Masuara, Faradila (2022) Proficiency pairing in efl writing classroom: unveiling the link between writing quality and students' attitudes / Faradila Masuara</p>. Doctoral thesis, Universitas Negeri Malang.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Masuara F. 2022. Proficiency Pairing in EFL Writing Classroom Unveiling the Link Between Writing Quality and Students rsquo Attitudes. Dissertation English Language Education Graduate Programs State University of Malang. Advisors (I) Prof. Utami Widiati M.A. Ph.D. (II) Prof. Dr. Yazid Basthomi M.A. (II) Dr. Ekaning Dewanti Laksmi M.Pd. M.A. Extensive research has explored proficiency pairing in recent years. Most studies have only focused on the outcome of proficiency pairing i.e. students rsquo overall writing quality or LREs production after the students worked with similar or different proficiency partners. Meanwhile few other studies emphasized students rsquo attitudes toward a particular pairing method such as a homogeneous or a heterogeneous method. Limited studies looked at the quality of writing components in more detail (i.e. content organization grammar vocabulary mechanics) across proficiency pairing methods (i.e. high-high low-low and high-low). Students rsquo attitudes across proficiency pairing methods are also rarely discussed. Furthermore the potential interaction between writing quality and students rsquo attitudes across proficiency pairing remains underexplored. This study therefore aimed to explore proficiency pairing in EFL writing classrooms more comprehensively by investigating the writing components across three proficiency pairing methods (high-high low-low and high-low) differences in students rsquo attitudes across proficiency pairing methods (high-high low-low and high-low) quality of writing components from each pairing method and the relationship between students rsquo attitudes toward each pairing method and the writing performance from each pairing method. Sixty university students were involved in this study. The participants came from private and state universities in the Eastern area of Indonesia. A TOEFL prediction test served as a placement test to classify students rsquo proficiency levels students whose scores were higher than 440 were categorized as high achievers whereas those whose scores were lower than 440 were categorized as low achievers. The placement test in the first university resulted in two pairs of H-H three pairs of L-L and five pairs of H-L. Because of the small size of participants in the first university the researcher collected more data in the second university and obtained five pairs of L-L five pairs of low-low and ten pairs of high-low. The participants in each university followed the same research procedures. Three topics served as writing tasks for three different grouping methods (H-H L-L and H-L pairs). Because it aimed to familiarize students with working collaboratively with their proficiency partners it did not measure performances of the students. After that all students in both pairing methods completed a writing test in 90 minutes and two raters marked the writing test. This writing test was measured to unpack the quality of writing components from each pairing method. A close-ended questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were employed to identify the students rsquo attitudes toward each pairing method. In analyzing the data it utilized Independent-Samples Kruskal-Wallis Test to reveal the differences in writing quality and their attitudes in each pairing method. Additionally the Spearman-rank correlation test unveiled the link between writing quality and students rsquo attitudes based on proficiency pairing methods. The results revealed that the H-H pair outperformed the H-L and the L-L pair and further indicated significant differences in the writing quality of H-H L-L and H-L in all five writing areas. As displayed the H-H pair and the H-L pair had an outstanding performance in grammar and mechanics followed by vocabulary content and organization. On the other hand students in the L-L pair remarked the lowest writing performance in all writing skills particularly in grammar and mechanics. These findings were worth to be noted because two writing areas (grammar and mechanics) in which H-H and L-L pair achieved their outstanding performance were the two areas in which the L-L pair achieved their lowest performance. This result implied that grammar and mechanics were two main problems faced by low-ability students when they composed a descriptive essay in L-L collaboration. In regards to students rsquo attitudes toward pairing methods it has been discovered that there were significant differences in the attitudes of students in the H-H the L-L and the H-L pairing method. Students in the H-H group showed highly positive attitudes toward the H-H pairing since they believed it could improve their writing skills. Meanwhile low achievers showed negative attitudes toward the L-L pairing because they did not see any benefit when working with the same low-proficient partners. Surprisingly both high achievers and low achievers in the H-L group viewed the H-L pairing method positively because they believed it significantly affected their writing performance. In line with these points further statistical analysis of pairwise comparisons demonstrated that H-H-H-L pairwise type showed insignificant differences in their attitude in viewing the merits of H-H and H-L pairs. Contrastingly the L-L-H-L pairwise comparison remarked significant differences in the students rsquo views about the benefits of L-L and H-L pairing methods. A similar result of the L-L pairwise comparison was also evident in L-L-H-H pairwise type indicating that students in L-L and H-H pairs had significant differences in their attitudes toward both pairing methods. The last results indicated significant relationships between the students rsquo writing quality in three pairing methods and the students rsquo attitudes toward the pairing method. However the level of interaction between the two variables in each pairing method was different. Findings showed a very-strong interaction between H-H writing quality and H-H attitudes. These results signified that the outstanding performance of H-H were highly affected by H-H positive attitudes. Thus the more positive the high achievers viewed their H-H pairing method the better writing quality would be. Conversely the more negative the high achievers perceived their H-H pairing method the lower writing quality would be. In addition the interaction between H-L writing and H-L attitudes was found at a moderate level suggesting that the writing performance of H-L was moderately affected by H-L positive attitudes. A similar result was evident in the moderate interaction between L-L writing quality and L-L attitudes implying the low writing performance of the L-L pair was moderately affected by the pair s negative attitudes. In conclusion students showed significant differences in writing quality and their attitudes toward pairing methods. It also remarked on a link between writing quality and the students rsquo attitudes. The positive writing outcomes from H-H and H-L indicated the merits of the two pairing methods. On the other hand the low writing outcomes from L-L writing showed that L-L did not acquire significant benefits from the L-L pairing type. The evidence of the link between writing quality and attitudes as the students worked in three pairing methods served as valuable resources for English teachers to creatively develop tasks and employ appropriate pairing methods to boost learners rsquo positive attitudes toward collaboration. By doing this the students can maximize their learning outcomes. Recommendations for further research were presented after the conclusion section of this study.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | L Education > L Education (General) |
| Divisions: | Fakultas Sastra (FS) > Departemen Sastra Inggris (ING) > S3 Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris |
| Depositing User: | Users 2 not found. |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2022 04:29 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Sep 2022 03:00 |
| URI: | http://repository.um.ac.id/id/eprint/271850 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |