Proceedings of the 7th International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education, 2024
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Enhancing Low-Proficient ESL Engineering Learners’ Academic Writing Competence through Pre-writing Strategy Instruction
Dr. Rajakumar Guduru
ABSTRACT:
Strong academic writing skills are crucial for learners for success in academic and professional careers. These skills empower individuals to think critically, communicate persuasively, and adapt to the evolving demands of the modern world. However, low-proficient engineering learners often struggle with academic writing skills due to various difficulties with organizing their thoughts coherently, using proper grammar and syntax, and providing evidence to support their arguments effectively. As a result, these learners face obstacles in achieving academic success, as well as in participating effectively in scholarly discourse and professional environments where strong writing skills are essential. Hence, this study aims at improving entry-level engineering ESL learners’ academic writing skills through a pre-post experimental research design. The study was conducted with 220 (control and experimental group) low proficient entry level engineering students taking Learning English course at Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, India. A three-stage process approach to writing was used to teach specific pre-writing strategies and assess their impact on learners’ academic writing performance. Tools such as writing tasks, self-assessment questionnaire, rubrics for writing assessment, specific pre-writing techniques, and a strategy model were used for data collection. The data was analyzed and interpreted both qualitatively and quantitatively. It was found that majority of the learners lacked awareness of higher order language skills, cognitive and metacognitive skills, which are required for effective academic writing. The results also showed a moderate improvement in participants’ academic writing skills post pre-writing strategy instruction. Finally, implications are provided emphasizing the need for integration of pre-writing strategies into ESL teaching curriculum for improving engineering low proficient learners’ academic writing proficiency.
keywords: Academic writing improvement, Entry-level engineering, Pre-writing strategies, ESL education, Higher education context