The Effectiveness of Using Interactive Writing Strategy on Developing Writing Skills among 7th Graders and their Attitudes towards Writing

Abstract

Writing in English is a life skill which nobody in the twenty-first century can do without. It is much more important for prospective teachers whose future career entails a lot of writing and on whose shoulders the responsibility of teaching writing is placed. The present thesis aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using interactive writing strategy on developing writing skills among seventh graders and their attitudes towards writing. It attempted to find out to what extent the using of interactive writing strategy which is based on group and pair activities and other tasks on developing Palestinian seventh graders’ writing skills and their attitudes towards writing. To fulfill the aims of the study, the researcher followed the experimental approach. He used two tools to collect the needed data: a pre-posttest and a questionnaire. A sample consisting of (76) seventh grade female students was purposively chosen from Ian Goliath (B) in the East Directorate of Gaza in the scholastic year (2012-2013) and equally distributed into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group was taught writing using interactive writing strategy, while the control group was taught using the traditional methods of teaching writing throughout the intervention which lasted for one month. An achievement pre-posttest and a questionnaire were administrated and a statistical analysis was conducted to collect data. The study findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences in achievement in writing between the mean scores attained by the experimental group and those by the control one in favor of the experimental group. Such difference was attributed to the interactive writing strategy used. Finally, in the light of the study results and conclusions, the researcher recommends the following to the different stakeholders: 1) Elementary school teachers should use interactive writing as an approach to teaching the writing skills. 2) Adopting interactive writing strategies of teaching writing skills helps make the learning process to become more effective and dynamic. 3) Using the different useful techniques involved in interactive writing strategies in the writing lessons motivates students to participate in generating ideas and expressing themselves freely and clearly. 4) Conducting a training program involving using new approaches and methods in teaching writing skills may enhance and develop English teachers` performance in teaching writing and other language skills. 5) Cooperative learning is very helpful, so teachers are advised to be well trained on how to use it effectively.