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Open Muhammad S Dissertation 1 The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education THE EFFECT OF JOURNAL WRITING ON WRITTEN PERFORMANCE, WRITING APPREHENSION, AND ATTITUDES OF EGYPTIAN ENGLISH MAJORS A Thesis in Curriculum and Instruction by Muhammad Solyman Abdel-Sayed Salem © 2007 Muhammad Solyman Abdel-Sayed Salem Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2007 ii The thesis of Muhammad Solyman Abdel-Sayed Salem has been reviewed and approved* by the following: Sandra J. Savignon Professor of Applied Linguistics, Thesis Adviser Chair of Committee J. Scott Payne Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics Lisa A. Reed Associate Professor of French & Linguistics Edgar Paul Yoder Professor of Agriculture & Extension Education Anne Whitney Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction Gregory J. Kelly Professor of Science Education Head of the Curriculum & Instruction Department *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii Abstract Title: The Effect of Journal Writing on Written Performance, Writing Apprehension, and Attitudes of Egyptian English Majors Author: Muhammad Salem Advisor: Dr. Sandra J. Savignon This study investigated the effect of journal writing as a communicative technique on written performance, writing apprehension, perceived sense of writing abilities, and attitudes of Egyptian EFL English majors. It also explored the relationship between L1 (Arabic) and L2 (English) writing performance. The initial number of participants in this study was 50 third-year English Department male students in the College of Education, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. They were randomly selected and assigned into the treatment groups; the experimental group included 25 whereas the control group included 25 students. Both groups studied an Essay and Composition course for a semester. For the purpose of this study, the experimental group did an extra assignment in which each student wrote a minimum 200-word journal entry on topics that interested him once a week for ten intermittent weeks. The treatment was administered voluntarily by an associate professor in Applied Linguistics who commented on the experimental group’s journal entries by focusing on meaning and content and ignoring surface structural features such as grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. Instruments included a writing test graded by two independent raters using Jacobs et al.’s (1981) Composition Profile, the Writing Apprehension Test prepared by Daly and Miller (1975) and adapted to L2 by Gungle iv and Taylor (1989), and attitude questionnaires developed by the researcher. In addition, tutor interview, participants’ written comments, and their perceived sense of writing abilities were utilized as qualitative data collection techniques. The pre- and posttest data from 41 students were analyzed using means, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Content analysis was used and categories were created for the themes students raised while writing their impressions on the treatment. The findings revealed significant differences between the experimental group and the control group in written performance in favor of the experimental group. This result was supported by qualitative evidence showing that the final journal entries of six students randomly selected from the experimental group indicated development in ideas, coherence, cohesion, and voice. Moreover, journal writing had positive effects on decreasing writing apprehension and developing students’ perceived sense of their writing abilities. Analyzing the attitude questionnaires revealed that the experimental group had strong positive attitudes toward journal writing whereas the control group had neutral attitudes toward traditional writing instruction. However, the qualitative analysis showed positive attitudes toward journal writing and negative attitudes toward traditional writing teaching. Results were interpreted considering the context in which the study was conducted. The study concluded with discussing the findings reached, presenting implications, and suggesting topics for further research. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................ III TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ IX LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................................................ X CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................................... 1 RESEARCH PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESES .......................................................................................... 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ............................................................................................................. 7 1.3 QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY................................................................................................................. 10 1.4 HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY .............................................................................................................. 10 1.5 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY .................................................................................................................... 11 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................ 11 1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS ................................................................................................ 12 1.8 FINAL COMMENT ............................................................................................................................... 13 1.9 OVERVIEW OF THESIS CHAPTERS ....................................................................................................... 14 1.10 CHAPTER SUMMARY........................................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER TWO ........................................................................................................................................ 17 LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................................ 17 2.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 17 2.1 GRAMMAR-BASED AND COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES.................................................................... 17 2.1.1 Communicative Competence..................................................................................................... 19 2.2 TEACHING L2 WRITING...................................................................................................................... 20 2.2.1 The controlled writing approach .............................................................................................. 20 2.2.2 The freewriting approach ......................................................................................................... 21 2.2.3 The paragraph-pattern approach ............................................................................................. 22 2.2.4 The process approach............................................................................................................... 22 2.2.5 The communicative approach................................................................................................... 23 2.3 JOURNAL WRITING............................................................................................................................. 25 2.3.1 Types of journals....................................................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 Journals as written interaction between learners and teachers ............................................... 30 2.3.3 Effective implementation of journal writing ............................................................................. 31 2.3.4 Advantages of journal writing .................................................................................................. 32 2.3.5 Disadvantages of journal writing ............................................................................................. 35 2.3.6 Research on journal writing and L2 writing............................................................................. 37 2.3.6.1 Discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 48 2.3.6.2 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 49 2.4 WRITING ASSESSMENT .....................................................................................................................
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