Relative Effectiveness Of Writing Activities In The Pakistani ESL Context

Abstract

Learning to write competently in English is crucially important in the contemporary global economy. However, majority of the Pakistani ESL learners struggle to achieve satisfactory writing proficiency and their underachievement is particularly ascribed to the dominance of GTM which fails to excite learners’ cognition. Thus, Task-Based Learning (activities-based learning) offers a viable alternative. A 40-minute task-based class, 3 days a week, was run for four weeks. The sample comprised 111 students of Intermediate Level. The researcher-created videos on eight prevalent writing activities uploaded on his YouTube channel were watched by the learners. Watching to the recorded lecture was followed by a set of activities in which the participants were engaged before they showed their work in the physical classroom. Subsequently, relative effectiveness of these writing activities was studied through written tests. Quantitative data analysis was made by SPSS. Furthermore, qualitative data collected through interviews were analyzed by inductive approach thematic analysis.  The Mathematical nature of Sentence Slots, Matrices and Step by Step Addition made them relatively more effective.