Chonticha Amkham. Effects of differentiated writing instruction by tiered assignments on writing ability of ninth grade students. Master's Degree(Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Chulalongkorn University. Center of Academic Resources. : Chulalongkorn University, 2010.
Effects of differentiated writing instruction by tiered assignments on writing ability of ninth grade students
Abstract:
This study aimed to: 1) explore the effects of differentiated writing instruction
by tiered assignments on students writing ability, and 2) investigate students
opinions towards the instruction. The participants of this study were 12 ninth grade
students, who were studying Standard English III, at Triamudomsuksapattanakarn
Ratchada School. The participants came from 3 different writing ability levels:
Apprentice, Intermediate and Advanced. During the 8 weeks of instruction, the
participants were provided with writing assignments, specifically tailored to match
with their current writing levels. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs
Signed-Rank Test were used to measure the progress of students writing after
receiving the instruction. The opinions of the participants were analyzed by using
content analysis.
The results revealed that (1) the participants gained higher mean scores in the
post-English writing test than in the pre-English writing test at 0.05 significant level;
(2) the participants found that the instruction had a lot of advantages. As reported by
the participants, tiered assignments gave them the opportunities to work on
appropriate and challenging tasks, which led to improvement on writing in terms of
length, accuracy and fluency. The participants were taught in conducive
environments, which enhanced their self-efficacy and motivation to learn English
writing. Moreover, the participants confirmed that the instruction promoted success
in writing. The participants also mentioned the disadvantages of the study, which
related to extensive workload and the lack of assistance from more capable peers.