ABSTRACT
This study sought to assess the
factors affecting the assessment of writing with particular reference to
teachers’ feedback at SSS II Level. Seven research questions were
formulated to guide the study. Relevant literatures were also cited. The study
adopted descriptive survey research design and the population for this study
comprised English teachers in selected schools in Yaba Local Government Area
and Somolu /Bariga Local Government Area of Lagos state. Simple
random sampling technique was used to select 12 senior secondary schools and 10
students from each school.4 teachers each were selected from 10 schools and 5
teachers each were selected from two schools. This brings the number of
teachers to be 50 and the students to be 120. The instrument used to gather
information was questionnaire and the data were analysed using percentage. Some
of the findings of the study are: There are factors that direct effective
assessment of writing, both teachers and students prefer analytic scoring,
teachers’ educational qualification has a significant effect on the assessment
score, teachers’ years of experience affect the assessment of writing,
teachers’ marking strategies affect the assessment of writing. Based on this,
the study recommended among others, that government should embark on
accelerated construction of classrooms to decongest crowded classes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
Page i
Declaration iii
Certification iv
Dedication v
Approval
Page vi
Acknowledgements vii
Abstract viii
Table of
Contents ix
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
to the
Study 1
1.2. Statement
of the
Problem 6
1.3. Purpose
of the
Study 7
1.4. Research
Questions 8
1.5. Significance
of the
Study 9
1.6. Scope
of the
Study 9
1.7. Operational
Definition of
Terms 10
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1. Introduction 11
2.2 The
Concept of Writing 12
2.2.1 What is
Writing 12
2.2.2 Kinds of
Writing 13
2.2.3 Characteristics of
Writing 16
2.3 The
Concept of
Composition 18
2.3.1 What is
Composition 18
2.3.2 Differences between
Composition and
Writing 18
2.4 The
Concept of
Assessment 19
2.4.1 What is
Assessment 19
2.4.2 Types of
Assessment 19
2.4.3 Characteristics of
Assessment 20
2.4.4 The Importance of
Assessment in
Writing 21
2.4.5 Purpose of
Assessment 22
2.4.6 Assessment versus
Marking 23
2.5 The
Concept of
Feedback 27
2.5.1 What is
Feedback 27
2.5.2 Kinds of
Feedback 27
2.5.3 Characteristics of
Feedback 28
2.5.4 Importance of Feedback 29
2.5.5 Method of Error
Correction 30
2.5.6 Teacher’s Feedback
and its impact on Students’ Writing 32
2.6 Teacher
Factor and its Effect on Assessment of Writing 43
2.6.1 Teacher
Qualification 44
2.6.2 Teacher’s Personal
Beliefs their Vision and Implication
on
Assessment 45
2.7 Class
Size and its Effect on Assessment of
Writing 47
2.7.1 Over
Population 47
2.8 Criteria
for Good and Effective
Writing 48
2.9 Summary
of Literature Review and Justification for the Study. 49
CHAPTER
THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 51
3.2 Research
Design 52
3.3 Population
of the
Study 52
3.4 Sample
and Sampling
Technique 52
3.5 Research
Instrument 53
3.6 Validity
of Research
Instrument 53
3.7 Reliability
of Researc h
Instrument 54
3.8 Procedure
for Data Collection 54
3.9 Procedure
for Data
Analysis 55
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
4.1 Introduction 56
4.2 Data
Presentation 56
4.3 Analysis
of Research
Questions 58
4.3.1 Research Questions
1 58
4.3.2 Research Questions
2 61
4.3.3 Research Questions
3 64
4.3.4 Research Question
4 66
4.3.5 Research Questions
5 67
4.3.6 Research Questions
6 69
4.3.7 Research Questions
7 72
4.4 Discussion
of
Findings 74
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY,
IMPLICATIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND
CONCLUSION
5.1 Introduction 78
5.2 Summary
of the
Study 78
5.3 Implication
of the
Findings 80
5.4 Recommendations 81
5.5 Conclusion 82
5.6 Suggestions
for further
studies 83
References 84
Appendix
1 90
Appendix
2 93
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the study
The four basic language skills are
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing is described as the most
difficult of the four language and communication skills and the last of the
skills to be acquired (Maduekwe, 2007; 157).
Writing is a means of communication
using the written word. Communication implies that what you are writing should
be understood by the person who is reading it. If your writing does not
communicate then it has not achieved the primary purpose of writing which is to
pass your message clearly to the person who is reading your piece of writing
(Ukwuegbu, et al 2002).
Writing is an essential, indeed
indispensable part of the academic engagement of students in schools. Learning
takes place when students guided by their teachers, are able to compare issues
and perspectives, define, classify, analyze and illustrate phenomena. As
students’ write, their competence, comprehension and general capacity for
learning come into focus. They are tested through writing to discover how much
has been learned or need to be learned (Oloko, 2012).
Writing is therefore, an
indispensable part of scholarship. It is about the most permanent record of
one’s view on an issue and when done appropriately and memorably, it has the
capacity to preserve reputation longer than well-rendered speeches can. Writing
well requires training, fact, imagination and rigour (Oloko, 2012).
To write well requires a whole range
of abilities-listening, speaking, reading vocabulary, grammar etc. In other
words, every writing serves a basic purpose - to communicate something about a
topic to a particular audience of readers (Maduekwe, 2007).
Writing is a personal act; it is an
expression of the self. It draws on intuition as well as on reasoning, on
sensation and emotion, facts and memory. A writer’s experience, educational
background, exposure, co-ordination, composure or lack of it could be revealed
by his writing. Writing is a process that is done for a purpose, which results
in a product. It is a process of thought and emotion that requires certain
skills and abilities to gain the product and accomplish the purpose (Maduekwe,
2007).
Writing is a process of composing
thought and putting the thoughts on paper in order to have meaningful interaction
with the reader. Writing contributes to learning by clarifying thought,
encourages reflection and develops analytical thinking skills.
All expression requires words, ideas
and larger units organized into a pattern or arrangement which accomplishes or seeks
to accomplish the purpose for such expressions. This arrangement is composition
and the effectiveness of it depends upon the thinking that went into it.
Composition is essentially a thinking process while composition hinges upon
mental expression, the skill needed to put the idea and experiences into
graphic symbols on paper is the reality called writing. Writing is therefore a
process of gradual transformation of random ideas with polished prose
(Maduekwe, 2007).
Also, writing is an act of
communication, an important and difficult literacy and language skill to
develop especially in an oral culture where people generally lack the culture
of reading and writing (Ikonta, 2010).
Writing involves a synthesis of a
number of skills which the writer utilizes almost simultaneously namely;
choosing a topic, arranging ideas in a particular order, putting them into
words, sentences and paragraphs and revising to an acceptable standard. Writing
therefore is a process. It is not an activity accomplished in one sitting,
rather just as a house is built in stages, writing also is built in stages. It
is generative and has an interrelated set of recursive stages of pre-writing,
drafting, revision, editing, proofreading and publishing (Ikonta, 2010; 165).
Writing must be done in stages. The
first stage has to do with linguistics acquisition and cognition. This is
important because you cannot write your speech in a language you do not
understand. After you have acquired the linguistic skill, you then move to
other stages of drafting and proof reading before the presentation (Adedun,
2012).
Written work in English is a major
determiner for overall evaluation of the performance of students at the
secondary level. Maduekwe (2007) opines that at the junior secondary level,
written composition is usually controlled and guided based on oral words e.g.
writing about one’s family, holidays etc. However, at the senior secondary
level, the intention is to foster free writing as well as to further enhance
the basic skills in creative writing introduced at the junior level.
It is through composition we can
most efficiently train the pupil to use language to express his feelings,
needs, ideas, knowledge, and interest with exactness and precision. Composition
develops intellectual and emotional maturity of the pupil. Through composition,
the pupil learns to use language clearly, correctly, precisely and effectively.
The assessment of composition writing is thus central to the process of
effective teaching and learning of writing (Jones, 2002).
The evaluation of writing ability of
second language students’ has become increasingly important in recent years
because the results of such evaluations are used for a variety of
administrative, instructional, and research purposes. Due to the different
linguistic and cultural backgrounds of English-as-a-second-language (ESL)
students, the assessment of their English writing is more problematic than the
assessment of Nigeria English (NE) students’ writing (Hamp-Lyons,1991).
One of the first decisions to be
made in determining a system for directly assessing writing quality is what
type of scoring procedure will be used: should a single score be given to each
text, or should the different features of a text be scored? This issue has been
the subject of a great deal of research and discussion in the composition
literature. There are generally two different types of writing scale for
assessing student written proficiency, holistic marking and analytical marking
(McNamara, 2000).
Holistic marking is where the scorer
records a single impression of the impact of the performance as a whole
(McNamara, 2000: 43). In short, holistic marking is based on the marker’s total
impression of the essay as a whole.
Analytic marking, on the other hand
is where raters provide separate assessment for each of a number of aspects of
performance. In other words, raters mark selected aspects of a piece of writing
and assign point values to quantifiable criteria (Combe&Wiens, 1999). It
involves the separation of the various features of a composition into
components for scoring purposes. Depending on the purpose of the assessment,
texts might be rated on such features as content, organization, cohesion,
register, vocabulary, grammar or mechanics.
Another decision to make in the assessment
of writing is the question of how valid or reliable the assessment is because
validity and reliability are central to effective assessment practice
(Speek& Jones, 1998).
According to Munice (2000), feedback
is vital in helping learners to improve their writing skill and whatever forms
it takes; it can have positive effect on the learners’ awareness in terms of
writing. It is commonly reported that students do not read teachers’ feedback
comments (Duncan, 2007). This however, suggest that teachers and students see
feedback in isolation from other aspects of the teaching and learning process,
and consider feedback to be primarily a teacher owned endeavor (Taras, 2003).
Correspondingly, feedback process is
most effective when all the teachers and students are actually involved in the
process. One strategy is to design assessment so that students can see the
direct benefits of attending to feedback advice (Nicol, 2008).
Another strategy to encourage
student reflection on feedback comments is to give a provisional grade, but
invite students to talk about their work and potentially earn a higher grade (
Taras, 2003).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
It is widely recognized that
feedback is an important part of the learning cycle, but both students and teachers
frequently express disappointment and frustration in relation to the conduct of
the feedback process.
Students may complain that feedback
on assessment of writing is unhelpful or useless, and sometimes even
demoralizing. Additionally, students are not given guidance as to how to use
feedback to improve subsequent performance. Even worse, students sometimes note
that feedback is provided too late to be of any use or relevance at all. For
their part, teachers feel that students are not interested in feedback comments
and are only concerned with the mark.
Furthermore, teachers express
frustration that students do not incorporate feedback advice into subsequent
tasks. This project seeks to examine some of the issues associated with
feedback on assessment and provide some guidelines for effective writing.
1.3 Purpose
of the Study
The central purpose of this research
is that to some extent, writing is not fairly assessed or scored as they should
be because various factors have been found to affect the accuracy, reliability
and validity of the scoring and assessment of writing. The purpose of this
study therefore is to examine some of these factors that affect effective
assessment of writing with particular reference to teachers feedback in some
selected secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of
the study are:
1. To
determine the factors that affect effective assessment of writing.
2. To
ascertain which of the methods of assessment (holistic or analytic) is more
effective in assessing writing.
3. To
examine the extent to which teachers’ educational qualification affect
assessment of writing.
4. To
investigate the extent to which teachers’ years of experience affect effective
assessment of writing.
5. To
explore the extent to which teachers’ marking strategies affect
effective assessment of writing.
6. To
find out the strategies used by teachers for providing effective
feedback.
7. To
determine the importance of feedback on students' writing development.
1.4 Research
Questions
The present study seeks to answer
the following questions:
1. What
are the factors that direct effective assessment of writing?
2. Which
of these approaches (holistic or analytic) do teachers mostly adopt?
3. To
what extent does teachers’ educational qualification affect effective
assessment of writing?
4. To
what extent do teachers’ years of experience affect effective assessment of
writing?
5. To
what extent does teachers’ marking strategies affect assessment of composition
writing?
6. Which
strategies are effective for providing effective feedback?
7. Of
what importance is teachers' feedback on students' writing development?
1.5 Significance
of the Study
The following are the significance
of the present study. It will increase database on the factors that affect
effective assessment of writing.
It will alert evaluators and the
government on the problem in assessment and also the factors that affect
effective assessment of writing.
It will provide English language
teachers with the knowledge of the factors that affect effective assessment of
writing.
It will enlighten English
language teachers on the impact and importance of teachers’ feedback on
students writing development.
It will provide teachers’ with the
strategies needed for effective feedback on students’ writing development.
Furthermore, the study will suggest
possible solutions to the problems highlighted in the assessment of writing and
teachers’ feedback. It will also serve as a guide for future
research.
1.6 Scope of
the Study
The scope of this study will be
limited to assessment and teachers’ feedback and not any other classroom
process. Similarly, this study will be focused on and will be limited to
writing skill and not any other language skill such as listening, speaking or
reading. Also, the focus of this study will be on Senior Secondary School II
Students of English Language in Yaba Local Government Area and Shomolu/Bariga
Local Government Area of Lagos State. The study will be selecting twelve (12)
schools involving fifty (50) English Language teachers and one hundred and
twenty (120) students.
1.7 Operational Definition of Terms
Assessment: is a systemic
and systematic process of examining students’ progress in learning.
Feedback: a critical assessment or
suggestions to improve performance
Writing skill: it is one of the four
basic language and communication skill required by the learner for effective
communication.
Writing: is a process of composing
thoughts and putting the thoughts on paper in order to have meaningful
interaction with the reader.
Composition: is the arrangement of
words, ideas and expression in a particular pattern
Language: is a systematic means of
communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols.
Communication: is the act or process of using words to
express or exchange information.
TOPIC: FACTORS AFFECTING THE ASSESSMENT OF WRITING WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO TEACHERS’ FEEDBACK AT SSS II LEVEL
Format: MS Word
Chapters: 1 - 5
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Delivery: Email
Number of Pages: 65
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