• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.48-54
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• 2019

This study examined the effects of free writing in writing class targeted for engineering students on their writing skills. To assess the effects, we have asked 100 engineering students from writing class to write free writing, classifying them as the test group(N=50) and the control group(N=50). We have also compared their learning effect, their writing ability, and learning satisfaction via pre and post intervention surveys. The results showed higher change in learning effect, interest in writing, learning attitude, writing ability, learning satisfaction in the test group compared to the control group. This positive change proves that free writing is a significant teaching method in writing class for engineering and science students.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.149-170
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• 2012

The purpose of the present study is to examine the degree to which the writing instruction using animations has effects on the writing performance of $4^{th}$ year elementary school students. This study also examined the effects of the animation-based writing instruction on the interest and confidence of those students. To this aim, the present study utilized a set of writing tests and questionnaires before and after the instruction. The data were collected from 63 elementary school students. The data were then analyzed using a series of statistical analyses. The results suggested that the students who received the writing instruction using animations performed significantly better on the writing test than those who received the textbook-based instruction. The results also suggested that those who received the animation-based instruction showed more positive interest and confidence on English and English learning. Finally, limitations of the present study and suggestions for further studies are discussed at the end of the paper.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.198-215
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• 2012

Purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of creative science writing for interest of biology and scientific attitude on high school student. Creative science writing is a learning method to enhance comprehension and expression of thinking of science contents related to daily life. 148 students were recruited and divided into two groups, experimental group were experience creative science writing lessons. On the other hand, contrary group were applied interest enhancement lessons excepted creative science writing activity. To investigate the effect of creative science writing, interest check of biology was used, and scientific attitude test was used to understand changes in student's scientific attitude. Experimental group had taught using creative science writing and their awareness of the instruction was analyzed with questionnaire. As a result of this study, the class based on creative science writing was effective in improving high school students' interest in biology and in particular it was helpful in promoting interest in biology and learning of biology. It suggested that the class based on creative scientific writing used a new teaching method unlike existing methods, caused them to have interest in the instruction by making them express their daily life freely not to memorize learning contents, applied learning contents to daily life through many kinds of writings and then enhanced their interest in biology. Indeed, the class based on creative science writing had the positive influence on changes in the scientific attitude of high school students. Since creative science writing is writing one's own idea through extensive thinking based on learning contents, it was effective in arranging the process of thinking and changing their scientific attitude into positive one. Consequently, it was concluded from the above results of the research that the teaching using creative science writing was available as the effective teaching methods to improve high school students' interest in biology and change their scientific attitude into positive one.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.17-33
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• 2003

College going students who are non-native speakers of English enrolled in English language programmes are not acquiring the needed academic writing skills. Many of these students do not have positive attitudes towards writing, thus forcing language instructors to look for ways of motivating students to write in order to improve writing skills. This action research project investigates the use of portfolio writing to improve writing ability among pre-university students. Research on the use of portfolio writing suggests that it is a useful way for developing interest in writing and for developing effective writing skills over a period of time. Portfolios support the best thinking in composition pedagogy in that it encourages process writing. Although the portfolio is considered a writing product, as a whole it is evidence of the students writing process. An important feature in using portfolios is that students are able to focus on their writing without constantly worrying about grades. Instructors have noticed that students make greater improvement in their writing when their focus is shifted from punitive feedback through letter grades to constructive feedback in the form of suggestions for further revision. This paper describes the use of writing portfolios as an effective means of teaching writing. The findings revealed that writing portfolios helped develop confidence in writing and decreased anxiety towards writing. (217 words)

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.97-106
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• 2019

EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) classes are now accepted policy at Korean universities, yet students often struggle with required academic English writings. The present study examined an EMI class that used direct instruction and access to online assistive English writing software. From preliminary analysis, 26 students expressed interest in how an EMI academic writing class could facilitate improved English writing skills. Study participants completed a survey on self-efficacy and learning needs and assignments for an EMI academic writing class. To establish inter-rater reliability, three trained raters assessed the written essays of students prior to and after instructional intervention. Fleiss' Kappas statistics showed moderate reliability. Students' opinions on the use of online software were also analysed. Paired t-test was run on the quality of students' pre- and post-instruction assignments, and there was significant difference in the rated scores. Self-efficacy was found to have moderate positive association with improved post-essay writing scores.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.185-210
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• 2006

This study has two purposes. First, it aims to suggest an appropriate approach to English writing education for Korean high school students in a cooperative learning situation. It also aims to suggest what type of learner grouping, either homogeneous or heterogeneous, is appropriate by comparing the learners' writing abilities and the changes of their affective factors after being exposed to cooperative EFL writing instruction. Two homogeneous classes were selected and instructed to write in English for 11 weeks. One was composed of homogeneous small groups based on the students' writing scores, and the other was composed of heterogeneous small groups, again based on the students' writing scores. The results showed that the improvement between the two class types was quite different across different proficiency levels. For example, although there is little difference between the homogeneous and the heterogeneous classes of low and intermediate-level learners in writing ability improvement, high-level students showed a significant difference between the classes. In addition, it was found that class participation correlated significantly to writing ability improvement. Cooperative learning was proved to be an effective writing instructional approach to encourage learners' interest and increase their self-confidence; however, the results did not show any significant differences in learners' affective domain between the homogeneous and the heterogeneous classes. Similarly, the learners' grouping preference was not affected by the grouping method.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.165-198
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• 2002

The purpose of this research is to improve the writing ability of students by an ideal test model of English writing based on strategies of procedural learning stages enhancing the level of students' writing ability. Assessment of writing in the field of English education has been limited so far to very restricted areas with no appropriate scientific scrutiny. Assessment is really meaningful only when it exactly estimates the ability of students. Since English writing competence has become indispensable in this era of global village, writing instruction should be most emphasized. The most forceful method of busting writing instruction is to utilize the so-called washback effect of testing. So, to develop a good test model of writing, the first thing that is required is to inspect writing strategy in steps and, then, testing itself. First of all, analyzed with a special reference to the 6th high school English curriculum were the goals and contents of the syllabus reflected in one kind of junior high textbook and eight different kinds of senior high textbooks. Then questionnaires on the whole area of writing and tendencies of English writing classes were given to 100 English teachers, 300 students. The results of questionnaires were statistically analyzed. Then, some suggestions and opinions about the questioning method were made: the procedural strategy in steps, English writing instruction and test model of assessment were applied to the syllabus referring to teaching plans. On the bases of the results of the questionnaires, three pretests and a final test of English writing were administered to verify the effect of enhanced English writing competence which had been gradually promoted and, through the promotion, produced the test criteria of English writing. In conclusion, guidance and evaluation of English writing through in steps are really indispensable to increase student's practical ability and, accordingly, we are in need of the development of a testing method of useful writing practiced in school class above anything else. So, it is necessary to further the study on methods to assess writing ability on the bases of participation and fluency of students with their keen interest in English. Also, to intensify the effect of the test model, more accommodating reorganization of syllabus is required in our education. For instance, we need a flexible operation in organizing time units from the current 50 minutes to 100-130 minutes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.144-154
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• 2010

This study was conducted among elementary pre-service teachers who participated in creative story writing exercises related to science. It aimed at analyzing their perceptions, based on their own experiences in the story writing exercises, about story writing as a pedagogic method, to discover the implications on science education. First, creative story writing exercises were carried out over a period of eight weeks by 114 elementary pre-service teachers at a college of education, all of whom were non-science majors taking a course on earth science as a liberal arts elective. Afterward, an open-ended survey was conducted among them to discover their attitudes and opinions, both as students and as teachers-to-be. The majority of the subjects expressed a positive opinion about creative story writing as a pedagogic tool, stating that they would apply it in their future teaching by telling stories they wrote or having students write their own compositions. Pre-service teachers conclude a creative writing improves students' studying, leads interest and motivation. In addition, it linked with daily life and other school subjects. Creative story writing, when used at colleges of education, has didactic value as an empirical exercise for pre-service teachers who are not majoring in science.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.233-257
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• 2009

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of 3D avatar-based Virtual Reality chatting on college students' English learning achievement. Forty college sophomore students participated at this study and the research lesson continued for 8 weeks. They were administered to take a pretest to evaluate their vocabulary knowledge and writing skills. Their progress was assessed on the basis of midterm. Finally, a post-questionnaire was administered to measure their interest and understanding toward their learning experience in 3D avatar-based Virtual chatting. The results of this study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the control group and experimental group with respect to their midterm scores and writing. The result of the post-survey indicated the interest of English was statistically higher than the understanding of English.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2012

Communication skills, such as writing documents and presenting technical details, are thought to be essential for modern engineers. Engineering students usually have less interest in writing and presentation than their humanities student counterparts and their concerns are different, too. So it is necessary to teach them in a different way which is suited to them. However, teaching such subjects has been a tricky problem for educators in terms of teaching methods. Also, to teach writing and presentation effectively for engineering students, collaboration between the faculties of different disciplines is necessary because each discipline has its own specific domain knowledge and approaches. But many unsolved problems exist with regard to how to deal with the technical and administrative aspects, and so on. This paper introduces one case in the education of technical writing and presentation, which is a collaboration between an engineering faculty and a faculty of literature. The literature faculty conducts basic education and training for writing skills, while the engineering faculty teaches the technical aspects of documentation, as well as presentation skills. The focus is placed on topics such as self-introduction, searching technical literature and materials, describing and explaining things and presentation practice, etc. During the class there is cooperation in each topic domain, while the faculties collaborate in teaching and evaluation.