The Effects of Using Visual Aids in Teaching Writing on Learners’ L2 Writing Proficiency

The Effects of Using Visual Aids in Teaching Writing on Learners’ L2 Writing Proficiency

Gulumser, Efeoglu

The current study aims to find out whether the use of visual aids in writing classes facilitates the path that learners go though while acquiring writing skills in L2. Although strategy training in writing has been proved to be effective in L2 writing development by many studies, the role of visual aids has not been obscured yet (Kobayashi and Rinnert, 2008; Ong and Zahan, 2010; Shi; 1998; among many others). Thus, this study focuses on four particular writing tasks which have been designed by particular visual aids. Ten freshman students studying in Foreign Language Education Department at Yıldız Technical University were recruited as an experimental group as they scored less than 20 out of 40 in the writing component of FCE. On the other hand, the control group consisted of ten randomly selected freshman students from the same department and the institution. Both qualitative and quantitative data have been gathered by the questionnaire with open ended questions asking for students’ reflections on the usefulness of the training and by the pre and post-tests evaluated by two different raters. In the end, it has been found out that there is no significant difference among groups in terms of their writing scores; which may be interpreted as this particular training has not helped learners to enhance their writing skills in L2.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

846