The Effects of Language Skills on Students' Writing: A Case Study

2nd UPALS International Conference on Languages 2013

THE EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE SKILLS ON STUDENTS’

WRITING: A CASE STUDY

M. K. Fazdilah

1Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Johor, Malaysia

Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Learning and developing writing skills are considered a difficult task. Previous

researches done on students’ writing focused more on theories, attitudes,

feedbacks and errors (Myles, 2002; Noriah et. al., 2008). Studies on a factor

that influence students’ writing (the effects of language skills) is still relatively

scarce in research writing. Thus, the case study investigated on ways this factor

affected students’ performance in writing English as a second language. Also,

lecturers’ awareness was examined in confirming the existence of the effects.

Two types of instruments: narrative responses and semi-structured interview

were used in the study. The findings indicated that language skills affected

students’ poor performance in writing. The data analysis from student

respondents’ showed that these students faced problems in writing but unable

to identify the variables that affected them. The results from the lecturers

confirmed of the existence of that effect of language skills on students’ writing.

From the previous findings, the researcher then managed to identify how

language skills influenced students’ writing in determination to guide

instructors with better teaching in helping students become excellent writers. In

conclusion, students still cannot escape from being influenced by their

language skills problems when composing thus leading to poor performance in

their writing.

KEYWORDS

Language skills, ESL students’ writing, writing skills, effects

INTRODUCTION

In the domain of second language (L2) learning, writing is considered to be a complex

process due to its difficulty in learning and developing the writing skills. In this so-called

tedious process, it has been found that students encounter plenty of effects that can influence

their writing (Midgette et. al., 2007; Noriah et. al., 2008; Schlig, 2006).

It is known that environments and experience play their parts in writing and these happen

when students learn and practice their writing skills (Myles, 2002). There are definitely

differences in the maturity of writing abilities when compared with students who are in the

correct writing environments and those who are not, also the same goes with students who

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have experience in writing and those who do not. However, environment and experience are

only a small disturbance in students’ writing because Myles (2002) stresses that when it

comes to academic writing, student writers should have a strong awareness when dealing with

the process of writing (composing, developing and analyzing ideas). This means that students

should know more of the specific effects that may influence their writing which is language

skills. This is especially applied to L2 students who have to acquire proficiency using the

English language along with the writing processes, skills and techniques when comparing to

students who are writing in their first language (L1). For example, going back to the

environment scenario where students are asked to write in English and they are in their L1

setting. No doubt that there is the ordeal that these students have to go through in any writing

which is the language skills (grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, etc.). Since English is

not these students’ L1, the skills do not come naturally to them and therefore would affect

them when writing, but with much practice, it would not be a problem for the students to be

able to provide a well written composition.

Thus, in order to understand more of the intricate factors concerning students’ writing

proficiency, the present study centers on the effects of language skills on university students’

writing, aims to investigate qualitatively how the factor affects or influences their writing, and

to find out whether lecturers are aware of this situation that is considered one of the crucial

stages in student’s education.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theories of Writing as Cognitive Process

In discussing the factors that influence writing, it is necessary to look into the theories of

writing as a cognitive process as proposed by Flower & Hayes (1981) and Scardamalia &

Bereiter (1987). Citing Chandrasegaran, Evangeline, & Clara (2007), the cognitive model of

writing tends to look at writing as “problem solving, goal setting, and decision making

activities” (pp. 4) that is engaged in the mind of the writer when he or she plans, translates

their ideas into writing, and revises. This means that writing is not a one task activity; instead

it involves processes which writers have to adhere to from beginning till the end.

Throughout the 1980s, Flower and Hayes had worked on the components of their cognitive

writing model to recognize the differences between expert writers and novice writers in

constructing effective texts, hence it was hoped that their model would be able to help

inexperienced writers to write better (Becker, 2006). From Hayes & Flower (1981)’s

cognitive model of writing processes, the parts are divided into three which are the task

environment, the long term memory of the writer, and the processes of writing.

According to Hayes & Flower (1981), the task environment refers to the writer’s surrounding

influence that influences or motivates the performance of the writer and the writer’s long term

memory is defined as the writer’s knowledge and ideas of writing stored inside his or her

memory. Research by Noriah et. al. (2008) has shown that if the students are put in an

environment that they are not comfortable with, it somehow would affect their learning and

thinking leading to them not be able to provide ideas or content for their writing.

Meanwhile, the writing process consists of three major processes – planning, translating and

reviewing. The purpose of the planning process is to obtain information from the task

environment and from long-term memory and “to use it to set goals and to establish a writing

plan to guide the production of a text that will meet those goals” (ibid: 7). The translating


process would later correspond and translate the information into writing and the reviewing

stage would be able to “improve the quality of text produced by translating process” (ibid).

The skills used on the English language (e.g. developing ideas, organizing, etc.) are also going

to be an effect on students. This is due to that they are in a task environment that does not use

the language; therefore their ability to utilize their skills on the grammar, vocabulary, and

sentence structures is relatively influenced by language skills because their knowledge of the

writing language is not fully mastered.

Scardamalia & Bereiter (1987) have expanded the writing model suggested by Hayes &

Flower (1981) by proposing models of writing process that highlights the differences between

skilled and less-skilled writers. Scardamalia & Bereiter (1987) have proposed two sets of

cognitive writing model, namely knowledge-telling model and knowledge-transforming

model.

Therefore, immature L2 writers are said to have difficulty in writing because they do not

know how to solve certain problems when writing which usually involves the use of language

skills among others. This factor is known to influence students’ writing but if the writers are

matured enough, language skills is said to mostly contribute to a positive influence rather than

a negative one.

Language Skills and Writing

Written, oral and graphic are the three fundamental forms of language skills. Written skills

involve reading and writing, oral skills comprise of speaking and listening and graphic skills

include sketching and drawing. The three skills are all important, but this review will

primarily deal with one basic language skills: writing. According to Hemphill (2005),

mastering language skills is not easy, not even up to three repeated “core” sessions. The same

goes when a student only tries to read about it and look forward to have a good writing

afterwards (Hemphill, 2005). Instead, there are steps for them to go through and plenty of

practices to work on before they can be good in language skills, especially when writing is

involved.

To master language skills in writing, written communication should be practiced extensively

and this has been shown through experience (Hemphill, 2005). It means that when a student

finishes his/her required school years, he/she should not end his/her practice of writing as it

should continue throughout college years and beyond. Researches have found that when there

is a regular communication in students’ learning life, they achieve far greater success than

students who do not have enough communication in their daily life. Moreover, without fail,

these researches have proved students learn better in the subject because of their daily and

regular experience in communication (Myles, 2002; Schlig, 2000; Gillespie, 1999). However,

it is not the case with L2 students due to English language being a barrier in the ability to

practice their communication hence creates problem for them to really understand and learn

on that certain subjects. This again shows that language skills in writing needs to be practiced

and communicated to be able to achieve the success they desire.

To achieve a successful communication, students have to make use of the variety of language

skills known as strategizing a plan, elaborating ideas, finding and building on adequate

supporting details, and classifying work in a consistent way (Hemphill, 2005). The skills must

be used-frequently once it has been learned. They should be used in every assignment before

preparing the first outline. Next is the very particular and detailed checking process which is

important to create a refined and finished job (Hemphill, 2005; Myles, 2002). The process


requires a lot of time; however it is very necessary in writing. A sincere level of commitment

is required for an effective communication. The process may look excruciating as it also

necessitates plenty of thoughts (Hemphill, 2005). And this is something that most L2 students

are still struggling to apprehend especially English not being their mother tongue. Even if

they put much thought on those language skills, but their level of English language is low,

these students are still unable to communicate language skills effectively in their writing.

Success is not defined by simple functional literacy and it is definitely not our goal in

teaching writing. Instead, to be an efficient and contributive part in the society and working

place, students need to conquer the ability to communicate in all sorts of manners (UiTM

website, 2009). So, without the ability to use the appropriate language skills in writing, less

number of proficient writers is found leading to less number of professionals in our ever

growing society.

RESEARCH METHODS

Subjects of the study

Purposive sampling was used in gathering data for the study. The study adopted the non-

probability purposive or judgmental sample, wherein potential respondents were chosen on

the basis of their convenience and availability (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000). Two

groups of subjects (a group of third semester Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Johor

students and a group of its lecturers) were selected based on the researcher’s judgment about

representativeness and as such, the selection was based on the criterion of suitability such as

the purpose of the study, timeframe and other constraints as well as methodology of the

present study.

The first group of subjects consisted of six UiTM Johor students (three male and three female

students) who then were in their third semester of studying in the Diploma level in Business.

The second group was represented by two lecturers of the English language department of

UiTM Johor and currently teaching the English course in the institution.

Research Questions

The aims of this study are formulated in these research questions:

1. How do language skills influence students’ writing?

2. What level of awareness do the lecturers have towards these effects of language skills on

students’ writing?

Instrumentation

In order to gain insights into students’ and lecturers’ understanding of the factor of language

skills that might have affected students writing performance, the qualitative method was used.

Two instruments were used in this study. To gauge the effect of language skills found on

students’ writing performance, the researcher used narrative responses and to obtain lecturers’

perceptions pertaining to their awareness to students’ problem in writing, an interview was

used in this study. There were two semi-structured questionnaires Set A (for narrative

responses - students) and Set B (for interview - lecturers).

Later, all narrative responses were gathered from the students. Their narrative responses were

labeled M1, M2 and M3 for the male students and F1, F2 and F3 for the female students.


Then, lecturers’ interviews were transcribed. The interview transcriptions from the lecturers

were labeled as L1 and L2. Next, the researcher analyzed the data obtained from narrative

responses and the interviews administered to the respective groups of respondents. Student

respondents’ responses and lecturers’ interview transcripts were continually read and re-read

before the researcher drew any conclusions. To further indicate the correlation between the

variables to answer the research questions of this study, both responses were constantly

compared, contrasted and categorized.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Effects of Language Skills on Writing from Student Respondents

The results of the study showed that language skills did influence their writing performance as

stated by all student respondents. First, the most frequent language skills that need guidance

when writing was good elaboration of the ideas. Moreover, the student respondents also

mentioned sufficient supporting details to go along with the elaboration. This showed that

any writing pieces needed some thoughts and not just to be written in the spur of the moment

(Hemphill, 2005) with the aim of the abilities to represent thinking critically, interpreting,

studying, and synthesizing information (Hemphill, 2005). The followings described how

important language skills were in evaluating a good essay as stated by Student M2, Student

M1, and Student F3:

Good essay contain or consist of good elaboration of idea… (Student M2)

A good essay have introduction, body and conclusion. Including supporting

details with good explanation. (Student M1)

A good essay is an essay that contain a great points and ideas with supporting

details that are well arrange…(Student F3)

The student respondents again mentioned the need to elaborate well and to incorporate great

ideas in the writing as much as possible as described in the following narratives of Student

M1, Student M2, and Student F2:

Brainstorm to write an outline, good in arrangement points, understand the

question and follow the format. (Student M1)

I should be good in how to elaborate my idea and have a good language

skills.(Student M2)

I must have a new things that will make my essay interesting. (Student F2)

Apart from all the aforementioned concerned on developing ideas and supporting details

which were part of language skills in writing, the student respondents also did not forget to

mention about grammar. They knew that when talking about language skills, the issue of

having essays with correct use of grammar was necessary.

Second, the next language skills that student respondents believed to have an effect on

students’ writing was to know the correct spelling of everyday words and to use good

vocabulary in the essays. This skill was also stated by Hemphill (2005) in his handbook


which proved that it was another basic language skill that students should acquire when

writing and if they were not able to do so, it would reflect a poor performance in students’

writing.

Writers should have a good grasp on spelling and vocabulary. Using a good

language shows that you have a high professionalism. (Student M3)

It obviously will affect our writing. The essay would be clear and nice to read.

(Student F2)

In my opinion, we need to have them because it can make our essay more

excellent. (Student F1)

Nevertheless, it was good that these language skills effects were acknowledged by the student

respondents. It had been found through the findings that students learned and identified their

weaknesses with the help of the comments they received from the lecturers.

Hence, through these comments or feedbacks that they received, the student respondents

acknowledged that they had problems with language skills when writing. Teacher feedback

gave impact to students’ writing because it helped students to be able to know the mistakes

that they had made in their essays and learned to improve and self-revise on it (Noriah et. al.,

2008). Thus, the findings revealed that language skills affected students writing through

elaborations of ideas and supporting details, use of acceptable grammar, correct spelling, and

also appropriate vocabulary.

Effects of Language Skills on Writing from Lecturer Respondents

The findings from the lecturer respondents were found to be consistent with students’

answers. Below are Lecturer L1’s and Lecturer L2’s observations on the effects of language

skills on students’ writing performance as shown in the followings:

Moreover, the use of grammar is not mastered. When doing grammar

exercises according to topics or when done overtly, or in isolation, they are

able to score but when required to write an essay or even a paragraph there is

confusion as to which tense to use. (Lecturer L1)

Basic grammatical mistakes, such as subject-verb agreement and tenses, are

still prevalent in their writing. (Lecturer L1)

Any variables that would have effects on students’ writing such as all the

above (language skills, content and mother tongue) including how the students

perceive the language they have to write in… and writing activity, the

instructor and his or her teaching. Some of these variables are significant in

some students that they reflect in the writing. (Lecturer L2)

It was noteworthy to mention that the interview with Lecturer L2 above showed an interesting

finding that there were many other variables or factors that contributed to students’ poor

performance in writing and it was not only focused on the one mentioned in this study.

However, those other variables were inter-related to the one factor focused on the current

research. Evidently, this showed that language skills did affect students’ performance in

writing whether it was seen as a serious or minor case by the instructors of writing.


Moreover, Lecturer L1 and Lecturer L2 also mentioned of these particular skills (ability to

spell correctly and use appropriate vocabulary) which affected students’ writing. Therefore,

lecturer respondents’ results did add up to students’ findings which later confirmed that

language skills influenced students’ writing. And most of the setbacks came from students’

inability to utilize the usual acknowledged standards of the English language, to spell

appropriately, and to use suitable vocabulary with the ideas constructed in their essays.

Whilst almost all of the language skills caused trouble to student respondents, only four were

specified by the student respondents and lecturers. The reason that these four language skills

were the only mentioned might be due to they were the common problems that students faced

and they were also the ones that had been identified by the lecturers in students’ writing.

These four language skills mentioned by student respondents and lecturer respondents are

summarized in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary of Reported Language Skills

Respondent

Language Skills

Elaboration of

ideas/supporting

details

Use of

correct

grammar

Able to

spell

correctly

Use

appropriate

vocabulary

Student M1 ● ● ●

Student M2 ● ●

Student M3 ● ●

Student F1 ● ● ●

Student F2 ● ●

Student F3 ● ●

Lecturer L1 ● ● ●

Lecturer L2 ● ● ●

The Level of Awareness towards the Effects of Language Skills on Writing from Lecturer

Respondents

Lecturers were the audience of students’ writing, therefore any obvious mistakes that they

repeatedly make, these lecturers were able to identify and become aware of it. So, Lecturer

L1 explained that he understood language skills could influence students’ performance in

writing. Apart from that, he also stressed on the issue of grammar in his answer for this

question. Lecturer L1 understood that this problem had become a writing habit for these

students. It was somewhat difficult to change them. The following is the explanation from

Lecturer L1:

I can say that their writing lacks maturity of thought where content is

concerned. Although they are tertiary students, as you mentioned in your

question, hmm… they sometimes forget to organize their ideas unless reminded

so. Moreover, basic grammatical mistakes, such as subject-verb agreement

and tenses, are still prevalent in their writing. Due to their age, fossilization

has set in and thus, it is difficult to make them change their writing habits.

(Lecturer L1)

Lecturer L2, on the other hand, understood that the problems that caused students’ poor

performance in writing was their attitude or perception towards writing itself. She said that


any variables could have been the effects to this situation but more importantly the reflection

that she saw in students’ writing was lack of interest and negative attitude towards writing.

However, she believed that in reality the number of students who were weak in writing was

small because most of them she identified as average writers. But with guidance and

encouragement from the part of the instructors or lecturers, she supposed that the students

could become excellent writers. But first, she again stressed on the issue of students’ attitude

towards writing activity. The attitude then called together all the effects that caused students’

poor performance in writing. From her answers here, it showed that the lecturers were very

aware of the factors that affected students’ writing and one of it remained language skills.

Her remarks are found in the following excerpts:

They perceive writing as difficult, both in language and content, thus other

problems come in; language proficiency and accuracy, vocabulary mastery,

contents or ideas development. All these difficulties zoom into lack of reading

among students. When mother tongue is concerned, the students love

translating from mother tongue into English which makes their essays sound

so Malay but the words are English. Common, right? The problem is the

students perceive writing as a product only, thus they don’t put any effort into

revising and editing their writing. (Lecturer L2)

As stated earlier, langauge skills was a contributor to students’ poor performance in writing

and from the interview it proved that the lecturers were aware of it. Hence, trying to rectify

the problems of language skills found in students’ writing showed that there was a high level

of awareness from the lecturers’ part (Kigotho, 2007). Below are some of the actions that the

lecturers took to show that they were aware of the problem and by doing so, it might help the

students in their writing process:

Most of the time I would highlight the errors and show these students the

proper way of writing in English without such interference. And another

method that I use is peer correction when students learn from one another

about the mistakes that they make. Umm.. it is somewhat like we

educationalists called it ‘peer review’. (Lecturer L1)

I always started my writing class by telling them that writing is a fun and

interesting activity. For content, I began with topics that are close to their

heart and their interest. However, I did not undermine the students. The

topics can be simple but challenging. As I moved on to more serious topics, I

still gave them options to choose from. I also guided the students as to where

they can find good materials for their topics. For this I believe that IT and IT-

based writing activity help a lot. (pause) For language skills, I incorporated

the teaching of language items which are grammar, sentence structure, word

choice etc, into the editing stage. I paid a lot of attention in teaching them how

to revise and edit their writing. Thus, besides brushing their skills, I would

also be able to show them the importance of editing. (pause) But with the more

advanced students, my focus is on content; development of ideas and maturity

of arguments put forward in their writing. I also challenged them to write

more complex structures using sophisticated vocabulary as well as encouraged

them to run away from common techniques so their writing would be

interesting. (Lecturer L2)


Thus, language skills had an influence on students’ writing performance as described by the

student and lecturer respondents. Accordingly, the effects would lead to difficulties and poor

performance on the part of the students. With that said, these lecturers were aware of

students’ setbacks in writing. Moreover, by stating the actions that they did in order to rectify

the problems illustrated that these lecturers had high level of awareness towards the issue in

students’ writing.

CONCLUSION

Poor writing performance is a growing concern of both educators and students as the notion of

such ability may jeopardize students’ future career opportunities. Many factors have been

attributed as a cause of students’ inability to perform well in their writing without them

knowing it specifically. Indeed, one factor specifically is language skills that influenced

students’ capability to present a good piece of writing. Nevertheless, some good was found as

claimed by the student writers themselves. Even though, the lecturers seemed to think

otherwise, their opinions mattered in finding out how these factors influenced students’

writing. Furthermore, students and lecturers agreed that language skills was apart of a big

influence that led to bad results in essay writing activity and both parties should cohesively

work together in rectifying the problems in order to gain better outcomes in students’

composition. In fact, individual approaches should be entailed to curb the lack of confidence

students had due to these effects. L2 students always welcome feedbacks either from

lecturers or peers because they know that learning to write in English is not a matter of

submitting a five-paragraph essay on time as taught by their lecturers. In addressing the

influence of language skills issue in writing, focuses often concentrate on students.

Therefore, lecturers’ perspective on the issue should also be explored particularly on the

assistance and support such as feedbacks, individual attention, and regular check on writing

processes which they definitely require in dealing with negative influence on the writing of

students.

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The Effects of Language Skills on Students' Writing: A Case Study

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