, ‘t’ test analysis indicated that the B.Ed., trainees of

Experimental group differed significantly in their descriptive writing in English from

the B.Ed., trainees of Control group in the post – test. When the mean scores of the

Experimental group (m =24.65) and the Control group (m=17.95) were concerned

there was a great variation in the gain scores. The Experimental group outperformed

the Control group at 0.05 level of significance.

As far as the standard deviation of these two groups were observed (S.D. of

Experimental group is 6.2000 and S.D. of Control group 4.006) there was a

significant positive difference is attained. The ‘t’ value was less than 0.05 (p<0.05).

It is inferred that the B.Ed., trainees of Experimental group showed greater and

effective performance in descriptive writing in English than the B.Ed., trainees of

Control group in the post – test.

Hence from the table 5.T.14 it is proved that student – teachers of

Experimental group outperformed the student –teachers of Control group in their

overall post –test writing skills. In all the above said components, the Experimental

group of B.Ed., trainees showed remarkable and significant difference from the

Control group. Since the effectiveness and enhancement is more, it was proved that

the Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategic model influenced more on the

Experimental group of the B.Ed., trainees in the post – test. The student – teachers of

Control group and Experimental group are almost identical in their writing skill in the

pre – test. The variation in the post-test proved that the strategies were found effective

in enhancing writing skill.

236

Chart - 5.F.14

Difference between Experimental group and Control group in

their overall post-test dimensions of writing skill

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD


Writing

Descriptive

Writing

Experimental (n=40)

Control (n=40)

Hypothesis – 13

B.Ed. trainees in the Control group do not differ significantly in the

dimensions of writing skill in English between the pre-test and the post-test.

Table : 5.T.15 Comparative scores of pre – test and post – test of the control

group in various dimensions of writing skill

a. Paired Samples Statistics

Mean N Std. Deviation Std.Error

Mean

Pair 1 Punctuation 2.55 40 0.639 0.101

Punctuation 2.90 40 0.591 0.093

Pair 2 Vocabulary 8.85 40 2.095 0.331

Vocabulary 9.93 40 2.018 0.319

Pair 3 Grammar 8.73 40 1.881 0.297

Grammar 8.75 40 2.072 0.328

Pair 4 Homophones 5.83 40 1.338 0.211

Homophones 5.98 40 1.717 0.271

Pair 5 Precise Writing 2.63 40 0.586 0.093

Precise Writing 2.90 40 0.545 0.086

Pair 6 Descriptive writing 16.10 40 3.455 0.546

Descriptive Writing 17.95 40 4.006 0.633

237

b. Paired Samples Correlations

N Correlation Sig

Pair 1 Punctuation 40

Punctuation 40 0.490 0.001

Pair 2 Vocabulary 40

Vocabulary 40 0.543 0.000

Pair 3 Grammar 40

Grammar 40 0.752 0.000

Pair 4 Homophones 40

Homophones 40 0.746 0.000

Pair 5 Precise Writing 40

Precise Writing 40 0.522 0.001

Pair 6 Descriptive writing 40

Descriptive writing 40 0.793 0.000

c. Paired Samples Test

Paired Difference

99% confidence

interval of the

Difference

Mean

Std.

Devia

tion

Std.

Error

Mean Lower Upper

t df

Sig.

(2-

tailid)

Pair 1 Punctuation

Punctuation

-0.35 0.622 0.098 -.062 -0.08 -3.557 39 0.001

Pair 2 Vocabulary

Vocabulary

-1.08 1.966 0.311 -1.92 -0.23 -3.458 39 0.001

Pair 3 Grammar

Grammar

-0.03 1.405 0.222 -0.63 0.58 -0.113 39 0.911

Pair 4 Homophones

Homophones

-0.15 1.145 0.181 -0.64 0.34 -0.829 39 0.412

Pair 5 Precise Writing

Precise Writing

-0.27 0.554 0.088 -0.51 -0.04 -3.139 39 0.000

Pair 6 Descriptive

writing

Descriptive

Writing

-1.85 2.455 0.388 -2.90 -0.80 -4.765 39 0.000

(i) From the table 5.T.15, the ‘t’ test analysis showed that the student -

teachers of Control group (N=40) did not differ significantly in the overall

dimensions of writing skill between the pre-test and the post-test.

238

As far as the punctuation was concerned, the mean score of pre-test

(m=2.55) and post-test (m=2.90) at 0.01 level of significance shows there was

increase in gaining scores in the post-test.

As far as the standard deviation was concerned, (S.D. of pre-test 0.639 and

S.D. of post –test 0.591) there is no remarkable difference is observed. The ‘t’

value is 3.557 which is not a significant one. It is inferred that there is no great

improvement in the punctuation skill of the Control group of B.Ed., trainees

between the pre-test and the post-test.

(ii) From the table 5.T.15, the ‘t’ test analysis indicated that the B.Ed.,

trainees of Control group do not differ significantly in their vocabulary usage

between the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean score

of the Control group in the pre-test (m=8.85) and the post test (m=9.93 showed

there was no remarkable increase in the gaining scores.

As far as the standard deviation was concerned, (S.D. of pre-test 2.095 and

S.D. of post –test 2.018) is noted. The ‘t’ value was 3.458. It was felt that there

was no great improvement in learning the vocabulary skill by the Control group of

B.Ed.., trainees in the post-test.

It can be seen from the table 5.T.15, the ‘t’ test analysis showed that the

student – teachers of Control group do not differ in the grammar skill between the

pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean score of the pre-

test (m=8.73) and the post –test (m=8.75) were almost same. No improvement was

observed.

As far as the standard deviation was concerned (S.D. of pre-test 1.881 and

S.D. of post –test 2.072) was observed. The ‘t’ value was 0.113.

It was evident that there was no remarkable enhancement in the grammar

skill between the pre-test and the post-test of the Control group of the B.Ed.,

trainees.

239

It can be seen from the table 5.T.15, the ‘t’ test analysis showed that the

student teachers of Control group did not differ in the homophone skill between

the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean score of the

pre-test (m=5.83) and the post –test (m=5.98) were very close to each other. There

was no significant difference is cited.

As far as the standard deviation was concerned, the control group of B.Ed.,

trainees did not have any significance (S.D of pre-test 1.338 and S.D of post –test

1.717) between the pre-test and the post-test. The ‘t’ value was 0.829 which has

no significance It was inferred that the B.Ed., trainees of Control group did not

have any impact of developing homophone skill between the pre-test and the post-

test.

(V) From the table 5.T.15, ‘t’ test analysis indicated that the B.Ed., trainees

of control group did not differ significantly in their precise-writing between the

pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance.

When the mean score of the post-test (m=2.90) and the pre-test (m=2.63)

were concerned, it was observed, that there was no much difference in the gain

scores among the Control group.

As far as the standard deviation was concerned, (S.D of pre-test 0.586 and

S.D of post –test 0.545) there was no significant difference between the pre-test

and the post-test of the Control group, the ‘t’ value was 3.139.

It was noted that the B.Ed., trainees of control group do not have any

enhancement in their precise writing in English between the pre-test and the post-

test.

(VI) It is seen from the table 5.T.15, analysis of ‘t’ test indicated that the

student –teachers of Control group do not differ significantly in their descriptive

writing in English between the pre-test and the post-test. The mean score of the

pre-test (m=16.10) and the mean score of the post-test (m=17.95) were differed at

0.01 level of significance.

240

As far as the standard deviation of the Control group was concerned, (S.D

of pre-test 3.455 and S.D of post –test 4.006) there was increase in the score was

observed the ‘t’ value is 4.765. It is inferred that the control group gained

improvement in the descriptive writing in the post-test.

Hence, it was found out that the overall performance of the control group of

B.Ed., trainees between the pre-test and the post-test was not up to the mark. It

showed that the conventional method could have its own influence in improving

the different dimensions of writing skill of the student –teachers of Control group.

It was evident that cognitive and affective intervention strategic method of

learning was needed to enhance writing skill in English for the B.Ed., trainees of

Control group.

Chart - 5.F.15

Comparative scores of pre-test and post-test of the control


0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

14.00

16.00

18.00

20.00

Pair 1 Pair 1 Pair 2 Pair 2 Pair 3 Pair 3 Pair 4 Pair 4 Pair 5 Pair 5 Pair 6 Pair 6


Writing

Descriptive

Writing

Mean SD

241

Hypothesis – 14

B.Ed. trainees in the Experimental group do not differ significantly in the


Table – 5.T.16. Comparative scores of pre-test and post-test of the

Experimental group in various dimensions of writing skill.

a. Paired Samples Statistics

Mean N Std.

Deviation

Std. Error

Mean

Pair 1 Punctuation 2.50 40 0.641 0.101

Punctuation 3.40 40 0.871 0.138

Pair 2 Vocabulary 9.82 40 2.620 0.414

Vocabulary 13.75 40 3.927 0.621

Pair 3 Grammar 6.88 40 1.786 0.282

Grammar 9.03 40 1.747 0.276

Pair 4 Homophones 10.20 40 2.919 0.462

Homophones 12.45 40 3.021 0.478

Pair 5 Precise –Writing 2.88 40 0.607 0.096

Precise –Writing 3.38 40 0.540 0.085

Pair 6 Descriptive writing 17.77 40 5.265 0.832

Descriptive

Writing

24.65 40 6.200 0.980

b. Paired Samples Correlations

N Correlation Sig

Pair 1 Punctuation 40

Punctuation 40 0.000 0.000

Pair 2 Vocabulary 40

Vocabulary 40 0.606 0.000

Pair 3 Grammar 40

Grammar 40 0.724 0.000

Pair 4 Homophones 40

Homophones 40 0.734 0.000

Pair 5 Precise -Writing 40

Precise -Writing 40 0.538 0.000

Pair 6 Descriptive writing 40

Descriptive Writing 40 0.879 0.000

242

c. Paired Samples Test

Paired Difference

99% confidence

interval of the

Difference

Mean

Std.

Devia

tion

Std.

Error

Mean Lower Upper t df

Sig.

(2-

tailid)

Pair 1 Punctuation

Punctuation

-0.90 1.081 0.171 -1.25 -0.55 -5.264 39 0.000

Pair 2 Vocabulary

Vocabulary

-3.93 3.133 0.495 -4.93 -2.92 -7.924 39 0.000

Pair 3 Grammar

Grammar

-2.15 1.312 0.207 -2.57 -1.73 -10.367 39 0.000

Pair 4 Homophones

Homophones

-2.25 2.169 0.343 -2.94 -1.56 -6.560 39 0.000

Pair 5 Precise -

Writing

Precise –

Writing

-0.50 0.555 0.088 -0.68 -0.32 -5.701 39 0.000

Pair 6 Descriptive

writing

Descriptive

Writing

-6.88 2.963 0.468 -7.82 -5.93 -14.675 39 0.000

From the table 5.T.16 ‘t’ test analysis (t = 5.264) indicated that the student

– teachers of Experimental group (N=40) differed significantly in their

punctuation which has been taken as one of the components of writing skill from

the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean score of the

post-test (m= 3.40) was greater than that of the mean score of the pre-test (m =

2.50).

As far as the standard deviation of punctuation was concerned, there is a

remarkable difference between standard deviation of the (0.641) pre-test and the

standard deviation of the post-test. ( 0.871). This showed that a model developed

by using Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies influence more in

learning punctuation skill which helps to improve writing skill in English of the

student – teachers of experimental group. It was found that the strategies were

effective in enhancing writing skill in English.

243

From the table 5.T.16 ‘t’ test analysis (t =7.924) indicated that the student –

teachers of Experimental group (N=40) varies significantly in their vocabulary

skill from the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean

score of the experimental group in the post-test was (m = 13.75) greater than the

mean score of the pre-test (m = 9.82).

As far as the standard deviation of the post – test ( 3.927) and the pre-test

(2.620) of the experimental group of student – teachers was concerned there was a

significant difference in their usage and their vocabulary learning which leads to

the improvement in writing.

This showed that vocabulary skill was developed by using Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategic model which enhance writing skill of experimental

group of B.Ed., trainees.

This performance in vocabulary learning proved that the Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategies were highly effective.

From the table 5.T.16 ‘t’ test analysis (t= 6.560 ) indicated that the student

– teachers of the experimental group (N = 40) differ significantly in their learning

and using grammar in their writing between the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01

level of significance. The mean score of the post-test (m= 12.45) was greater

than that of the mean score of the pre-test (m= 10.20 ).

As far as the standard deviation of the post-test and the pre-test (post-test

3.021, and the pre-test - 2.919) of the experimental group was concerned there is

a remarkable difference was noted. This showed that grammar skill is developed

by using Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies.

The great performance and enhancement of grammar skill showed the

influence of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies and this proved the

strategy was highly effective.

244

From the table 5.T.16 ‘t’ test analysis (t=10.367) indicated that the student

– teachers of the Experimental group (N=40) differed significantly in their

homophone skill from the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance.

The mean score of the post-test (m=9.03) is greater than the mean score of the pre-

test (m= 6.88 ).

As far as the standard deviation of the post-test and the pre-test of the

Experimental group was concerned, difference was noticed. The standard

deviation of the post-test was 1.786 and the standard deviation of the pre-test

was 1.747

This indicated that homophone skill is improved by using Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategy. The performance showed the influence of

Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategy and it proved that the strategy was

effective.

From the table 5.T.16 ‘t’ test analysis (t=5.701) indicated that the student

– teachers of Experimental group (N= 40) differed significantly in their precise-

writing skill which is one of the components of writing skill from the pre-test and

the post-test at 0.01 level of significance. The mean score of the post-test (m=

3.38) is greater than the mean score of the pre-test (m=2.88). It is noted that the

use of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies enhanced their precise

– writing in English of the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees.

As far as the standard deviation of the Experimental group was concerned,

there was a significant difference between the post – test (S.D = 0.607) and the

pre-test (S.D = 0.540) This proved that Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies influence the student – teachers of the Experimental group in learning

precise – writing.

This performance showed that Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategy was highly effective in developing precise - writing skill.

245

From the table 5.T.16 ‘t’ test analysis (t= 14.675) indicated that the B.Ed.,

trainees of Experimental group (N=40) differed significantly in their descriptive

writing in English from the pre-test and the post-test at 0.01 level of significance.

The post-test mean score of Experimental group (m= 24.65) is very greater than

the mean score of pre-test (m = 17.77).

As far as the standard deviation was concerned there was a remarkable

difference between the post-test (S.D=6.200) and the pre-test (S.D =5.265). This

significant difference in descriptive writing of the Experimental group of B.Ed.

trainees from the pre-test and the post-test showed the influence of Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategies was very high.

The great performance in the enhancement of writing skill using Cognitive

and Affective Intervention strategies proves that the strategy was highly effective.

Chart - 5.F.16

Comparative scores of pre-test and post-test of the Experimental


0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

Pair 1 Pair 1 Pair 2 Pair 2 Pair 3 Pair 3 Pair 4 Pair 4 Pair 5 Pair 5 Pair 6 Pair 6


Writing

Descriptive

Writing

Mean

SD

246

Hypothesis – 15

There is no influence among the dimensions of Cognitive and Affective

Intervention Strategies on writing skill of B.Ed. trainees of Experimental group in

the Pre-test.

Table 5.T.17. Regression Analysis for Experimental group in the pre-test with

different dimensions of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies.

a. Model summary of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies with


R R Square Adjusted R

Square

Std.Error of the

Estimate.

0.150a 0.022 0.121 13.046

b. ANOVA of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies with


Sum of

squares df Mean square F Sig.

Regression 132.815 5 26.563 0.156 0.040

Resideual 9787.085 34 270.208

Total 9919.900 39

c. Coefficient of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies with


Unstandardized

coefficients

Standardized

coefficients

B Std.Error Beta t Sig

Constant 57.708 12.591 4.583 0.000

Chunking 0.184 0.577 0.071 0.319 0.752

Imagery 0.119 0.676 0.035 0.176 0.861

Mnemonics 0.348 0.711 0.104 0.489 0.628

Spatial

Competence

0.315 0.798 0.102 0.395 0.695

Meta cognitive

Evaluation

0.176 0.560 0.061 0.313 0.756

247

It can be seen from the table 5.T.17 of summary the adjusted R Square in

the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees in the pre-test indicated variance could

be predicted from the different dimensions of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies. It was found from the ANOVA table that these various dimensions like

Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics, Spatial competence and Meta cognitive

Evaluation of Cognitive Intervention Strategies with Intuition, Interest, Attention,

Motivation and Emotional intelligence of Affective Intervention Strategies did not

predict significantly the writing skill of English of the Student – teachers of

Experimental group, It can be seen from the table of these dimensions were not

significantly contributing to the development of writing skill in English in the pre-

test.

Hypothesis – 16.

There is no influence among the dimensions of Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategies on writing skill of the B.Ed., trainees of Experimental

group in the post-test.

Table. 5.T.18

Regression analysis for Experimental group in the post-test with different

dimensions of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies.

a. Model summary of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies


R R Square Adjusted R

Square

Std.Error of the

Estimate.

0.509a 0.2195 0.3038 0.577

248

b. ANOVA of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies with


Sum of

squares df Mean square F Sig.

Regression 760.704 5 152.141 4.716

Residual 9224.396 34 412.482 0.040

Total 9985.100 39

c. Coefficients of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies with


Unstandardized

coefficients

Standardized

coefficients

B Std.Error Beta t Sig

Constant 89.175 16.121 5.531 0.000

Chunking 0.213 0.596 0.454 3.022 0.045

Imagery 0.861 0.825 0.400 2.044 0.030

Mnemonics 0.147 0.714 0.340 2.206 0.051

Spatial

Competence 0.059 0.792 0.517 2.174 0.005

Meta cognitive

Evaluation 0.497 0.544 0.670 3.912 0.002

It can be seen from the table 5.T.18 that the adjusted R square (0.3038)

value indicated that as many as 30.38% of the variances could be predicted from

the different dimensions of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies such as

Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics, Spatial competence and Meta cognitive

Evaluation with Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional

Intelligence of Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees in the post-test. This

249

indicated that the model with the above said strategies was found effective and

played a paramount role for developing their writing skill in English.

The multiple correlation co-efficient showed that there was a moderate

positive correlation among the dimensions of these Cognitive and Affective

Intervention Strategies for the development of writing skill in English among the

B.Ed. trainees.

In the table 5.T.19 the F value (4.176) was found significant which clearly

indicated that the different strategies of Cognitive and Afffective Intervention do

contribute the writing skill in English to great extent in the post-test. It could be

inferred from the table 5.T.19 of coefficients that the strategies such as Chunking,

Imagery, Mnemonics and Spatial competence along with affective interventions

are significantly contributing to writing skill in the post-test, as the significant

values of all the above strategies are less than 0.01 level of significance. This

showed the B.Ed., trainees of Experimental group could improve their writing skill

in English by utilizing the above mentioned Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies.

It was also impressive to note that the other Cognitive Intervention strategy

namely Meta cognitive Evaluation along with the affective components was also

contributing to writing skill as its value was very close to the value of significance.

It might also have contributed for the enhancement of writing skill in English of

the Experimental group of B.Ed. trainees.

Hence it was inferred through regression analysis that Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategies were found effective in enhancing writing skill in

English among the B.Ed trainees of Experimental group. It was suggested on the

basis of the findings that teachers of English must take cognizance of

250

implementing these intervention strategies during their teaching – learning process

of English at all levels.

Hypothesis -17

There is no significant relationship between attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English among the B.Ed. trainees of Control group in the pre-test.

Table 5.T.19. Control group : Pre-test correlations between attitude towards


pre-total

marks

Overall

attitude

Pre-total marks Pearson Correlation (Sig

2-tailed)

1

.

-.150

.357

N 40 .40

Overall attitude Pearson Correlation (Sig

2-tailed)

.150

.357

1

.

N 40 40

It can be seen from the table 5.T.19 that there existed a low positive

correlation between attitude towards writing and writing skill in English in the pre-

test among the B.Ed trainees of control group.

The table of correlation matrix indicated that attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English of student – teachers of the control group was not

significantly associated in the pre-test. As they were not aware of Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategies there was no significance. Hence the attitude

towards writing and their writing skill in English was not significantly associated

in the pre-test of the control group of B.Ed., trainees.

251

Hypothesis – 18


writing skill in English among the B.Ed., trainees of Control group in the post-test.

Table 5.T.20. Control group : Post-test correlations between attitude towards


post-total

marks

Overall

attitude

Post-total marks Pearson Correlation (Sig

2-tailed)

1

.

-.206

.202

N 40 .40


2-tailed)

-.206

.202

1

.

N 40 40

The table 5.T.20 of correlation matrix indicated that the attitude towards

writing of the control group of B.Ed. trainees was correlated with writing skill in

English in the post-test.

From the table 5.T.20, the output confirms the results of the scatter plot in

that a low positive correlation ship existed between attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English in the post-test of the control group. It was inferred that

attitude towards writing and the awareness of strategies have enhanced the writing

skill in English. Though the control group was not treated with the Cognitive and

Affective Intervention strategic technique, it was the causative factor for the

student – teachers to enhance their writing skill in English. This showed that

strategic awareness was important to develop writing skill.

Thus it was observed that attitude towards English writing was moderately

associated with their writing skill in the post-test of the control group of B.Ed.

trainees.

252

Hypothesis – 19


writing skill in English among the B.Ed., trainees of Experimental group in the

pre-test.

Table 5.T.21. Experimental group : Pre-test correlations between attitude

towards writing and writing skill in English

pre-total

marks

Overall

attitude

Pre-total marks Pearson Correlation (Sig

2-tailed)

1

.

-.102

.532

N 40 .40


2-tailed)

-.102

.532

1

.

N 40 40

From the table 5.T.21, it can be seen that there existed a low positive

correlation between attitude towards writing and writing skill in English in the pre-

test of the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees. As they were not aware of

Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies, there was no significance between

attitude and writing skill in English.

It was inferred that attitude towards writing and their writing skill in

English was not significantly associated in the pre-test of the Experimental group

of B.Ed., trainees.

253

Hypothesis – 20

There is a significant relationship between attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English among the B.Ed., trainees of Experimental group in the

post-test.

Table 5.T.22. Experimental group : Post –test correlations between attitude

towards writing and writing skill in English

post-total

marks

Overall

attitude

Post-total marks Pearson Correlation (Sig

2-tailed)

1

.

0.751

0.002

N 40 .40


2-tailed)

0.751

0.002

1

.

N 40 40

From the table 5.T.22, the correlation matrix for Experimental group

revealed that the attitude towards writing was significantly correlated with the

writing skill of the student – teachers of the B.Ed., trainees in the post-test. This

showed the paramount role of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategic

model, their strategic awareness, their attitude towards writing were highly

strengthening their writing skill in English.

It was heartening to note that there was a high positive correlation between

attitude towards writing and writing skill in English. This indicated that the model

created by the investigator played a pivotal role for enhancing their writing skill in

English of the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees. Hence it is suggested that

the student – teachers should be made to learn the Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategies for enhancing their writing skill in English.

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The output confirmed the results of the plot showed a high positive

correlation ship existed between attitude towards writing and writing skill in

English in the post-test of Experimental group.

Thus in the Experimental group of B.Ed. trainees, attitude towards English

writing was greatly associated with their writing skill in English in the post-test.

This indicated the influence of Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategic

model on writing skill in English.

5.6 Conclusion

Quantitative data is analyzed and interpreted in detail in this chapter.

Summary of the major findings, discussion and recommendations are discussed in

the next chapter.

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CHAPTER – VI

SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS,


“Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted”

– Jules Renard

(1864 – 1910)

6.1. Introduction

This final chapter is dealt with summary of the major findings, discussion,

recommendations, Educational implications and conclusion.

6.2. Major Findings of the study

Following are the major findings that are obtained by testing the hypotheses

quantitatively.

Findings obtained from the descriptive analysis:

The enormous increase in the post – test scores of Experimental group and

moderate increase in the post – test scores of control group in enhancing writing

skill in English in various dimensions showed the strategy was found effective.

As far as the attitude towards writing in English is concerned, five

Cognitive Intervention Strategies such as Chunking, Imagery , Mnemonics,

Spatial competence and Meta cognitive Evaluation are inter linked with five

Affective Intervention Strategies namely Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation

and Emotional intelligence.

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The attitude scale BTASTWE showed the following findings:

I. Chunking

� The scale consisted nine items related to Chunking. As far as the item 1 is

concerned, as many as 92.5% of the experimental group of B.Ed., trainees

and 62.5% of the of control group of B.Ed., trainees enjoyed the writing

letters in English.

� For the item 4, 37.5% of the experimental group and 82.5% of the control

group felt that spending more time to write in English is not preferred.

� It was found from the item 9, 80% of the experimental group and 45% of

the control group accepted that writing the known matter in English is

fascinating.

� As far as the item 10 is concerned, as many as 75% of the experimental

group and 57.5% of the control group agreed that spare time is not made

useful by writing in English.

� For the item 12, 60% of the experimental group and 35% of the control

group expressed that enough practice is necessary ie writing in English is

not easy.

� It was found that the item 20 revealed as many as 75% of the experimental

group and 62.5% of the control group expressed their feeling as, writing in

English is not a suitable instrument to express one’s feelings.

� As far as the item 26 is concerned, 12% of the experimental group and 60%

of the control group wanted to enjoy writing stories in English. ie writing

stories in English is not interesting.

� It was found from the item 33, as many as 80% of the experimental group

and 32.5% of the control group gave consent ie. While writing in English,

ideas dominate more than the novelty of sentences.

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� As far as the item 37 is concerned, as many as 86.5% of experimental group

and 57.5% of control group agreed that analytical thinking and organization

are the two sides for writing ability in English.

II. Imagery

� The attitude scale has nine items related to Imagery. As far as the item 6 is

concerned 38% of the experimental group and 57.5% of the control group

accepted that no interest is shown to find out the alternate words for a

single word while writing.

� It was found from the item 7, as many as 82.5% of the experimental group

and 40% of the control group agreed that mental manipulation is needed for

writing. ie. Acquirement of writing ability is assisted by mental

manipulation.

� The item 11 revealed that 87.5% of the experimental group and 66.5% of

the control group accepted that enhancement is obtained by using imagery

ie writing skill is enhanced by imagery.

� It was found from the time 13,as many as 91.5% of the experimental group

and 80% of the control group agreed that paragraph writing is easier by

using memory images. ie writing paragraphs in English is easier with

memory images.

� As far as the item 16 is concerned 94.5% of the experimental group and

90% of the control group expected freedom to write in English. ie

compulsiveness does not lead to write in English.

� The item 27 revealed as many as 89.5% of the experimental group and

54.5% of the control group agreed that imagery is very close to grapheme.

� It was found from the item 30, only 10% of the experimental group and

25.5% of the control group agreed that correct pronunciation does not

elevate writing. Hence it was found that majority of the student – teachers

felt that correct pronunciation elevate writing.

258

� From the item 31, it was found that 81% of the experimental group and

42.5% of the control group accepted that flow of writing in English is

influenced by imagination.

� As far as the item 36 is concerned, 58.5% of the experimental group and

60% of the control group agreed that dramatization is not inducing writing

skill.

III. Mnemonics

� The attitude scale has seven items related to the strategy Mnemonics. As far

as the item 5 is concerned, as many as 89% of the experimental group and

47.5% of the control group expressed consent as memory is retained by

dividing the matter in to smaller bits.

� From the item 14, it was found that 68.5% of the experimental group and

35% of the control group agreed that resorting to write in English does not

need compulsion.

� As far as the item 15 is concerned, as many as 82.5% of the experimental

group and 71.5% of the control group agreed that mechanical errors are

common in English writing i.e. Adequate revision results better English

writing.

� It was found form the item 19, as many as 87.5% of the experimental group

and 56% of the control group accepted that revision is needed for better

English writing.

� As far as the item 21 is concerned, as many as 94.5% of the experimental

group and 42.5% of the control group agreed that improvement in writing is

made possible by using mnemonics.

� It was found form the item 34, as many as 65% of the experimental group

and 80% of the control group accepted that speaking skill does not depend

only on the dictionary usage.

259

� From the item 39, it was found that as many as 85% of the experimental

group and 45% of the control group agreed that attention invariably leads to

the development of writing skill.

IV. Spatial Competence

� The attitude scale has seven items related to the strategy Spatial

competence. As far as the item 3 is concerned, as many as 82.5% of

experimental group and 80% of the control group agreed with the item, as

improvement of writing skill is involved with correct punctuation.


and 50% of the control group agreed that similies, metaphors and

personification are perceived with interest.

� As far as the item 23 is concerned, 70% of the experimental group and 55%

of the control group accepted that confidence paves way to write in

English.

� From the item 25, it was found that 85.5% of the experimental group and

42.5% of the control group expressed consent as spatial competency is used

to develop meaning acquisition and writing skill.

� As far as the item 29 is concerned, as many as 80% of the experimental

group and 52.5% of the control group agreed that motivation is required to

improve writing.


and 55.5% of the control group agreed that English thesaurus enriches the

power of vocabulary.

� As far as the item 40 is concerned, it was found that 32.5 % of the

experimental group and 65% of the control group agreed that arranged

ideas do not speed up writing. It is note worthy that 67.5% of the

experimental group and 35% of the control group felt that arranged ideas

speed up writing.

260

V. Meta cognitive Evaluation

� The attitude scale has eight items related to the strategy Meta cognitive

Evaluation, as far as the item 2 is concerned, as many as 75% of the

experimental group and 45% of the control group agreed that sharing

English writing with others need not be given much importance.


and 40% of the control group expressed consent for the item lecture in

English shall not be noted in English only.

� From the item 18, it was clear that as many as 85.5% of the experimental

group and 50% of the control group agreed that social proficiency is

indispensable for optimum utilization of writing skill.


and 42.5% of the control group expressed that writing in English has not

become the part of the job.

� As far as the item 24 is concerned, as many as 67.5 % of the experimental

group and 43.5% of the control group felt that writing in English does not

need monitoring.

� From the item 28, it was found that 80% of the experimental group and

42.5% of the control group agreed that early writing in English is not out

dated.


and 42.5% of the control group expressed that evaluation is not so

uncourageous to writing.

� As far as the item 38 is concerned, as many as 70 % of the experimental

group and 40% of the control group agreed that writing ability is not

substantiated by conversation.

261

From the above findings of the attitude scale, it was found that major

number of student –teachers have got awareness about the cognitive and affective

intervention strategies and their importance in writing skill.

The assessment tool BTATWSE showed the following findings:

� The assessment was focused on six components of writing skill taken by

the investigator. As far as the punctuation skill is concerned, as many as

86.88% of the experimental group and 73.1% of the control group

answered the item correctly. It was found that the strategic model enhanced

the punctuation skill among the student –teachers.

� It was found that 62.5% of the experimental group and 45.12% of the

control group gained more knowledge in vocabulary usage. This showed

that cognitive and affective intervention strategies were found effective in

vocabulary learning.

� As far as the component grammar is concerned, as many as 83% of the

experimental group and 43.75% of the control group answered the items

correctly. It was evinced that cognitive and affective intervention strategic

model influenced more on the grammar skill which enhanced writing skill

of the B.Ed., trainees.

� It was found that 75.2% of the experimental group and 49.79% of the

control group answered the dimension homophones. This showed that the

strategies used were highly effective which influenced the writing skill.

� As far as the component precise-writing is concerned, as many as 67.5% of

the experimental group and 58% of the control group answered the item

correctly. The strategic influence was seen from the findings related to that

skill.

� As far as the component descriptive writing is concerned, as many as

66.62% of the experimental group and 48.48% of the control group

answered the items related to this skill. It was found that the influence of

262

strategic model on the component descriptive writing was move which

helped to enhance writing skill in English.

From the findings of the assessment tool, it was clear that the strategic model

enhanced the writing skill among the B.Ed., trainees.

1. Post –test score of B.Ed., trainees in Control group in enhancing writing

skill in English was significantly greater than that of the pre-test. Hence the

conventional method has got its own significance.

2. B.Ed., trainees in Experimental group differed significantly in enhancing

writing skill in English between the pre-test and the post-test. As the gain

score of Experimental group was found greater than that of the Control

group, the Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies were found

effective.

3. B.Ed., trainees of Control group and Experimental group did not differ

significantly in their English writing in the pre-test.

4. B.Ed., trainees in Control group and Experimental group differed

significantly in English writing in their post –test. Hence it was found that

the Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies were effective in

enhancing writing skill.

5. B.Ed., trainees in Control group did not differ significantly in their attitude


6. B.Ed., trainees in Experimental group differed significantly in their attitude

towards writing in English between the pre-test and the post-test. Hence,

the strategies were found effective in developing attitude towards English

writing.

7. Demographic variables such as Gender, Locale, and discipline of Control

group were not significantly associated to writing in English in the pre test.

263

8. Demographic variables such as Gender, Locale and Discipline of Control

group were not significantly associated in writing in English in the post-

test.

9. Demographic variables such as Gender, Locale and Discipline of

Experimental group were not significantly associated in writing in English

in the pre-test.

10. The variables Gender and Locale of the Experimental group of B.Ed.,

trainees were not significantly associated to writing skill in English in the

post –test. But the variable discipline was found associated to writing skill

in English in the post-test.

11. B.Ed., trainees in Control group and Experimental group did not differ

significantly in the pre-test for the following dimensions of writing skill in

English.

a. Punctuation, b. Vocabulary, c. Grammar, d. Precise –writing and e.

Descriptive writing.

But they differed in Homophones; i.e. the Experimental group

outperformed their counterparts in homophones in the pre-test.

12. B.Ed., trainees in Experimental group outperformed their counterparts

significantly in the following dimensions of writing skill in English in the

post-test.


Descriptive writing. Hence, the Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies were found effective in enhancing writing skill in English of the

Experimental group.

13. B.Ed., trainees in Control group differed significantly in the following


a. Punctuation, b. Vocabulary, c. Grammar, d. Precise –writing and

e. Descriptive writing.

264

And they did not differ significantly between the pre-test and the post-test

for the dimensions Grammar and Homophones.

14. B.Ed., trainees in Experimental group differed significantly in the

following dimensions of writing skill in English between the pre-test and

the post-test.


Descriptive writing.

15. Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies were found not influencing

writing skill in English of Experimental group in the pre-test.

16. The Cognitive Intervention strategies such as Chunking, Imagery,

Mnemonics, Spatial competence and Meta cognitive Evaluation were found

influencing or contributing a lot to writing skill in English of the

Experimental group in the post-test.

17. There was no significant correlation between attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English of the Control group of B.Ed., trainees in the pre-

test.


writing skill in English of the Control group of B.Ed. trainees in the post-

test.


writing skill in English of the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees in the

pre-test.

20. There was significant correlation between attitude towards writing and

writing skill in English of the Experimental group of B.Ed., trainees in the

post-test.

6.3. Discussion

The Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies adopted to enhance the

writing skill in English have resulted in overall improvement in different

265

dimensions in the post test . In addition to the enhancement of writing skill in

English their competence in adopting Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategy has also improved substantially in the post-test.

The enhancement in the post-test on responding behaviour revealed that the

student-teachers’ writing skill in English, seeking of new information and the

inquisitive attitude are very essential. This was followed by reinforcement with

enhancement in the post-test. An effective writer should be able to chunk the

units, forming mental imagery, should recall the main ideas of the matter, reward

the correct responses and focus on the main areas.

In order to respond and reinforce, written communication is a significant

factor. When compared with the pre-test score, creditable increase was observed in

the post-test on written communication in different dimensions, which established

the fact that the B.Ed. trainees have enhanced their written communication skill.

In other words the student-teachers have improved their writing skill in clarity,

emphasizing key ideas, pronunciation, putting correct punctuation, using verbal

and non-verbal communication, using more vocabulary, constructing paragraphs

with cohesion and coherence. Equal progress in planning, execution and

knowledge of the subject matter has been achieved in the post-test. For presenting

the knowledge of the subject matter, a systematic planning is necessary. The

enhancement in the post-test score revealed the development of the skill in

planning and knowledge of the subject matter. In the classroom, the trainees’

participation, discussion, arriving conclusions and gaining knowledge has

increased. This enhancement proved that the student-teachers have gained the

ability to write well, which is very essential for their written communication. The

post-test scores of various dimensions of writing skill revealed that the student-

teachers have enhanced their skill, using previous knowledge, relevant concept,

selective attention and interest, arousing intellectual curiosity and eliciting

266

responses through various exercises. Using these components was a significant

for developing writing skill. The outcome of the experiment revealed that the

enhancement in writing skill was achieved. Improvement was observed in

motivation. They involved with interest and attention in their work. It proved that

the student-teachers have improved in writing with the help of affective

intervention strategies together with cognitive intervention strategies.

In meta cognitive evaluation, there was a substantial improvement in the

post-test. The B.Ed. trainees have also developed their competence in using

instructional techniques. The post-test score reflected a notable improvement,

when compared with the pre-test. The improvement in using more vocabulary,

homophones in various situations with several examples showed their spatial

competence. This was reflected in the post-test scores.

The statistical outcome revealed that the cognitive intervention strategies

Chunking, Imagery and Mnemonics have recorded a significant improvement in

their writing skill along with the usage of affective strategies Intuition, Interest,

Attention, Motivation and Emotional intelligence in the post-test. These strategies

have played the most significant role in participation, discussion, arriving

conclusions and gaining knowledge about writing. This enhancement proved that

the student-teachers have gained the ability to write well, which was very essential

for their written communication and enhancing the writing skill in English of the

student teachers. The strategies closely followed by them were meta cognitive

evaluation and spatial competence which have been improved in the post-test.

The enhancement was achieved by adopting these intervention strategies. In the

post-test on implementing the cognitive intervention strategies ‘chunking’ and

‘imagery’ , the student-teachers have gained a remarkable improvement. The

mental picture created by the English teacher facilitates rehearsal, spatial learning

and chunking. The mental picture included concept mapping, metaphor and

267

imagery. The enhancement was observed in the post-test on adopting these

cognitive intervention strategies. When compared to the other cognitive

intervention strategies such as spatial competence, the student-teachers have

recorded less percentage of enhancement in writing skill due to some practical

difficulties in the class room.

The adoption of the cognitive intervention strategy, mnemonics may have

resulted in the enhancement of the competence and on responding behaviour. The

components namely questioning, using key words for memorization, retaining and

note taking have contributed much. Spatial learning cognitive intervention strategy

would have contributed in reinforcement because comprehension of the

relationship between concepts, relating prior knowledge with new knowledge,

comparing and contrasting and brain storming strategies strengthens the

competence of reinforcement. Grouping, associating, structuring and sequencing

strategies contribute to the enhancement in written communication to a major

extent. All the components were grouped together in the spatial competence.

Imagery facilitated competence in planning and knowledge of the subject matter

while chunking facilitated competence in dividing more smaller units from a

major topic.

Statistical evidence showed that creating a mental picture was one of the

effective strategies for developing enhancement in the knowledge of the subject

matter and planning. Mnemonics would have contributed to the enhancement of

competence as interest, motivation, attention, questioning strategy, and situational

evaluation with attitude.

The enhancement of writing skill in English with regard to different

variables and dimensions showed that the Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategic Instructional model played a pivotal role among B.Ed. trainees.

268

6.4. Implications of the study

As this experimental research involved cognitive and affective intervention

strategies to improve the writing skill of student – teachers of B.Ed., programme,

the effectiveness of the strategies is expected. However, the instrument used in this

study showed that cognitive and affective intervention strategies such as

Chunking, Imagery, Mnemonics, Spatial competence, Meta-cognitive Evaluation,

Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional Intelligence contributed to

writing skills in English. It was also found that these strategies could enhance the

attitude of student –teachers towards writing in English. The components

identified for writing in English in the present study such as Punctuation,

Vocabulary, Grammar, Homophones, Precise – writing and Descriptive writing

were developed by these strategies. In turn, these strategies were believed to

improve the professional development of student-teachers and they are able to

motivate them towards writing in English. This is particularly true for student –

teachers whose second language is English.

Methodological Implications

The hypotheses advanced in this study have addressed how a number of

factors of cognitive and affective intervention strategies affect student –teachers’

writing skill in English. Review of related literature has facilitated the design of

the research (chapter-2) employing quantitative methods for obtaining data. The

quantitative method was employed two questionnaire designed to ascertain the

writing skill of student –teachers in English.

The experimental method was adopted and data were collected from

student –teachers of the college of Education. However, the data collected were

from a group of samples purposely chosen. Therefore, the findings can only fit the

samples in the study. Raw scores for both the scales were taken for interpretation

of results. As the present study adopted experimental research method, raw scores

269

have not been transformed to measures to achieve uniformity for more valid

interpretations of results. Hence no technique such as Weighted Likelihood

Estimation (WLE) was adopted in the present study.

The number of student –teachers who showed strong positive attitude

towards writing in English through their responses to the closed entered questions

was not significantly reflected in the magnitude of the quantitative data. This

implied that other factors included in this study might have influenced on

attitudes. Hence other factors of attitude may also influence writing skill in

English among the B.Ed., trainees.

6.5 Recommendations of the present study

There was a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test in

all the variables and dimensions undertaken in this study between the control

group and the experimental group of B.Ed. trainees. The difference between the

mean score of control group and the mean score of experimental group of student

teachers was great which indicated the influence of the Cognitive and Affective

Intervention Strategic model on writing skill. The mean scores of control group

and experimental group in the post test were 48.40 and 66.65.respectively.

The mean difference between the score of BTATWSE of control group and

the experimental group was great. The gain score of experimental group which

was higher than the control group showed that the experimental group has been

more influenced by this strategic model.

As far as the writing is concerned, the control group has moderate

performance. The sample group being the student-teachers it was happened.

Though they have previous knowledge about the writing, their enhancement in

writing skill in English was lower than the experimental group. Hence it was

270

suggested that the treatment of using the Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategic model for developing writing skill should be given to control group for

better performance.

Regarding the attitude towards writing in English is concerned,

experimental group was better than control group. The experimental group

showed better performance in enhancement and yield better results than the

control group. This trend of improvement in all the dimensions of writing skill

and variables of Cognitive Intervention strategies like Chunking, Imagery,

Mnemonics, Spatial competence and Meta Cognitive Evaluation and Affective

Intervention strategies of Intuition, Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional

Intelligence of inclusion in the instructional model.

The correlation studies also corroborated the results of the ‘t’ test and

ANOVA indicated that there was a strong correlation between the variables and

the improvement gained in the post-test. The regression analysis revealed the

influence of these intervening variables and dimensions on enhancing writing skill

in English.

On the basis of the statistical treatment of the quantitative analysis of the

data, the following recommendations have been evolved.

1. New and novel techniques pertinent to Cognitive and Affective

Intervention may be evolved to help the trainees to conceptualize the

concept of enhancement in writing skill in English. As selecting the

comprehension passage for treatment usage of Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategic model was found effective in enhancing writing skill

in English of the student-teachers, they may be oriented on this strategic

model for developing their writing skill in English at work place.

271

2. It is observed from the findings of the present study that the investigator’s

orientation on development of a model to enhance writing skill in English

played a significant role in enhancing the writing skill of B.Ed. trainees.

Hence teachers’ orientation on the model is essential rather than self-

instructional.

3. As the Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategies were found

effective in developing writing skill in English among the B.Ed., trainees

whose second language is English, teacher educators in English language

teaching may be oriented on the use of these Strategies.

4. Certain dimensions of Cognitive and Affective intervention strategies and

attitude towards writing were found to have contributed to attain

enhancement in writing skill in English. Positive association of these

strategies with various dimensions like punctuation, vocabulary, grammar,

homophones, precise-writing and descriptive writing may be taken

cognizance for the enhancement of writing skill in English. It is

recommended to orient these components by efficient means to the

student-teachers.

5. The role of cognitive process of learning is activated only by suitable

interventions. Learning is twofold; one is learning skill, another one is

learning new knowledge. In educational institutions, there may be a less

focus on cognitive intervention and affective intervention strategies. The

study revealed that the trainees’ enhancement and effectiveness in their

writing skill in English adopting these intervention strategies could be

improved. For them the intervention strategies have to be suitably selected

and adopted. The influence of cognitive and affective intervention

strategies was found effective in enhancing writing skill in English.

Hence, the student-teachers of all colleges of education could be trained to

practice these strategies to enhance writing skill in English.

272

6. One of the institutional awareness of curriculum frame work and syllabus

design based on Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies on the

beginning level, can improve teaching of English, learning English among

all level students at all categories. The result obtained from present study

showed that the student-teachers used the Cognitive and Affective

Intervention strategies in the teaching learning process. It helped them in

identification and planning of problem, awareness and selection of suitable

strategies, adopting them and improving their own efficiency.

7. Though teaching-learning strategies are familiar to the teacher-educators of

English, they must know specific strategies for the given task to make the

learning more effective and also they must be well acquainted with the use

of latest innovative teaching-learning strategies.

6.6 Recommendations for future policy decisions

Research in general and educational research in particular must be

committed to contribute recommendations for future policy decisions on the basis

of the findings of the research. In that way, the present study is committed for the

following recommendations for future policy decisions in enhancing writing skill

in English.

1. The strategic perspectives of Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies may be incorporated in teacher education curriculum at all levels

as an instructional strategy. In the present study cognitive and affective

awareness was positively associated with enhancement in English writing

skill.

2. The orientation on the Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategic

awareness, identification of the strategy, use them for suitable situation

may be given to the teachers at all levels as this instructional model was

proved effective in the present study.

273

3. Concerned departments should organize training programmes for the

teachers at all levels to get mastery over the strategic techniques with the

help of experts in the field of psychology and English.

4. The idea of integrating the components of Cognitive and Affective

Intervention into instructional model, the so called Cognitive and Affective

Intervention Strategic Instructional model was endorsed to be a unique

design of its kind for the development of English writing skill.

5. Student-teachers of all faculties at secondary level may be oriented on the

search of various innovative strategies using Cognition and Affective

Intervention pertinent to the topics identified for the development of


6. In the ever growing educational field, there is a paradigm shift in

education, making students to be independent in their learning is one of the

predominant responsibilities of the teacher. Hence more opportunities

should be given to the student teachers to find out appropriate strategies

and techniques. For this purpose, motivation may be given to them by the

teacher-educators.

7. Experts may be identified in English teaching to guide the student-teachers

to draft the pros and cons of the various topics in English that are identified

for the development and to improve various skills in English with a

Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategic Instructional model.

8. Today, education gives more importance to learning difficulties especially

for the writing difficulty. More intensive research and study in this field

could help to develop a remedial process among parents, teachers,

administrators and curriculum planners and educationalists.

9. From this study, it is evident that the student-teachers do not differ

significantly in their grammar, vocabulary, comprehension and word

recognition which are not up to the expected level because of so many

274

factors. Hence, necessary steps may be taken to minimize the errors by

consulting the experts in these fields.

6.7 Recommendations for development of Instructional Model

The following recommendations are given for the development of model

designers on the basis of findings of the present study.

1. In the present study the Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategic

model has great impact for the enhancement of writing skill in English.

The Cognitive Intervention elements such as Chunking, Imagery,

Mnemonics, Spatial competence and Meta Cognitive evaluation with

Affective Intervention strategies like Intuition, Interest, Attention,

Motivation and Emotional Intelligence could be integrated and inter-related

to each other to develop planning, monitoring, executing and evaluating the

plan of action effectively on various dimensions of writing like grammar,

vocabulary, homophones, precise-writing and descriptive writing. The

instructional model prepared by the investigator identified the task,

instructional objectives, preparation of instructional materials, evaluation

and reflection.

2. An orientation may be planned for the student-teachers of B.Ed. for

identifying various strategies of cognitive and affective domains and

preparing the instructional model with the help of those strategies.

3. The suitability may be planned for the student-teachers and the model may

be monitored for the development of writing skill.

4. As attitude towards writing has contributed to the enhancement of writing

skill of the sample of the present investigation, a workshop may be

organized for the needy student-teachers of B.Ed. on the effective

integration of the Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies with

Attitude towards writing in English.

275

5. The expertise of the concerned subject on the cognitive psychology and

English may be obtained for the development of the Cognitive and

Affective Intervention Strategic model.

6. As the use of Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategic model has not

directed more impact on developing writing skill in English among the

student-teachers of control group, an effective orientation on the above said

model is to be given for them. This model is a chief component for the

development of English writing skill and it is an important entity for the

effective teaching-learning process for the enhancement of writing skill in

English.

6.8 Suggestions for further research

Any good research even after answering its research questions must be

inclined to update and innovate new ideas for further contributions to the needy

sector. In that way, following suggestions for further investigations are made.

1. As the present study identified five intervention factors each in Cognitive

and Affective domains of knowledge such as Chunking, Imagery,

Mnemonics, Spatial competence and Meta cognitive Evaluation, Intuition,

Interest, Attention, Motivation and Emotional Intelligence respectively,

further study may explore with some other intervention strategies on these

domains to improve the writing skill in English among the student teachers

from diverse disciplines hailing from different cultural and socio –

economic backgrounds.

2. In the present study, it was found that the conventional method of teaching

English could significantly enhance writing skill in English But the gain

score of experimental group with Cognitive and Affective Intervention

strategies was greater than that of the gain score of Control group. Hence a

study may be attempted to explore the common factors which can

276

influence the gain score of both the control group and the experimental

group to improve writing skill.

3. As the present study adopted Cognitive and Affective Intervention

Strategies without using the advancement of technology, further study

may be attempted to integrate technology with these strategies and

determine their effectiveness on writing skill in English.

4. As the present study has not taken cognizance of the influence of

proficiency of the regional language on writing skill in English as a

foreign language, further study may be attempted in this line of thought.

5. As the present study has taken attitude towards writing into account as the

intervening variable, the attitude and aptitude towards reading in English

have not been taken into consideration. Hence further study may be

attempted to establish the relationship between the attitude, aptitude of our

reading with writing skill and attitude, aptitude of writing.

6. A further study may be attempted to find out the effectiveness of

Cognitive and Affective Intervention strategies on the enhancement of

certain components of writing such as thematic appreciation, idioms and

phrases, story writing, attitude towards poetry etc.

7. The present study was confined to enhance the writing skill in English

only. Further study may be done with respect to other skills and other

subjects also with necessary modification.

6.9. Conclusion

In the light of the research findings it is felt that the present piece of

research may contribute on alleviation of difficulties of B.Ed. trainees, to enhance

the writing skill in English with innovative approach. It is hoped that appropriate

model so called Cognitive and Affective Intervention Strategic model to develop

writing skill may be given for the needy trainees and the findings of the study may

be taken into consideration for a better frame work in developing writing skill in

277

English among the B.Ed. trainees by implementation of this innovative strategy.

The recommendations that have emerged from the findings of the present study

will provide an opportunity to realize the dream of increasing writers in English

and to produce quality in standard, to enhance writing skill in English envisaged in

the National Education. The present investigation is a endeavour towards this

objective.

Writing is an essential skill for successful communication in this

information world. It is the teachers’ prime duty to provide this “extraordinary

thing” to learn any subject aesthetically. Once students are tuned to writing, they

become more attentive which develops concentration. This takes the students to a

right direction by ways of organizing the ideas, thoughts, feelings etc to a content,

delivering the concept coherently and cohesively, gaining momentum to attain the

expertise to reach the goal of writing skill and to utilize them in their social

organization.

278

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Learning, Teaching and... Projects. coe.uga. edu/ epitt/ index. php.

Wood.D., Bruner, J.S., & Ross, G.(1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving.

Journal of psychology and psychiatry, 17.

Yoakman, Gerald A., (1951). “The Development of Comprehension in the Middle

Grades.” Current Problems of Reading Instruction, Seventh Annual Conference of

Reading. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 28-35.

310

Young, D.J. (1990). An investigation of student’s perspectives on anxiety and

speaking. Foreign language Annals, 23, 539 – 553.

Zamel, (1983). The composing processes of advanced ESL students: Six case

studies.

Zhu, Wei. (1995). Effects of Training for peer response on students’ comments

and Interaction”. Written communication, 12.4. 492-528.

311

Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix –––– 1 1 1 1

312

ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR WRITING SKILL

I 1. Complete the words which express the result of nuclear weapons

a) Exp---os-- -- ns, b) r—in c) Dev—s---t--- d) su-- -- er—gs e) d-s- - oy

2. Identify content word and structural word from the following

Which He

City Acting

After on

Through Flower

3. Fill in the blanks : Quiet, Quit, Quite

a) Gandhiji organised .................. India Movement on 1942

b) Teacher asked the students to be ......................

c) The answer for this question is .................... clear to all

4. Build any three words using phonetic symbols

5. Complete the sentence using correct word from the parenthesis

a. The sudden rains .......... the rescue work

(affected, effected)

b. There has been a ............. of diseases after the earthquake

(breakout, outbreak)

c. You should not .............. in things that don’t concern you

(interfere, intervene)

d. All the quests ............... from their seats. (raised, rose)

e. He was ............. coming late last month

(continuously, continually)

II. Punctuate the following

1. Tell me grand father I said to him one day I have never seen people like the

villagers here

2. Identify sentence structure:

a. The authorities gave the assistants an increased salary

b. He walked a long distance

c. During holidays, we regularly play games

d. They elected him captain

e. He appears to be criminal

3. Write synonyms and antonyms of the following words

a. Necessary c. Brave e. cluster

b. Endeavour d. Dependent

4. Attempt a written presentation of the following diagram

313

5. Rewrite the following sentences as given below

a. It is a very ball building (into exclamatory)

b. This is my pet dog (into interrogative)

c. How clever he is! (into assertive)

d. He will report at nine (frame a wh-question)

e. You have to answer the questions (into imperative)

III.1. Expand the proverb – “Honesty is the best policy”

2. Write short note on “writing”

3. Paragraph writing: Pick out any two head lines from the day’s

newspaper Expand each into a paragraph

4. Expansion of hints into a paragraph (Drafting and Editing)

William words worth – born in 1770 – pioneer of romantic revival –

His love of nature boundless – greatest poet of the country – wanted to

establish communion of man and nature – for him nature was the greatest

teacher – died in 1850 – poems are popular for simplicity and charm

5. Precise writing

Butterflies are rightly called “Jewels of Creation”. There are more than

50,000 species of butterflies distributed worldwide. The wings of the

butterflies are gorgeously coloured, with a seemingly infinite range in

diversity, brilliance, patterns and shapes. The light, day-flying butterflies are

to be distinguished from their cousins, the moths, which are noctunal.

Butterflies are neither feared nor disliked, because they do not sting or carry

disease or cause any serious damage to human beings.

Because of their glorious colours, butterflies are universally popular. In

their colouration, they are unmatched by any others in creation, with the

possible exception of birds. Their protective colouration in imitation to

certain harmful insects and in merging their own with that of their backgrund

is remarkable.

Butterflies are instant favourites with children as they are with

collectors, both amateur and professional, scientists and laymen. In many

cases, butterflies are collected, not for mere scientific study alone. A butterfly

is a thing of beauty and is a joy forever.

314

after

away

across

for

over

Run

apart

back

on

up

down Set

6. Vocabulary learning :

Solve the puzzle using clues

Down Across

1. Sound made by a wild animal 1. Line

2. Has 5 fingers 4. Moving to the rhythm of music

3. Opposite to host 6. Circular

4. Late evening 7. Talent

5. One

1 2 3

4 5

6

7

7. Give a single word substitution table for the grammar ‘Present Continuous

Tense’

8. Use the correct form ‘run’ with any four and write it in your own sentence

(or)

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9. Use acronym strategy and explain main idea in a paragraph

(or)

Write sentences to bring out the difference in meaning between the words in

pairs.

a. Principal - Principle

b. Atlast - Atleast

c. Affect - Effect

d. Know - No

10. List three to five phrases describing what you see, hear, taste, touch and

smell while imaging yourself inside the visual provided by your teacher.

SIGHT

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

SOUND

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

TASTE

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

TOUCH

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

SMELL

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

316

Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix –––– 2 2 2 2

317

B.Ed., Trainee Attitude Scale

Towards Writing

The relevant

SA - Strongly Agree ND - Not Decided

A - Agree DA - Disagree

SDA - Strongly Disagree

1. Writing letters in English is enjoyable

2. Sharing English writing with others need not be given

much importance.

3. Improvement of writing skill is involved with correct

punctuation.

4. Spending more time to write in English is not preferred.

5. Memory is made possible by dividing the content into

smaller bits.

6. No interest is shown to find out the alternate words for a

single word while writing.

7. Acquirement of writing ability is assisted by mental

manipulation.

8. Lecture in English shall not be noted in English only.

9. writing the known matter in English is fascinating.

10.Spare time is not made useful by writing in English.

11.Writing skill in English is enhanced by imagery.

12. Writing in English is not easy.

13.Writing paragraphs in English is easier with memory images.

14. Resorting to write in English does not need compulsion.

15. Mechanical errors are witnessed in English writing.

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

318

16. Compulsiveness does not lead to write in English.

17. Similies, Metaphors and personification are perceived

with interest.

18. Social proficiency is indispensable for optimum utilization

of writing skill.

19. Adequate revision results better English writing.

20. Writing in English is not a suitable instrument to express

one’s feelings.

21. Improvement in writing is made possible by using

mnemonics.

22. Writing in English has not become a part of the job.

23. Confidence paves way to write in English.

24. Writing in English does not need monitoring.

25. Spatial competency is used to develop meaning

acquisition and writing skill.

26. Writing stories in English is not interesting.

27. Imagery is very close to grapheme.

28. Early writing in English is not outdated by later English.

29. Motivation is required to improve writing.

30. Learning correct pronunciation does not elevate writing

skill.

31. Flow of writing in English is influenced by imagination.

32. Evaluation is not so encourageous to writing.

33.While writing in English ideas dominate more than the

novelty of sentences.

34. Spelling skill does not depend only on the dictionary

usage.

35. English Thesaurus enriches the power of vocabulary.

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

319

36. Dramatisation does not induce writing skill.

37.Analytical thinking and organization are the two sides of

writing ability in English.

38. Writing ability is not substantiated by conversation.

39. Selective attention invariably leads to develop writing

skill.

40. Arranged ideas do not speed up writing.

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

SA A ND DA SDA

320

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. Name :

2. Age :

3. Sex : Male / Female

4. Educational Qualification : UG / PG

5. Martial Status : Married / Unmarried

6. Location : Rural / Urban

7. Medium of Instruction : Tamil / English

8. Kind of School Studied : (a) State Board / Metric / Others.

(b) Govt School / Aided School /

Private School.

9. Mode of admission : Counseling / Management

10. Educational Qualification of : Father Mother

Parents

1. Less than School :

2. Bachelor’s degree :

3. Master’s degree :

4. Professional degree :

5. Others :

11. Occupation of the parents : Father Mother

1. Government :

2. Private :

3. Business :

4. Name :

321

2. THE FUN THEY HAD

– Isaac Asimov

Margie even wrote about it that night in her diary. On the page

headed May 17, 2155, she wrote: ‘Today Tommy found a real book!’ It was

a very old book. Margie’s grand father once said that when he was a little

boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were

printed on paper. They turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly,

and it was awfully funny to read works that stood still instead of moving the

way they were supposed to – on a screen, you know. And then, when they

turned back to the page before, it had the same words on it that it had when

they read it the first time. ‘Gee,’ said Tommy, ‘what a waste. When you’re

through with the book, you just throw it away, I guess. Our television screen

must have had a million books on it and it’s good for plenty more. I

wouldn’t throw if away. Same with mine, said Margie. She was eleven and

hadn’t seen as many tele books as Tommy had. He was thirteen. She said,

Where did you find it? In my house. He pointed without looking, because

he was busy reading. In the attic. What’s it about? School. Margie was

scornful. ‘School? What’s there to write about school? I hate school.

Margie always hated school, but now she hated it more than ever. The

mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she

had been doing worse and worse until her mother had shaken her head

sorrowfully and sent for the County Inspector. He was a round little man

with a red face and a whole box of tools with dials and wires. He smiled at

her and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart. Margie had hoped he

wouldn’t know how to put it together again, but he knew how all right and,

after an hour or so, there it was again, large and black and ugly with a big

screen on which all the lessons were shown and the questions were asked.

322

That wasn’t so bad. The part she hated most was the slot where she had to

put homework and test papers. She always had to write them out in a punch

code they made her learn when she was six years old, and the mechanical

teacher calculated the mark in no time. This inspector had smiled after he

was finished and patted her head. He said to her mother, It’s not the little

girl’s fault, Mrs.Jones. I think the geography sector was geared a little too

quick. Those things happen sometimes. I’ve slowed it up to an average ten-

year level. Actually, the over-all pattern of her progress is quite satisfactory.

And he patted Margie’s head again. Margie was disappointed. She had

been hoping they would take the teacher away altogether. They had once

taken Tommy’s teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector

had blanked out completely. So she said to Tommy, Why would anyone

write about school? Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes. Because

it’s not our kind of school stupid. This is the old kind of school that they

had hundreds and hundreds of years ago. He added loftily, pronouncing the

word carefully, centuries ago. Margie was hurt. Well, I don’t know what

kind of school they had all that time ago. She read the book over his

shoulder for a while, then said, ‘Anyway, they had a teacher’. Sure they had

a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man. A man? How could

a man be a teacher? Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave

them homework and asked them questions. A man isn’t smart enough. Sure

he is. My father knows as much as my teacher. He can’t. A man can’t

know as much as a teacher. He knows almost as much, I betcha. Margie

wasn’t prepared to dispute that. She said, I wouldn’t want a strange man in

my house to teach me. Tommy screamed with laughter. You din’t know

much, Margie. The teachers didn’t live in the house. They had a special

building and all the kids went there. And all the kids learned the same

323

thing? Sure, if they were the same age. But my mother says a teacher has to

be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid

has to be taught differently. Just the same, they didn’t do it that way then. If

you don’t like it, you don’t have to read the book. I didn’t say I didn’t like

it, Margie said quickly. She wanted to read about those funny schools.

They weren’t even half finished when Margie’s mother called, Margie

school! Margie looked up. Not yet, mamma. Now, said Mrs.Jones. And it

probably time for Tommy, too. Margie said to Tommy. Can I read the book

some more with you after school? Maybe, he said, nonchalantly. He

walked away whistling, the dusty old book tucked beneath his arm. Margie

went into the schoolroom. It was right next to her bedroom, and the

mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her. It was always on the same

time every day except Saturday and Sunday, because her mother said little

girls learned better if they learned at regular hours. The screen was lit up,

and it said, Today’s arithmetic lesson is on the addition of proper fractions.

Please insert yesterday’s homework in the proper slot. Margie did so with a

sigh. She was thinking about the old schools they had when her

grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole

neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting

together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They

learned the same things so they could help one another on the homework and

talk about it. And the teachers were people….. The mechanical teacher

was flashing on the screen. When we add the fractions ½ and 1/4 …….’

Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days.

She was thinking about the fun they had.

324

Glossary

Adjust (v) / make suitable (for use), attic (n) / small room just under

the roof of a house (generally used for storing things) crinkly (adj) / krikli /

full of small crease, not smooth, dispute (v) / dispjut / argue about, flash (v)

/ flae/ show for a few seconds, gear (v) / gia / arrange (a machine) to move at

a certain speed, loftily (adv) / loftilli / in a proud manner, nonchalantly (adv)

/ nonelentli / in a cool manner, showing no interest, over-all (adj) / ouvercl /

general, scornful (adj) / skomful / having a low opinion of something,

sector (n) / sekte/ part, slot (n) / slat / opening, tuck (v) / tk / hold, press.

Comprehension – I

2. It this a story about the past or the future? Does the author tell us

when these incidents happened? (In what year? In what century?)

3. Did Margie and Tommy usually read books? How did they read

them?

4. The words ‘book’, school and teacher each have two different

meaning in this story. The two meanings of book are given below.

Give, in the same way, the two meanings of school and teacher.

Book (1) 20th

century: words printed on paper.

(2) 22nd

century: words moving across a television screen

School (1) 20th

century: Teacher (1) 20th

century:

(2) 22nd

century: (2) 22nd

century:

5. Is the inspector mentioned in the story a man or a machine? What is

the inspector’s job?

6. Look at the title of the story. Who were they? From whose point of

view? What fun did they have?

325


1. Margie wrote in her diary that Tommy had found a real book. There

is a word in this story which may be considered the opposite of a real

book. What is that word?

2. Had Margie’s grandfather read ‘read books’ when he was young?

How do you know?

3. The pages were ‘yellow and crinkly’. What does this show?

4. Tommy says: I wouldn’t throw it away. What is it? What, according

to Tommy, can be thrown away?

5. When you’re through with the book…… Rewrite this sentence, using

the verb finish

6. Which word in the fourth paragraph means useful or fit?

7. Did Margie and Tommy live in the same house? How do you know?

8. Did Margie hate school only because the teacher gave her a lot of tests

in geography? What words in the text give you the answer?

9. He took the teacher apart. Does this mean that he took the teacher

away or that he opened up the teacher?

10. ……….. but he knew how all right …….. What words can you put in

after how, without changing the meaning?

11. What did Margie learn when she was six years old? Choose one of

the following:

(b) How to put her homework and test papers into the following

(c) How to write her homework and test papers.

(d) How to write in a punch code.

12. What phrase in paragraph 11 means quickly?

13. Those things happen sometimes. What kind of things? (Just give an

example)

326

14. Complete the following sentence correctly: They had once taken

Tommy’s teacher away because the history sector had become a

complete ………..

15. What words show that Tommy thought he was much wiser than

Margie?

16. What does Tommy mean by a regular teacher?

17. What was Margie prepared to dispute? What was she not prepared to

dispute?

18. What made Tommy scream with laughter? Choose one of the

following:

(a) The idea of a strange man teaching Margie in her house.

(b) Margie’s ignorance about the old schools.

(c) The idea of a special building where all the kids went.

19. …….. teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy……

What other word in the story has the same meaning as adjusted?

20. Which of the following gives the meaning of just the same in

paragraph 29?

(a) in the same way (b) in spite of that (c) for that reason.

21. Did Margie’s mother want Tommy to go away? How do you know?

22. Put in one word to complete this sentence : The mechanical teacher

had already been….. on and was waiting for her.

23. Margie did so with a sigh. What did she do?

24. She was thinking about the old schools they had ……. Did she wish

she could go to such a school? How do you know?

327

Spelling

(a) Write out the plural forms of:

1. diary 2. story 3. century 4. country

(b) Write out the ‘ing’ form of the following verbs. Note that you may have

to add or omit certain letters before adding ‘ing’.

1. Write 6. happen

2. finish 7. calculate

3. dispute 8. sit

4. pat 9. begin

5. move 10. listen

Pronunciation

(a) Here is a list of words ending in ‘ed’. The ‘ed’ is pronounced /d/ or /t/ or

/id/. Examples: ‘loved’ / d/ ; ‘walked’ /t/; ‘hated’ /id/.

Now arrange the words in three sets under /d/ or /t/ or /id/. Notice that

one word in the list can be put in two sets:

turned hoped called

asked prepared looked

printed blanked learned

headed wanted slowed

supposed finished

(c) Practise saying the following words with the correct stress. You must

stress the syllable immediately after the stress mark (‘)

1. ‘thir’teen

2. ‘thirty

3. e’leven

328

4. ‘progress

5. a’ddition

Vocabulary – I

Find single words in the passage which have roughly the meaning given

below:

1. nearby area

2. of ordinary or usual standard

3. put inside

4. in fact

5. hundreds of years

6. part dealing with a particular subject

Vocabulary – II



A B

1. adjust (a) Part

2. slot (b) in a proud manner

3. attic (c) a hole or opening

4. nonchalantly (d) general

5. sector (e) very sorry

6. over-all (f) in a manner showing no interest

7. scornful (g) a small room just under the roof of

8. dispute (v) a house

(h) make suitable for use

(i)having a poor opinion of something

329

(j) very careless

(k) argue about

Vocabulary – III

Copy out the following paragraph and fill in the blanks with suitable words

or phrases from the passages. The relevant paragraph number is given for

each missing words or phrase.

Tommy and Margie were friends. They were not the ……… (27); Tommy

was older than Margie, and had seen more telebooks …… (10) she had.

Now he had found a real book and was showing it to Margie. It was about

school – the kind of school children went to ……… (15). In those days

children did not have their own mechanical teachers; their teacher was a real

person, who taught all the children …….. (38). The children read books

which were made of paper, with all the words printed on the paper so that

they …….. (3) instead of moving like words on a television ……… (3).

They wrote out their homework in ordinary writing, too, instead of a special

……… (11); and they handed their homework to their teacher ………. (3)

inserting it in a ……….. (11) in a machine. Margie thought the children

………….. (41) school in the old days.

We have already noted one us of the definite article, in sentences such

as: ‘The incidents which are described in this story happened in 2155.

We shall now look at another way in which ‘the’ is used. Observe the

following sentence:

One day, Tommy found a book in his house. He showed it to Margie

and they body began to read the book.

330

In the first sentence, we say a book because we are talking about it for

the first time. In the second sentence, however, we say the book because it

has already been introduction in the first sentence.

Use this information to fill in the gaps in the following, with a/an or the

• Margie had ……… Mechanical teacher in her house. Every day except

Saturday and Sunday she sat in front of ………Teacher to do her lessons.

• Tommy, too, had ….. mechanical teacher in his house. It had ….. big

television screen. Tommy often saw telebooks on …………. Screen.

• There was …….. special room next to Margie’s bedroom. She called it

school because her mechanical teacher lived in …… room. She went

into ….. room whenever it was time for school.

• Tommy’s house had ….. attic. One day he found ….. very old book in

….. attic.

• Margie kept …… diary in which she wrote about important happenings.

When Tommy found …… real book, she wrote about it in ….. diary.

• Each county had ….. inspector to look after its teachers. Whenever ……

mechanical teacher went wrong, people sent for ….. man. He came and

opened up …… machine to see what had gone wrong.

• At first Margie thought that Tommy’s book was about …… mechanical

teacher. Then she realized that it was about ….. real teacher, who was

….. man, not ….. machine. Her first thought was that she would not like

….. strange man to come and tech her in her house.

• Margie’s mechanical teacher gave her not only lessons but also

homework and test papers. It had ….. slot in which ….. homework and

test papers had to be put.

331

Grammar – II


(a) Margie said, I hate school.

(b) Margie said that she hated school.

The first sentence gives us Margie’s words directly. The second

sentence, on the other hand, gives them indirectly, by reporting what she

said. Notice how, in the second sentence, the tense of the verb has

changed (‘hate’ – ‘hated’) and also how the pronoun has changed (‘I’–

‘she’).

Here are some sentences in direct speech. Rewire them in indirect or

reported speech? Look at the following example:

(a) Margie asked, ‘What is it about?’

(b) Margie asked what it was about.

Notice that, in addition to the change of tense (‘is’ – ‘was’), there is a

change in the word order (‘is it’ – ‘it was’).

Rewrite the following questions in reported speech, using the hints given

in brackets.

1. (a) Margie asked, ‘what is there to write about school?’

(b) (Margie asked what there was ……. )

2. (a) She wondered, ‘How can a man be a teacher?’

(b) (……… how a man could …….)

3. (a) Tommy asked, ‘What do people do when they have finished the

book?’

(b) (……. What people did when they had…….)

4. (a) The inspector asked, ‘Where is the mechanical techer?’

332

(b) (…….. where ….. was)

5. (a) Margie’s mother wondered, ‘Why does my daughter fail her

geography tests?’

(b) (…….. why her daughter……)

Composition – I

If we have to describe something in a paragraph, we can make a plan by

asking various questions about it. For example, here are some questions

about a telebook:

1. Is it like an ordinary book?

2. In what way is it different?

3. How do people read it?

4. What is the advantage of telebooks?

5. What is the disadvantage?

Now, here is a paragraph based on the answers to these questions. Notice

that it is a continuous paragraph, not a series of unconnected statements.

A telebook is quite different from an ordinary book. In an ordinary

book, words are printed on pages and remain there. A telebook, on the other

hand, consists of words which appear on a television screen and keep

moving on it. People read a telebook by reading the words as they appear on

the screen. The advantage of telebooks is that a great number of such books

can be shown on a single television screen. The disadvantage is that we

cannot turn back the pages to read something again.

Here are two more sets of questions. One of them is on the ordinary

school (of the 20th

century). The other is on the mechanical teacher (of the

333

22nd

century). Study the questions and write two separate paragraphs based

on them.

(a) An ordinary school

2. Where is it? (In a special building or in each child’s house?)

3. Who goes to it?

4. Do they enjoy themselves? How?

5. Do they all learn the same things? Who are they taught by?

6. What is the advantage of such a school? (helping one another)

7. What is its disadvantage? (lesions not adjusted to each child)

(b) A mechanical teacher

1. What is a mechanical teacher? (not a man or woman, but a machine

with a screen)

2. How does it teach? (Moving words on the screen)

3. Does it give homework and tests?

4. How must the answers be written? (punch code)

5. How does the machine receive the answers? (slot)

6. Can the speed of teaching be adjusted?

7. Can the teacher go wrong sometimes?

8. What can be done then? (inspector)

9. What is the advantage of such a teacher? (adjustment to suit each

child)

10. What is its disadvantage? (your own opinion).

334

Composition – II

You probably know that several centuries ago, people wrote not on paper but

on palm-leaf (e.g.in India) or on parchment, i.e. leather made smooth and

soft (e.g. in Europe). They did not write with an ordinary pen and ink, but

with a metal pen which was like a big needle. There were no printing

presses; each copy of a book had to be written by hand.

Imagine a boy and a girl (give them names) of this century. The boy

finds a book written, several centuries ago, on palm-leaf or parchment

(choose one of the two). He is older than the girl and has read about such

books. The girl does not know about such books, and is therefore puzzled

by what they have found. The boy tells her what he knows and they then

discuss the advantages (e.g. each book is something special and precious)

and disadvantages (e.g. not many copies) of such books.

Now write out a conversation between the boy and the girl, using the

above points and any other points that you can think of. You can being in

the following way:

(Boy) Look what I have found!

(Girl) What is it?

(Boy) It’s a book

(Girl) A book! But it doesn’t look at all like a book. It’s not even

made of paper.

(Boy) No, but they didn’t make books from paper in the old days.

There was no paper at all in those days.

(Girl) What is it made of, then?

(Continue).

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3. A ROBOT ABUT THE HOUSE

- M.W.Thring

As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the

point of supplying all the basic essentials of life – food, shelter, clothes, and

warmth. Then we are faced with a choice between using technology to

provide and fulfill needs which have hitherto been regarded as unnecessary

or, on the other hand, using technology to reduce the number of hours of

work which a man must do in order to earn a given standard of living. In

other words, we either raise our standard of living above that necessary for

comfort and happiness or we leave it at this level and work shorter hours. I

shall take it as axiomatic that mankind has, by that time, chosen the latter

alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid

employment. It follows that the housewife will also expect to be able to

have more leisure in her life without lowering her standard of living. It also

follows that human domestic servants will have completely ceased to exist.

Yet the great majority of the housewives will wish to be relieved completely

from the routine operations of the home such as scrubbing the floors or the

bath or the cooker, or washing the clothes or washing up, or dusting or

sweeping, or making beds. By far the most logical step to relieve the

housewife of routine, is to provide a robot slave which can be trained to the

requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a

dozen or more standard operations (for example, scrubbing, sweeping and

dusting, washing up, laying tables, making beds), when so switched by the

housewife, It will be a machine having no more emotions that a car, but

having a memory for instructions and a limited degree of instructed or built-

in adaptability according to the positions in which it finds various types of

objects. It will operate other more specialized machines, for example, the

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vacuum cleaner or clothes washing machine. There are no problems in the

production of such a domestic robot to which we do not have already the

glimmering of a solution. When I have discussed this kind of device with

housewives, some 90 per cent of them have the immediate reaction, ‘How

soon can I buy one? The other 10 per cent have the reaction, I would be

terrified to have it moving about my house – but when one explains to them

that it could be switched off or unplugged or stopped without the slightest

difficulty, or made to go and put itself away in a cupboard at any time, they

quickly realize that it is a highly desirable object. In my own home we have

found that, at first, the washing-up machine was regarded as a rival to the

worker at the kitchen sink, but now there is no greater pleasure than to go to

bed in the evening and know that the washing up is being done down stairs

after one is asleep. Some families would be delighted, no doubt, to have the

robot slave doing all the downstairs house work after they were in bed at

night, while others would prefer to have it done in the mornings, but this

would be entirely a matter of choice. It is impossible to predict in detail the

shape and mechanism of the robot slave. It might carry its computer and

response mechanism around with it and also its source of power; or it might

operate with a computer stored in a cupboard under the stairs and the signals

and information proceeding along a cable, which also carries the power from

the mains, through the machine moving about the house. In this case it

would unwind its cable as it went to a given room and wind it up again when

it went back and put itself away under the stairs. It might carry its power,

for example, by storage batteries, and have its instructions beamed to it by

short wave short-range electromagnetic waves. The machine would have to

be able to move about in a house designed for human beings and would

therefore probably have to go through a normal door, open such a door and

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close it, and walk up and down stairs or over irregularities on the floor. It

will not look at all like a human being, but rather like a box with one large

eye at the top, two arms, three hands, and a pair of long narrow pads on each

side to support and move itself with. The problem of making the machine

respond to the presence of objects in different places such as the foot of the

stair case has already been solved, in partial prototypes. The chief difficulty

is undoubtedly the coordination of hand and eye- for example, to teach the

machine to distinguish between a knife and a fork and to lay them on

opposite sides of the place at the table. However, it is true that the

fundamental problem of distinguishing between objects of different shapes

by a computer has already been partially solved and published, and therefore

there is no basic problem in this. When one considers the immense change

in the size and reliability of computers and all other electronic devices that

has taken place, it is clear that computers for doing this type of control of

movement according to sense impression will certainly be available.

Preliminary work on the design of suitable walking and stair-climbing

mechanisms has already shown that there are no major problems in thie

filed, and the design of arms with the necessary degrees of freedom and of

hands both for picking up objects and for gripping and rotating and object

indefinitely in either direction is well advanced. Storage batteries or directly

fuelled cells will certainly be well enough developed to provide, say, 1 KW

for 1 hour with a weight of 20 lb or so. Basically, applied science starts with

the clear understanding of a human need and then uses all the available

scientific knowledge to assist in the achievement and satisfaction of this

need. Helping the housewife by eliminating the routine operations is the

outstanding human need in the developed countries that calls for solution.

The only problem is whether a sufficient number of applied scientists will

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have recognized and decided to work for the achievement of this need and

will have obtained the necessary financial backing. We can expect to see,

first, the development of a robot for some purpose whenever money is no

object, such as for rescuing people from burning houses or aeroplanes or

putting out oil-well fires.

Glossary

adaptability (n) / ability to change for a different use or for new conditions,

axiomatic (adj) / assumed to be true without proof, beam (v) / bim / (in

electronics) send, broadcast, computer (n) / a device (machine) which can

either set takes for other machines or itself solve problems set for it by

human programmers, coordination (n) / bringing into proper relation,

device (n) / invention; something made for a specific purpose, electronic

(adj) / using electrons, the tiniest particles of electricity, eliminate (v) / get

rid of, fundamental (adj) / basic, glimmering (n) / faint possibility, grip (v)

/ grip / hold tight, indefinitely (adv) / in’definitli / without a limit,

outstanding (adj) / aut’standing / most important or obvious, pad (n) / paed

/ something made of, or filled with, thick soft material, partial (adj) / pa:1/

not complete, predict (n) / pri’dikt / say or tell in advance, preliminary (adj)

/ pri’liminrei / introductory, preparatory, prototype (n) / proutoutaip /

model, especially the first model of a new device, robot (n) / roubot/

mechanism that acts like a man, rotate (n) / routeit / turn something round

and round, scrub (n) / skrb / clean by rubbing hard with a brush dipped in

soap and water.

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Comprehension – I

1. This essay can be divided into two main parts, with the following sub-

headings:

Part I : The idea of a robot slave Part II : Its technical aspects

Where do you think the second part begins?

2. The first paragraph describes the context in which people may wish to

have robots. There is another paragraph in the essay which describes

the context in which robots may actually be developed. Which

paragraph is it?

3. Which sentence tells us clearly that a robot slave is technically

possible? Where else in the essay is the same point repeated?

4. What is the main point of the fourth paragraph? Choose one of the

following:

(a) A robot slave will be very useful, just as a washing-up machine is

useful.

(b) Housewives will welcome a robot slave, though some of them will

have to get used to it just as they got used to having a washing-up

machine.

(c) Ninety per cent of housewives are in favour of a robot slave; the others

are against it,

5. The author says that robots are an outstanding human need in the

developed countries. Why developed countries? (Find the answer from

the first paragraph).

6. Does the author suggest anywhere that a robot slave will at first be very

expensive? If so, where?

7. In what connection does the author mention the following? (See the

answer to the first item; answer the rest in the same way).

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(1) Car : Robots will have no emotions, (3) Irregularities on the floor:

Just as a car has none (4) Knife and fork

(2) Vacuum cleaner : (5) Oil-well fires :

8. Which of the following sentences describes correctly the author’s

attitude in this essay?

(a) He is asking our scientists to develop such robots

(b) He is warning the common people that such robots will soon be

developed

(c) He thinks it possible that such robots will be developed and is telling us

why he thinks so.

(d) He wishes to develop such robots and is telling us why he wishes to do

so.


1. Does the author think that everybody will get enough food, shelter and

clothes in our technological civilization? What words give you the

answer?

2. …… we either raise our standard of living above that necessary for

comfort ……. What does that refer to here?

3. The author accepts something as correct, without giving any arguments

or evidence to prove it. What does he accept in that way? Does he tell

us that he is doing so?

4. ….. that mankind has, by that time, chosen the latter alternative. By

what time? Which is the latter alternative?

5. Does the author say that men will be more and more idle in future

years? If so, where does he say it? If not, what does he really say?

6. What words in the first paragraph mean, disappeared totally?

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7. Will housewives wish to get rid of all their work or only some types of

work? How do you know?

8. Will the robot slave have a mind? In what sense? (Find the answer

from the second paragraph)

9. Is the author thinking of a robot slave which can be asked to do any

kind of housework? What words give us the answer?

10. Will the robot slave have its own slaves? How do you know?

11. There are no problems in the production of such a domestic robot to

which we do not have already the glimmering of a solution, Rewrite

this sentence, beginning as follows: We already have the glimmering

of a solutin…..

12. When a domestic robot is produced, will a majority of housewives

wish to buy it immediately? How can you tell?

13. When the author bought a washing-up machine, did his family like or

dislike it at the beginning? Why?

14. But now there is no greater pleasure than to go to bed in the evening

and know that the washing-up is being done downstairs. Rewire this,

beginning: But now it is a great pleasure….

15. What words tell us that bedroom are usually situated upstairs in western

countries?

16. A robot must have two important things: (i) ability to understand and

carry out orders; and (ii) energy to do so. How will these be provided?

(See the fifth paragraph).

17. If the robot carries storage batteries as well as its computer, should

there be a cable connecting it to a cupboard or electric point?

18. Will the robot look like a slave? How do you know?

19. Does the author think the robot will be able to lay the table for dinner?

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How do you know?

20. What words in this passage tell us that the computer is and electronic

device?

21. Does the seventh paragraph talk about problems connected with the

mind of a robot or its body? What kind of problems are discussed in

the previous (i.e.sixth) Paragraph?

22. Is the development of a domestic robot a branch of science in itself or

an application of it? How can you tell, from the text?

23. The author mentions four things which are necessary for developing a

domestic robot. The second and third are given below. What are the

other two?

(2) The availability of scientific knowledge

(3) A sufficient number of applied scientists who are prepared to work

on it.

24. What words in the last paragraph have the meaning not important?

25. Why does the author think of rescuing people from burning houses or

aeroplanes or putting out oil-well fires? Choose one of

the following.

(a) Because a domestic robot will have to do such things

(b) Because no one minds if a lot of money is spent on doing such

things

(c) Because they are the most important needs in developed

countries.

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Spelling

Here is a list of words wrongly spelt. Eiterh insert or take away a letter to

put them right.

1. fulfill 6. indefinitly

2. cuboard 7. prelimary

3. desireable 8. financal

4. fueled 9. routin

5. vacum 10. elimnate

Pronunciation

(a) We have seen how long sentences can be spoken with the right stress and

rhythm by saying them in successive groups from the end. We can also

learn to speak long sentences by saying them in successive groups from

the beginning:

There are no problems in the production of such a domestic robot to which

we don’t have already the glimmering of a solution

Notice that the groups are marked off by

Now say (1) There are no problems

(2) There are no problems in the production

(3) There are no problems in the production of such a

domestic robot.

(4) There are no problems in the production of such a domestic

robot to which we don’t have already

(5) There are no problems in the production of such a

domestic robot to which we don’t have already the

glimmering of a solution.

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Now mark sentence stress and group divisions in these sentences and

practice saying them:

1. The machine would have to be able to move about in a house

designed for human beings and would therefore probably have to go

through a normal door.

2. Helping the housewife by eliminating the routine operations is the

outstanding human need in the developed countries that calls for

solution.

(b) A limited number of words change their stress pattern according to their

grammatical function. Examples:

Noun Verb

Object object

Protest protest

Now practice saying the following words after marking their stress:

Noun Verb Adjective

Proceeds Proceed

Subject subject subject

Contrast contrast

extract extract

conduct conduct

present present present

Notice the change in pronunciation from noun to verb.

Vocabulary – I

Find single words in the passage which have roughly the meanings given

below:

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1. wires conducting electricity

2. advanced

3. saving

4. freed

5. having to do with the home or household work

6. greater number or part

Vocabulary – II



A B

1. axiomatic (a) something made or used for a

2. fundamental special purpose

3. device (b) proof

4. coordinate (c) first model

5. prototype (d) elementary

6. adaptability (e) ability to change for a different

use or for new conditions

(f) make two or more things work

properly together

(g) assumed to be true without

proof

(h) make a change

(i) basic

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Vocabulary – III


or phrases from the passage. The relevant paragraph number is given for

each missing word or phrase.

By 1984 the outstanding problem in the …… (8) countries will be that of

relieving the housewife as far as possible of the ……. (1) of the home. The

technology required to produce a robot slave is already ………… (7), and it

is already possible to get some idea of what such a robot will ……… (5).

The only problems in the production of such a domestic robot are ……. (8)

enough …… (8) will want to work on its development and whether …… (8)

money will be …….. (6) to pay for their research ……. (1) that the

development of a robot for some purpose where ……………….. (8), such as

for rescuing people from fires, will probably be the first achievement in this

direction that we …….. (8).

Grammar – I

The definite article is used in many ways in English. We have so far seen

four of its uses and shall now look at a fifth one. Observe the following

sentences:

(a) Computers are electronic device.

(b) The computer is an electronic device.

These two sentences say the same thing. We say the computer in the second

sentence, not because we are referring to a particular computer, but because

we are referring to computer in general – i.e. to all computers. The first

sentence does the same thing by using the plural form, computers.

Here are some sentences like (a); rewrite them in the form of (b). Use any

hints given in brackets.

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1. (a) Housewives will wish to get rid of routine domestic work.

(b) (The housewife …..)

2. (a) Robots are automatic machines that act almost like human beings

(b) (….. an automatic ….. acts …… a human beings).

3. (a) Washing-up machines were at first regarded as rivals to housewives.

(b) (…… a rival to the …..)

4. (a) Pure scientists make knowledge available while applied scientists use

it for human welfare.

(b) (…… makes ……. uses)

5. (a) Tax-payers do not complain if a lot of money is spent on rescue work.

Now here are some sentences like (b); rewrite them in the form of (a).

1. (b) The human domestic servant will have ceased to exist by that time.

(a) (Human domestic servants …..)

2. (b) The vacuum cleaner has made it much easier to keep the floor free of

dust and dirt.

(a) (……. have ……)

3. (b) The motor-car has no emotions of any kind.

4. (b) The storage battery is now used in many kinds of machines.

(a) (….. are …)

5. (b) The Englishman uses a knife and fork to eat his food with.

(a) (….. use ….. their…..)

Grammar – II


(a) Perhaps civilization will proceed further in the direction of

technology; it will then pass the point of supplying all the basic

essentials of life.

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(b) If civilization proceeds further in the direction of technology, it will

pass the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life.

In (a), two clauses are put together loosely, by using a semi-colon; in (b),

they are joined together more closely by if. Notice how the verb in the first

clause has changed, from will proceed to proceeds. This is because will and

shall are not normally used in if clauses; they are used only in main clauses

(e.g.will pass). Notice also how the words perhaps and then are dropped

when if is used.

The if clauses we are talking abut here are different from the ones we

discussed in a previous lesson (the one on An observation and an

Explanation). There the if clause was about something imaginary that did

not really happen in the past; here we are speaking of things that many

actually happen in the future.

What is said about if clauses here is also true of when clauses. Observe the

following:

(a) Developed countries will soon be able to provide food, shelter and

clothing for all their people; they will then have a choice to make.

(b) When developed countries are able to provide food, shelter and

clothing for all their people, they will have a choice to make.

Notice that will be is changed to are and then is dropped in (b).

Here are some sentences like (a); rewrite them in the form of (b),

using if or when as indicated in brackets.

1. (a) Perhaps people will decide to have a much higher standard of living;

then they will have to go on working the same number of hours.

(b) (If people decide …..)

2. (a) Perhaps people will not want a much higher standard of living; then

they will be able to work shorter hours.

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(b) (If….)

3. (a) Men will being to work shorter and shorter hours in their paid

employment; then women will also wish to have more leisure.

(b) (When men begin ….)

4. (a) Human domestic servants will have ceased to exist; then it will be

necessary to have robots to do the housework.

(b) (When …..)

5. (a) The housewife will switch the robot on for a particular job; then it will

go ahead and do it.

(b) (When …..)

6. (a) Perhaps a housewife will feel frightened of the robot; them she can

simply switch it off or send it into a cupboard.

(b) (If ……)

7. (a) Someone will explain to the housewife that the robot is simply a

machine, without any emotions; then she will realize that it is highly

desirable.

(b) (When ….)

8. (a) All the family will be in bed upstairs; then the robot slave will start

the housework.

(b) (When … are in bed ….)

9. (a) Perhaps the robot will carry its own computer and storage batteries;

then it will not need a cable to connect it to the mains supply.

(b) (If …..)

10.(a) Perhaps the robot will be connected by a cable to a computer in a

cupboard; then it will have to wind up and unwind the cable as it

moves about.

(b) (If ….)

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Composition – I

Study the following plan for a paragraph:

1. Situation Technological civilization will soon have provided all basic

necessities.

2. A Choice Either (a) : Raise the standard of living further

Or (b) : Work shorter hours.

3. Consequence If (a) : The same amount of work has to be done

If (b) : The standard of living will continue at the same

level.

Now read the following paragraph, which is based on this plan.

When our technological civilization has provided all the basic necessities of

Life, we will have to make a choice. We may, on the one hand, decide to

raise the standard of living further, desiring many things in addition to

food,shelter and clothing. On the other hand, we may wish to work shorter

hours in our paid employment and have more time for rest, recreation and

hobbies. If we choose the former, we will have to go on working the same

number of hours; and, if we choose the latter, we will have to be satisfied

with the existing standard of living. It is likely that we shall choose the

latter alternative.

Here is another plan, for a similar paragraph. Study it and then write a

paragraph based on it.

1. Situation We are ready to build domestic robots.

2. A choice Either (a) : Make it carry its computer and storage

batteries.

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Or (b) : Keep the computer in a cupboard and connect

the robot to the mains supply by means of a

cable.

3. Consequence If (a) : The robot will be heavy and perhaps too large

and clumsy.

If (b) : The robot will have to wind up and unwind its

cable as it moves about the house.

Composition – II

Imagine that the author of this essay on robots in talking to a housewife.

The housewife expresses her fears doubts one by on and the author removes

them by explaining various things about the robot. The housewife’s part of

the conversation is given below. Write the author’s part of it.

Housewife I don’t like the idea of having a robot in the house; I should be

frightened to have such a thing moving about in my house.

Author But it is just a machine. It can be unplugged ….

Housewife Is such a robot technically possible? Aren’t there difficult

problems in developing it?

Author Yes, but we already heve…….

Housewife How will it be able to understand and carry out orders?

Author (Computer)

Housewife How will it be powered?

Author (Mains or batteries)

Housewife What will it look like?

Author …….

Housewife When do you think such robots will be built?

Author (finance)

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4. A WRONG MAN IN WORKERS PARADISE

Rabindranath Tagore

The man had never believed in mere utility.

Having had no useful work, he indulged in mad whims. He made little

pieces of sculpture-men, women and castles, quaint earthen things dotted

over with sea-shells. He painted. Thus he wasted his time on all that was

useless, needless. People laughed at him. At times he vowed to shake off his

whims, but they lingered in his mind.

Some boys seldom ply their books and yet pass their tests. A similar

thing happened to his man. He spent his earthlife in useless work and yet

after his death the gates of Heaven opened wide for him.

But the Moving Finger1 writes even in Heaven. So it came to pass that

the aerial messenger who took charge of the man made a mistake and found

him a place in Workers Paradise.

In this Paradise you find everything, except leisure.

Here men say: ‘God! We haven’t a moment to spare.’ Women

whisper: ‘Let’s move on, time’s a-flying,. All exclaim ‘Time is precious’.

‘We have our hands full, we make use of every single minute,’ they sigh

complainingly, and yet those words make them happy and exalted.

But this newcomer, who had passed all his life on Earth without doing

a scrap of useful work, did not fit in with the scheme of things in Workers’

paradise. He lounged in the streets absently and jostled the hurrying men. He

lay down in green meadows, or close to the fast-flowing streams, and was

taken to task by busy farmers. He was always in the way of others.

A hustling girl went every day to a silent torrent (silent, since in the

Workers’ paradise even a torrent would not waste its energy singing) to fill

her pitcher.

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The girl’s movement on the road was like the rapid movement of a

skilled hand on the strings of a guitar. Her hair was carelessly done;

inquisitive wisps stooped often over her forehead to peer at the dark wonder

of her eye.

The idler was standing by the stream. As a princess sees a lonely

beggar and is filled with pity, so the busy girl of Heaven saw this one and

was filled with pity.

‘A- ha!’ she cried with concern. ‘You have no work in hand, have

you?’

The man sighed, ‘Work! I have not a moment to spare for work’.

The girl did not understand his words, and said, ‘I shall spare sone

work for you to do, if you like’.

The man replied: ‘Girl of the silent torrent, all this time I have been

waiting to take some work from your hands.’

‘What kind of work would you like?’

‘Will you give me one of your pitchers, one that you can spare?’

She asked: ‘A pitcher? You want to draw water from the torrent?’

‘No, I shall draw pictures on your pitcher.’

The girl was annoyed.

‘Pictures, indeed! I have no time to waste on such as you. I am

going.’ And she walked away.

But how could a busy person get the better of one who had nothing to

do? Every day they met, and every day he said to her, ‘Girl of the silent

torrent, give me one of your clay pitchers. I shall draw pictures on it.’

She yielded at last. She gave him one of her pitchers. The man started

painting. He drew line after line, he put colour after colour.

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When he had completed his work the girl held up the pitcher and

stared at its sides, her eyed puzzled. Brows drawn, she asked: ‘What to they

mean, all those lines and colours? What is their purpose?’

The man laughed.

‘Nothing. A picture may have no meaning and nay serve no purpose.’

The girl went away with her pitcher. At home, away from prying eyes,

she held it in the light, turned it round and round and scanned the painting

from all angles.

At night she moved out of bed, lighted a lamp and scanned it again in

silence. For the first time in her life she seen something that had to no

meaning and no purpose at all.

When she set out for the torrent the next day, her hurrying feet were a

little less hurried than before. For a new sense seemed to have wakened in

her, a sense that seemed to have no meaning and no purpose at all.

She saw the painter standing by the torrent and asked in confusion:

‘what do you want of me?’

‘Only some more work from your hands.’

‘what kind of work would you like?’

‘Let me make a coloured ribbon for your hair,’ he answered.

‘And what for?’

‘Nothing.’

Ribbons were made, bright with colour. The busy girl of workers’

Paradise had now to spend a lot of time every day tying the coloured ribbon

around her hair. The minutes slipped by, unutilized. Much work was left

unfinished.

In workers’ Paradise work had of late begun to suffer. Many persons

who had been active before were now idle, wasting their precious time on

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useless things such as painting and sculpture. The elders became anxious. A

meeting was called. All agreed that such a state of affairs had so far been

unknown in the history of workers’ Paradise.

The aerial messenger hurried in, bowed before the elders and made a

confession.

‘I brought a wrong man into this paradise,’ he said. ‘It is all due to

him.’

The man was summoned. As he came the elders saw his fantastic

dress, his Quaint brushes, his paints, and they knew at once that he was not

the right sort for Workers’ Paradise.

Stiffly the president said: ‘This is no place for the like of you. You

must leave.

The man sighed in relief and gathered up his brush and paint. But as

he was about to go, the girl of the silent torrent cane up tripping and cried:

‘Wait a moment. I shall go with you.’

The elders gasped in surprise. Never before had a thing like this

happened in Workers’ Paradise-a thing that had no meaning and no purpose

at all!

Comprehension-1

1.Is this a realistic story? could such things have actually happened? what

parts of it could and could not happen in the real world?

2. Here are some things which the man did and didn’t do.

(1) Didn’t do any work that was meresly6 useful.

(2) Made little pieces of sculpture.

(3) Lay down in green meadows and by the side of flowing streams.

(4) painted pictures, and didn’t think a picture should have any

meaning or purpose.

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(5) Made bright-coloured ribbons for the girl’s hair.

(6) Spent a lot of time doing nothing.

What would you call such a man- an idler, an artist or a madman?

3.Make a similar list of the things which the people in Worker’s Paradise did

and didn’t do. What do you think of such people? Do you admire them,

dislike them or feel sorry for them?

4. (1) The girl was at first ‘filled with pity’ for the man. why?

(2) A little later, she ‘was annoyed’ with him. why?

(3) Then, one day, she was ‘in confusion’ when she spoke to him.

What does this show?

(4) Finally, she declared that she would go with him. What made her

do so?

5. The author seems to make fun of the man. He says for example, that the

man ‘indulged in mad whims’ and ‘wasted his time on all that was useless,

needless’. Do you think the author really dislikes the man? Or is he in

sympathy with him?

6.Dose the author make fun of Workers’ Paradise? If so, how and where?

7.What do you think is the main point of the story? Choose one of the

following:

(a) The love of an artist for a pretty girl.

(b) The change of heart in a girl who used to believe in mere utility.

(c) An opposition between happiness and beauty on the hand, and

work and utility on the other.

(d) The greatness of a society where no time is wasted and no idler is

allowed to stay.

8.What is the attitude of the author in this story? Choose one of the

following:

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(a) He tells the story without taking sides.

(b) He pretends to be in sympathy with Workers’ Paradise but is

really in sympathy with the man.

(c) He supports the young lovers against the elders.

(d) He makes fun of those who believe in Paradise.

Comprehension-II

Answer the following by choosing the best alternative (a, b, c, or d) under

each. Think carefully before you make your choice.

1.The man

(a) did not do any kind of work.

(b) did only those things that gave him pleasure, whether or not they

were useful.

(c) did only those things which were useless, though they gave him no

pleasure.

(d) did only those things which were useful to himself.

2. ‘… but they lingered in his mind.’ ‘They’ here refers to

(a) the people who laughed at him.

(b) his vows.

(c) the things he made (e.g. pieces of sculpture, paintings).

(d) his whims.

3. Why does the author mention boys who pass their tests without studying

their books?

(a) In order to make us understand how the man passed into Heaven

without doing any useful work.

(b) In order to suggest that the man had been lucky even in his student

days.

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(c) In order to indicate that passing tests is as difficult as going to

Heaven.

(d) In order to bring out the importance of reading books and doing

useful work.

4. People in Worders’ paradise

(a) took pleasure in complaining about their work.

(b) had no time even to complain about their work.

(c) complained about their work and wished to have some leisure.

(d) felt happy and exalted when other people complained about their

work.

5. ‘He was always in the way of others.’ This means that

(a) he was always imitating other people.

(b) he was always blocking other people’s way.

(c) he spent all his time on the road.

(d) he was always going to see other people.

6. ‘In the Workers’ Paradise, even a torrent would not waste its energy

singing.’ This sentence is meant to

(a) state a fact.

(b) praise fun of the man.

(c) make fun of the man.

(d) make fun of the Workers’ Paradise.

7.Who or what looked eagerly ‘at the dark wonder’ of the girl’s eye?

(a) The man.

(b) The people of Workers’ Paradise.

(c) Inquisitive persons.

(d) Her own hair.

8. The author’s description of the girl suggests that

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(a) she was beautiful.

(b) she was not very attractive.

(c) she was even more busy than others.

(d) she was the princess of that place.

9. ‘I have not a moment to spare for work.’ This means

(a) ‘I have so much work that I cannot spare a moment for anything

else.’

(b) ‘I have never done any work even for a moment.’

(c) ‘I have so many other things to do that I have no time at all for

work.’

(d) ‘I have spent every moment of my time looking for work.’

10. ‘I have no time to waste on such as you.’ This means

(a) ‘I shall not waste time as you are doing.’

(b) ‘I shall not waste so much time on you.’

(c) ‘I shall not waste time on people like you.’

(d) ‘I shall not help you to waste your time.’

11. The girl took the painted pitcher home and looked at it from all angles. It

had a strange effect on her. The author’s description of this effect shows that

(a) she had fallen in love with the man.

(b) she felt the influence of a beautiful object for the first time.

(c) she found it very difficult to understand the meaning and purpose

of the picture

(d) she was worried about what to say to the man the next day.

12. The girl spent ‘a lot of time every day tying, the coloured ribbon around

her hair’. This was because

(a) she admired the ribbon as well as how her hair looked in it.

(b) she did not know how to tie a ribbon around her hair.

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(c) she had to do it without anyone’s knowledge.

(d) she was trying to make herself attractive to be man.

13. ‘This is no place for the like of you.’ This means

(a) ‘This place is not liked by you.’

(b) ‘This place is not like your place.’

(c) ‘This place is not likely to keep you.’

(d) ‘This place is not meant for people like you.’

14. when the elders asked the man to leave Workers’ Paradise, the man was

(a) disappointed.

(b) pleased.

(c) worried.

(d) shocked.

15. At the end of the story,

(a) the elders won against the man.

(b) the girl won against the elders.

(c) the man won against the elders.

(d) the man won against the girl.

Spelling

(a) Insert ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ to complete the following words:

1. effic………nt 6. rel………f

2. l………..sure 7. rec……pt

3 .s…………ze 8. Gr……..f

4. y…………ld 9. …….ther

5. p…………ce 10. Cr……d

(b) Complete the following words by adding ‘er’ or ‘ar’:

1. ling 4. messeng

2. guit 5. simil

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3. begg 6. Eld

Pronunciation

(a) We have seen how the stress shifts in some words according to their

grammatical function. Here is a further list of such words. Arrange them

under Noun,Verb, and Adjective and mark stress.

1. desert 6. absent

2. export 7. torment

3. produce 8. invalid

4. content 9. rebel

5. alternate 10. Segment

Practice saying these words with the right stress and pronunciation. Notice

the changes in pronunciation with the shift in stess.

(b) Here is a list of short and long sentences. Mark sentence stress and group

divisions and practice saying them with the right rhythm.

1. But the Moving Finger writes even in Heaven.

2. The man had never believed in mere utility.

3. What kind of work would you like?

4. We haven’t moment to spare.

5. He was always in the way of others.

6. The girl’s movement on the road was like the rapid movement of a skilled

hand on the strings of a guitar.

7. But how could a busy person get the better of one who had nothing to do?

8. All agreed that such a state of affairs had so far been unknown in the

history of Workers paradise.

Vocabulary-I

Find single words in the passage which have roughly the meanings given

below:

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1. feeling joyful or successful

2. running or dancing with quick, light steps

3. work busily with or at

4. moving quickly and with energy

5. struggled for breath

6. looking inquisitively

Vocabulary-II

Match the words given under A with the meanings given under B. List B has

some extra items.

A B

1. quaint (a) push against

2. peer (b) usefulness

3. whim (c) old-fashioned

4. jostle (d) remain

5. linger (e) look closely

6. utility (f) rush about

(g) pleasing because of

its unfamiliar

appearance

(h) of everyday

importance

(i) strange desire of little

value

Vocabulary-III


or phrases from the passage. The relevant paragraph number is given for

each missing word or phrase.

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The new principal ……………………(1) hard work and in a proper use of

………………(5). As soon as he for too lang. ‘There is

………………….(20) on ………………………………….(35) and playing

the guitar,’ he told the students. ‘You must make good use of

……………………………(6), either in study or in useful work such as

cleaning the school building or watering the school garden.

The students ………………………. (41). It was obvious that

…………………..(7) was going to be very different under their new

principal. ‘This is ……………………………………… (39) us,’ they

whispered to each othert.

Grammar-I

This story is all in the past tense except two paragraphs in it. Which

paragraphs are they?

These two paragraphs are in the present simple tense (‘In this Paradise

you find…,’ ‘Here men say…’) probably because the author is talking about

the habits of the people of Workers’ Paradise. (There may also be another

purpose: to suggest that such people exist today. Do you agree?) When we

talk about people’s habits at the present time, we use the present simple

tense, e.g. ‘Some students neglect their books and waste their time’. We also

use the present simple tense when we talk about the characteristics or

properties of objects, e.g. ‘Petrol evaporates easily.’

(a) Study the following paragraph, which is in the past simple tense and

which describes the man’s habits.

The man did not believe in mere utility. He did not do any work unless it

satisfied his sense of beauty and gave him happiness; and he did the things

that made him happy, even if they were not useful to anyone. For example

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he made little clay figures and painted pictures. He spent a lot of time idling

about. He lay down in green meadows or by the side of flowing streams.

Now, imagine that the man is talking to the girl about himself,

describing all his habits. The beginning of his speech is given below.

Continue and complete it. (Use the paragraph given above as a basis.)

‘I don’t believe in more utility. I don’t …’

(b) Next, imagine the man watching the girl as the hurried to the torrent

every day. Describe what he thought in a short paragraph. Use the hints

given below.

The man thought: ‘Every day this girl …….. to fill her pitcher. Her

movement … Her bair….’

Grammar-II

We have already seen how statements and certain questions in direct speech

are changed into indirect speech. Let us now see how certain other questions

are changed into indirect speech. Observe the following:

(a) The girl asked: ‘Have you no work in hand?’

(b) The girl asked whether he had no work in hand.

Or The girl asked if he had no work in hand.

Notice the change in tense (‘have’ - ‘had’), the change in the order of words

(‘have you’ - ‘he had’) and the use of ‘whether’ or ‘if’.

Here are some sentences like (a); rewrite them in the form of (b),

using the hints in brackets.

1. (a) The girl asked, ‘Can I give you some of my work?’

(b) (…if she could…)

2. (a) The man asked the girl, ‘Will you give me one of your pitchers?’

(b) (… Whether she would…)

3. (a) The girl inquired, ‘Do you want to draw water from the torrent?’

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(b) (…Whether …)

4. (a) The man asked, ‘Can I draw pictures on your pitcher?

(b) (… if …)

5. (a) The girl asked angrily, ‘Do you think I have time to waste on

people like you?’

(b) (…Whether …)

Now, here are some sentences like (b); rewrite them in the form of (a).

1. (b) The girl asked the man whether he wanted anything more from

her.

(b) ( The girl asked the man, ‘Do you…?’)

2. (b) The man inquired if he could make a coloured ribbon for her hair.

3. (b) The girl asked whether coloured ribbons were of any use.

4. (b) The girl asked if the pictures he had drawn on her pitcher had any

meaning.

(a) (…, ‘Do … you have drawn …. have …?’)

5. (b) The man asked her if there weren’t many good things in life which

had no meaning and no purpose.

(a) (…, ‘Aren’t … which have …?’)

Composition-I

(a) Imagine that the man kept a diary in which he wrote about important

happenings. He had not written anything in it for a long time, but on the day

he talked to the girl for the first time, he wanted to write about their

conversation. What would he write? Perhaps something like the following:

Some time ago, I completed my earthlife and then forund myself in this

strange place. I don’t know how I came here – perhaps by mistake. The

people here are busy all the time. They have everything except…

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Every day I see a girl rushing to a silent torrent to fetch water. This

morning she talked to me. She asked me if…

Continue and complete both the paragraphs, adding a few sentences to each.

(b) Now imagine that the girl also kept a diary. The day after she had

received the painted pitcher from the man, she wanted to write about the

man- how he suddenly appeared one day and how he spent his time in

Workers’ Paradise. Then she might describe how she talked to him one day,

how he asked her for a pitcher to paint, how she refused at first but yielded

after a few days and how, the day before, he returned the pitcher to her with

all kinds of bright colours on it. Finally, she might describe her own

thoughts and feelings about the picture.

Write about all this in three short paragraphs, beginning as follows:

I want to write here about a strange experience which I had yesterday. But

first I must say something about the man who was the cause of it. He

suddenly appeared one day....

Composition-II

Let us now see how we can write a brief ‘appreciation’ of this story. That

does not mean simply telling the story; nor does it mean merely praising the

story and its author. We have to say just how we understand the story and,

secondly, why we like (or dislike) it. The following can be an over-all plan

for such an essay:

1. The story (in about 6 sentences)

2. Its meaning (4 or 5 sentences)

3. The author’s attitude

(3 or 4 sentences)

4. The style (2 or 3 sentences)

Let us next fill in the details of this plan, as follows:

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1.The story (1) The man (What was his nature?)

(2) Workers’ Paradise (What did people do there?)

(3) The girl (What was she doing?)

(4) The painting (Where? What effect did it have?

(5) Coloured ribbons.

(6) Result ( the man asked to go; the girl’s declaration).

2. Its meaning (1) Opposition between the man (sense of beauty, art)

and Workers’ Paradise (mere utility).

`` (2) The girl changes from one to the other (‘a new sense

seemed to have wakened in her’); many others do the

same.

(3) Who wins in the end? (The power of art and beauty.)

3.The author’s attitude

(1) Pretends to make fun of the man (e.g. ‘mad whims’;

‘useless, needless’).

(2) But really makes fun of Workers’ Paradise (e.g.

‘silent torrent’, ‘no meaning and no purpose’)

4. The style (1) Often like a poem (e.g. the girl’s movement, hair; the

effect of the painted pitcher).

(2) Humorous comparisons (e.g. boys passing tests;

princess seeing a lonely beggar).

Now write a short essay of four paragraphs based on this plan.

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5. MAKING SURGERY SAFE

-Horace Shipp

1. A French chemist in Lille studying why wine and beer turned bad in

the vats;1 an English surgeon in Glasgow desperately fighting to save

his patients from the awful scourges of disease as wounds or the

incisions from their operations became septic; a Hungarian doctor in

Vienna equally desperate at the terrible death-roll2 of the mothers after

the children were born in his maternity hospital.

Pasteur ; Lister ; Semmelweis.

2. In the early 1860s these three men knew nothing of each other, but

each of them was working towards a discovery which saved millions

of lives, revolutionized surgery, gave vast results in matters of our

food, and supplied the clue to hundreds of diseases. That discovery

was germs, microbes, the minute organisms which could only be seen

through the most powerful microscopes, but which bred a life of their

own3 able to destroy the living tissues infected by them.

3. It was in surgery that most spectacular results of that discovery were

obtained, and it was there that the battle between the new idea and the

old prejudices was fought out most dramatically. Its coming into that

field changed the whole conditions under which operations were

performed, and so enormously extended its possibilities that we

reckon the art in two eras:4 one covering the history of mankind from

the earliest times to this time of Lister; the other, the period since. For

in ancient India, in Egypt, Greece and Rome, surgery was practiced,

and the instruments and knowledge were already remarkable. If it

stagnated under mediaeval influences, it revived again under such

men as Paracelsus in the sixteenth century, and moved steadily

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forward through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as human

anatomy and physiology yielded their secrets to the scientists. In the

nineteenth century one great discovery came to the aid of the surgeon

when James Young Simpson experimented with anaesthetics, and so

gave him time to perform his delicate work on patients unconscious of

pain.

4. But one terrible thing remained wrong.

5. In every hospital, whether from some original injury or from the

surgeon’s knife, wounds became inflamed, turned gangrenous ‘5 or

developed some similar terrible degeneration, and in a few days the

patient died as the whole blood stream became poisoned. Terrible

epidemics of this ‘Hospitalism’, as they called it, would sweep

through the wards.6 Often the authorities would deliberately close a

hospital for a time to try to stamp out the plague.7 But always it

returned . Even the simplest operation-the removal of a single joint of

a finger, the lancing of an abscess8 – would prove fatal; and no

operation was possible on the delicate parts of the human body, for

almost inevitably they became infected, and however skilful the

surgeon had been the patient died.

6. In a great Glasgow hospital a brilliant young surgeon named Joseph

Lister fought this evil. He was an earnest young man, son of a Quaker

family,9 and he had consecrated his life to this task of making surgery

safe. Once he said, concerning a wound that was healing healthily: ‘It

is the main object of my life to find out how to procure such a result in

all wounds.’ He had already set his feet along the right track10

by

studying inflammation, making strange experiments with the foot of a

frog and the wing of a bat under his microscope.

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7. Said another great scientist: ‘In the field of observation, chance only

favours the mind which is prepared.’

8. Lister’s mind was marvelously prepared. Other men accepted defeat;

they thought vaguely that there were gases in the air which caused

wounds to become septic. Lister’s own teacher had stated that surgery

had reached finality; but Lister worked on. He suspected that there

were minute organisms which entered wounds and set up their own

life-destroying life there, degenerating human tissue as the greenfly

will destroy the rose. He began his experiments for some substance

which would destroy this lower form of life,11

or build some barrier

between it and the open wound.

9. He found what he wanted in a powerful disinfectant, a by-product of

coal-tar, which he learned that the authorities at Carlisle were using on

their sewage. It was called carbolic. Lister introduced it into the

hospital wards, into the operating room, into his surgical bandages. He

dipped his instruments in it, and his swabs were rinsed in it. He even

sprayed the air around with a fine mist of carbolic while he performed

his operations. Joseph Lister had introduced antiseptic surgery.

10. It is fascinating that away in his maternity hospital in Vienna, Dr

Semmelweis had reached the same conclusion. There, with greater

violence even than in Britain, the thing flared into 12

an unreasoned

persecution of the pioneer by the old traditional men. Semmelweis

published his idea of antiseptics; he was persecuted, reviled, laughed

at, and dismissed from his post for advocating this new method. He

was driven temporarily insane;13

but, recovering, continued his

experiments in private. In one of them he contracted the blood-

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poisoning he was seeking to eliminate14

and died: a martyr to truth,15

a

prophet of progress who gave his life in a great cause.

11. Over in France the chemist, Louis Pasteur, had just published his

studies of the cause of fermentation in wines. He demonstrated that

the dust of the air contained minute organisms which increased and

multiplied themselves in a kind of fungus when they came into

contact with the right conditions. He conducted the most careful

experiments which took place in the dust –laden air18

of Paris did not

do so in the pure glacial air on the high Alps.17

12. When Lister read of these experiments he saw that in them, as he had

long suspected, lay the final clue to his own problem. It was not until

years afterwards that he heard of Semmelweis, but already an

opposition similar to that which broke the Hungarian was growing

here. Simpson himself, who as he the pioneer of anaesthetics had

suffered a similar persecution for his own innovations, led the attack;

and soon the old bringing all their weapons of ridicule and wild

accuation to bear on18

the ‘Spray and Gauze’ school, as they called

Lister’s methods. One of the ugliest fights of Lister’s career was with

the Glasgow Infirmary 19

where he had started his practice of

antiseptic surgery, for they bitterly resented an attack upon the

position of their buildings, which happened to be built a few feet

above a cholera pit20

where hundreds of bodies were still decaying!

13. But Lister worked on. For nine months there were no cases of the

dreaded ‘Hospitalism’ in the wards under his control. Terrible

fractures and gaping wounds, which inevitably would have became

septic under the old treatment, healed themselves when treated by his

antiseptics and given their barrier of carbolic against the infected air.

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Operations performed by his sterilized instruments and cleaned with

his sterilized swabs left cuts which naturally healed, when under the

old system they would have broken down into gangrene or some other

of the dread hospital diseases. Childbirth lost one part of its terrors,

for the horror of septic conditions starting up after the child was born

became almost eliminated. It was the fight of al new idea against the

old, and gradually the new won out.

14. On the Continent, in Copenhagen and Leipzig, in Munich, and under

the great doctor Volkmann, at Halle, the idea of antiseptics expanded

to that even greater one of creating operating theatres and operating

conditions which give no place at all for microbes. The antiseptics of

Lister evolved into the aseptic of modern surgery. Steam-sterilized

overalls,21

caps, makes and rubber gloves on doctors and nurses;

perfectly sterilized instruments, operating tables, and theatres, took

the place of the old germ-infected operating rooms, doctors in

garments blood-infected operating rooms, doctors in garments blood-

stained from a hundred operations, instrumnents which carried

bacteria from one patient’s festering wound to the next, and sponges

which had been perfunctorily rinsed out in a little warm water. In the

wards too, if absolute scientific aseptic conditions were impossible,

antiseptic ones were insisted upon.

15. Microbes, germs: these enemies of mankind had at last been

discovered. By the quiet persistence of the truth-seekers, working

upstream against the flow22

of ancient prejudice, mankind has centered

into new realms of health, and the borderlines of death have been

pressed farther back.23

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Comprehension-I

(On the first part of the essay (paragraphs 1-9), ending with: ‘Joseph

Lister had introduced antiseptic surgery.’)

(a) 1. Why are three different people mentioned in the first paragraph?

Choose one of the following:

(b) Because they all lived at the same time.

(c) Because they helped to solve the same problem.

(d) Because they all worked together as a team.

2. Can you tell, from the first paragraph, the name of the ‘Hungarian

doctor in Vienna’?

3. Was surgery the only field that was influenced by the discovery of

microbes? How do you know?

4. ‘We reckon the art in two eras.’ What is ‘the art’ referred to? Which

is the second of the two eras?

5. Did surgery make much propress in the Middle Ages? How can you

tell?

6. Did the discovery of anaesthetics belong to the first era of surgery

or the second?

7. What were the effects of ‘Hospitalism’ in a wound?

8. Did the terrible disease affect animals as well as human beings?

How do you know?

9. Was Lister’s own teacher one of the men who accepted defeat?

10 ‘He found what he wanted in a powerful disinfectant.’ What did he

find?

(b) Read the following statements carefully. Only ten of them are tre,

according to the essay you have read; the other fifteen are false. Pick out the

true statements.

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1. This essay tells us how, in the 1860s, three different scientists in

England were working towards an important discovery.

2. Pasteur was a chemist by profession.

3. Only the most powerful microscopes can destroy harmful germs.

4. When microbes get into a wound, they quickly increase in number

and destroy the cells of the body.

5. The new discovery had its effect only on surgery.

6. The new discovery was immediately welcomed by doctors

everywhere.

7. The history of surgery really starts with Lister.

8. Surgery had been practiced in various parts of the world a long time

before Lister.

9. Under mediaeval influences, new instruments of surgery were

developed and knowledge about surgery made remarkable propgess.

10. Surgery benefited greatly from the discoveries made in human

anatomy and physiology in the seventeeth and eighteeth centuries.

11. Until the nineteenth century, a surgical operation was extremely

painful to the patient.

12. Gangrene can poison the whole blood stream and cause death.

13. ‘Hospitalism’ was the name given to surgery in those days.

14. Often a hospital had to be closed for a time because its patients

had died.

15. No operation was possible on the delicate parts of the human body

because, almost inevitably, the surgeon himself became infected and died,

however skilful he may have been.

16. Lister said that the main object of his life was to make every

wound heal healthily.

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17. Lister told another great scientist that, in the field of observation,

chance only favoured the mind that was prepared.

18. Lister was lucky in his discovery but this was because he was

working with frogs and bats.

19. Lister’s mind was marvelously prepared to accept defeat.

20. Lister did not believe that infection of wounds was caused by

gases in the air.

21. Lister suspected that there were minute organisms which entered

wounds and destroyed their own life.

22. Lister’s own teacher had stated that surgery would make great

advances as a result of Lister’s experiments.

23. Lister had introduced antiseptic surgery before he introduced

carbolic into the hospital wards and the operating room.

24. Lister came to know that the authorities at Carlisle were using

carbolic in their hospitals.

25. When Lister used carbolic in the operating room and the hospital

wards, he was in fact introducing antiseptic surgery into medical science.

Comprehension-II

( On the second part of the essay (paragraphs 10-15), beginning with: ‘It is

fascinating….’)

(a) 1.Who was ‘the pioneer’ that was persecuted ‘by the old traditional

men’?

2. Did Semmelweis get back his job in the hospital? How do you

know ?

3. Did Pasteur believe that fermentation was caused by gases in the

air?

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4. What was the important difference between the air in Paris and the

air on the Alps? Choose one of the following:

(a) The air on the Alps was ice-cold while the air in Paris was warmer.

(b) The air in Paris was dust-free while the air on the Alps was not .

(c) The air in Paris contained a lot of minute organisms while the air

on the Alps did not.

5. Did the same people that had opposed Semmelweis now oppose

Lister? How do you know?

6. Was Simpson on Lister’s side or on the opposition?

7. ‘… for they bitterly resented an attack upon the position of their

building.’ Who resented the attack? Who made the attack? What was

the position of the buildings?

8. ‘Childbirth lost one part of its terrors.’ What does this mean?


(a) Childbirth became safe in one respect.

(b) The child was often lost in terror at birth.

(c) The air in Paris contained a lot of minute organisms while

the air on the Alps did not.

5. Did the same people that had opposed Semmelweis now oppose

Lister? How do you know?

6. Was Simpson on Lister’s side or on the side of the opposition?

7. ‘… for they bitterly resented an attack upon the position of their

buildings.’ Who resented the attack? Who made the attack? What was

the position of the buildings?

8. ‘Childbirth lost one part of its terrors.’ What does this mean?


(a) Childbirth became safe in one respect.

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(b) The child was often lost in terror at birth.

(c) There was no longer any danger in childbirth.

9. What is the difference between antiseptic surgery and aseptic

surgery? (Answer in one or two sentences.)

10. Two things show Lister’s great courage in the face of difficulties.

One is that he went on working for a solution to the problem when

others had accepted defeat. What is the other?

(b) Only ten of the following statements are true, according to the essay.

Read each statement carefully and say which ten are true:

1. In Vienna the epidemic of blood-poisoning flared up with even

greater violence than in Britain.

2. Semmelweis was dismissed from his job at a maternity hospital.

3. Semmelweis became mad and, as a result, contracted blood-

poisoning.

4. Semmelweis believed that antiseptics would make childbirth safer.

5. Louis Pasteur was also trying, at about the same time, to find out

the true cause of blood- poisoning.

6. Pasteur demonstrated that the dust in the air formed a kind of

fungus.

7. Pasteur showed that very small organisms were the cause of

fermentation.

8. Lister made use of the published results of Pasteur’s experiments.

9. It was years later that Lister read about the experiments made by

Pasteur and Semmelweis.

10. Simpson and Lister were both persecuted at the same time.

11. Lister called his methods the ‘Spray and Gauze’ school.

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12. The old brigade of medical men attacked the position of the

cholera pit at Glasgow Infirmary.

13. Lister told people that there was a cholera pit under the buildings

of the Glasgow Infirmary.

14. The authorities of the Glasgow Infirmary were very angry with

Lister for nine months showed that his methods were successful.

15. For nine moths Lister had no opportunity to use his new methods

of surgery.

16. The absence of any case of blood-poisoning among Lister’s

patients for nine months showed that his methods were successful.

17. Major fractures and large wounds were sure to became septic

under the old system of surgery.

18. Under the old treatment, only major fractures and large wounds

would have became septic.

19. Lister’s new method consisted of using carbolic as a barrier

against the infected air.

20. The old system consisted of performing operations with sterilized

instruments and cleaning wounds with sterilized swabs.

21. The use of sterilized instruments and swabs often made a wound

break down into gangrene

1. yield 6. minute 11. sterilize

2. unconscious 7. degenerate 12. deperate

3. eliminate 8. rinse 13. Perform

4. object 9. persecute 14. heal

5. procure 10. demonstration 15. advocate

James Young Simpson was able to …… part of the terrors of surgery by

developing anaesthetics which enabled him to …….. operations while his

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patients were …….. But one terror remained : too many of the incisions

from his operations were liable to …… and refuse to ……. It was the …….

of Joseph Lister’s life to discover what caused this degeneration and to

prevent it. At last his experiments began to…..the result he wanted: the

healthy healing of wounds. He had found a substance which would destroy

the …… organisms which caused the dreaded ‘Hospitalism’. This substance

was a by-product of coal-tar called carbolic, and from now on Lister used it

to ……. Everything connected with an operation. Sadly, the success of his

new method only led Lister’s enemies to …… him the more bitterely; but

fortunately they were unable to delay for long the spectacular advance of

antiseptic surgery.

GRAMMAR – I

Observe the tense of the verb in each of the following sentences:

(a) Lister introduced antiseptic surgery in the 1860s.

(b) Since then antiseptic surgery has developed into aseptic surgery.

(c) Nowadays doctors practice aseptic surgery wherever possible.

The first sentence is about something that happened at a definite time in the

past (in the 1860s) and its verb is in the simple past tense (introduced). In

the second sentence, we are not told when the event took place, except that it

was at some time before now. Here the present perfect tense (has

developed) it used. The third sentence describes something that happens

generally at the at the present time and the tense used is the simple present

(practice)

Using these three sentences are models, write two other sentences for

each of the following. Use the hints given:

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1 (a) A hundred years ago, childbirth was full of dangers.

(b) (By now ….. (lose) most of its dangers).

(c) (These days …… (be) quite safe.)

2 (a) Before the time of simpson, surgery was extremely painful for

the patients.

(b) (Since Simpson’s time …… (becomes) more and more painless

…….)

(c) (Now …… (be) quite painless…….)

3 (a) In the Middle Ages, few new experiments were made in

surgery.

(b) (Since then, many ……)

(c) (These days ….. all the time in many parts of the world)

4 (a) (Pasteur …. In fermentation)

(b) Since then, scientists have shown the usefulness of many other

kinds of bacteria.

(c) (Nowadays the usefulness of bacteria …. and turned to

advantage in many fields)

5 (a) (Lister and Semmelweis …… great prejudice…..)

(b) (………… less and less prejudice …..)

(c) Today scientists face very little prejudice against their findings.

GRAMMAR – II

We have already seen how questions in direct speech are changed in

reported speech. For example :

(a) Lister asked, ‘What can the cause of Hospitalism be?’

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(b) Lister asked what the cause of Hospitalism could be. Very often

questions appear in reported speech without the word ask. For

example:

(a) Pasteur was studying (the questions) : Why do wine and beer turn bad

in the vats?

(b) Pasteur was studying why wine and beer turned bad in the vats.

Notice how the tense of the verb changes (do …… turn bad – turned bad)

and also how the order of the words is slightly different (do wine and beer

turn – wine and beer turned)

Here are some sentences like (a); rewrite them in the form of (b)

1. (a) Surgeons wondered (about the question): Why do wounds become

septic?

(b) (……. Wondered why wounds…..)

2. (a) Lister was anxious to find out (the answer to the question): How can

every wound be made to heal properly?

(b) (…. How every wound could be …..)

3. (a) Semmelweis was worried about (the question) : How can mothers be

saved from death after childbirth?

(b) (…… worried about how …..)

4. (a) Simpson had discovered (the answer to the question) : How can a

patient be made unconscious during an operation?

5. (a) The discovery of microbes showed (the answer to the question) : Why

cannot food be kept fresh for a long time without special care?

Next, here are some sentences like (b); rewrite them in the form of (a)

1. (b) Simpson could not understand how the use of carbolic could

prevent septic conditions.

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(a) (…… How can the …..?)

2. (b) Lister was trying to find out how a barrier could be built between

the minute organisms and the open wound.

3. (b) Pasteur asked himself why wine fermented well in Paris but not on

the Alps.

(a) (…… Why does…..?)

4. (b) Lister’s opponents were unable to understand why Lister talked

about the cholera pit under the Glasgow Infirmary.

5. (b) Lister’s teacher could not see how there could be any further

progress in surgery.

COMPOSITION – I

Read the following. It describes an imaginary conversation between

Simpson and Lister.

Simpson asked Lister how his Spray and Gauze method could solve the

problem of Hospitalism. Lister said that the use of an antiseptic such as

carbolic created a barrier between the wound and the minute organisms

which caused the trouble. Simpson called this nonsense and Lister then

asked him how else the wounds could degenerate the way they did.

Simpson pointed out that there might be gases in the air which caused the

decay of tissues. Lister asked if Simpsons asked lister to produce evidence

for his theory of organisms. Lister simposon said that he had read them but

did not see any connection between the fermentation of wine and blood-

posisoning. Lister said that pasteur’s findings contained a clue to his own

problem and that he was going to prove his theory if only he could get a fair

chance of doing so. Simpson said that Lister’s theory did not even deserve a

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trial. In reply, Lister asked if Simpson had forgotten how his own theory of

anaesthetics had been criticized unreasobly only a few years beofe.

Now, rewirte the passage in the form of a dialogue whose beginning is given

below:

Simpson : Mr Lister, how can your Spray and Gauze method slove the

terrible problem of Hospitalism?

Lister : The use of an antiseptic such as carbolic creates a barrier between

the wound and the minute organisms which cause the trouble.

Simpson : Nonsense

COMPOSITION – II

Here are some facts about four of the scientists mentioned in the essay :

Scientist Place of work Problem Findings Result

1.Simpson

(doctor)

Britain

(Edinburgh)

How to make an

operation painless

for the patient

Anaesthetics

1. Persecution

for some time

2. acceptance

and praise

2.Semmelweis

(doctor)

Vienna

(maternity

hospital)

How to stop septic

conditions after

childbirth

Antiseptics

1. publication

2. persecution

3. madness

4. recovery

5. death

3.Pasteur

(Chemist)

France

What caused

fermentation in

wine and beer

Minute

organisms in

dustladen air

Supplied the

final clue to

Lister’s problem

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4. Lister (doctor)

Britain

(Glasgow)

How to stop

infection of

wounds

1. microbes

2. antiseptics

(carbolic)

as a

barrier

1. persecution

2. successful

trial over

nine months

3. revolution in

surgery

Here is a short paragraph, based on these facts, about Simpson. Study

it and then write three more paragraphs on the other three scientists.

Simpson was a British doctor. He studied the problem of how to make a

surgical operation painless for the patient. After a great deal of research, he

discovered the use of anaesthetics which made the patient unconscious of

pain and thus gave the surgeon time to perform the operation properly.

Simpson’s new method of surgery was criticized by traditional men, and

Simpson was persectured for a time. But he was soon able to prove the

success of his method and the use of anaesthetics was then generally

accepted. Simpson was then prasied for his contribution to surgery.

declaration - Bharathidasan University Central Library

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