AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS' WRITING STRATEGIES USE AND PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF GRADE ELEVEN STUDENTS AT YABERUS SECONDARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate students’ writing strategies use and their performance at Yaberus Ssecondary School. To achieve the purpose of this study, a descriptive-correlational design was employed. The design was also used to look at the relationship between writing strategy use and performance and then to determine writing strategies use between high and low achievers. Amixed method approach was used in this study. The data were collected from 80 respondents through questionnaires and interviews. Two sampling techniques (purposive sampling and simple random sampling) were used to select the school and respondents. The findings indicate that students’ lack the awareness of using writing strategies, poor understanding about the compositional aspect of the English writing, did not view their English written text as a means of communication, and the teachers were not aware of writing strategies. However, descriptive data analysis revealed that students had lower writing strategies and poorest writing performance. The results of the study showed that there was a positive, but not significant correlation between the use of writing strategies and performance (r=0.63, p=.058, p>0.05). The findings indicated that high school students did not use effective writing strategies to overcome their writing problems. Therefore, it was suggested that the current materials should be designed considering the writing strategies. Students are also advised to practice writing in English both in and out of the classroom. This thesis would be used as springboard for future researchers to conduct studies related to investigating secondary school students’ use in learning other language skills (i.e., speaking, reading and listening) and language proficiency.