A study of the improvement of English writing skill through ‘ABCDE Rule/Innovation’ for the 1st

year students of Foreign Language class 1/1Diploma level 2012

Vipark Sarikapak วิ�ภาคย์� สฤกภ�ค

Background/ Introduction• Students’ problems• Each individual students’ writing mistakes such

as subject-verb agreement, tenses, connectors & punctuation, etc.

• Students’ writing inappropriateness for using vocabularies & expressions of their incomplete paragraphs

• Low marks obtained from tests and assignments done

• Students’ apathy towards English as a great source of the No.1 international and communicative language

Research Purpose• In order to improve the 11 students’ business English

writing skill effectively • Conceptual & related Frameworks 1.Higher Vocational Certificate Curriculum B.E.2003 2. ‘ Golden Rules’ for writing letters & memos, etc. in Int.

Business English: Jones& Alexander (1996:19,36) 3.Theory and Practice of Writing: An applied linguistic

perspective. Grabe, W. and Kaplan, R.B. New York, Longman 1996

4.Summarizing an analysis of Meta-functions in structural and textual English reading & writing skill … by Ora-Ong Chakorn in NIDA’s Journal of Lang.& Com. In June 2009

5.Reflective Assessment Materials for ELT Teachers, Chu, Cecilia. An International Journal Vol.4 no.3 April 2001, Assumption University

6. “ Assessing writing”. Weigle et al, 2002. Cambridge Univ Press

Innovation to solve students’ writing problems• ABCDE Rule or Basic Writing Innovation(BWI)• Simple characteristics of ABCDE Rule are: every student’s

sentence or paragraph must be Accurate, Brief, Correct/clear, Developing and Effective/evaluative under the indicators of “ good content(facts+opinions);good organization(topic+details+conclusion) and good language(clear sentence+S-V agreement+Tenses+Connectors+Punctuation”

• Each letter comprising 3 parts, namely A=accuracy+acceptability+assessment;B=brevity+benefit+benchmark;C=clarity+completion+check;D=development+delicacy+diagnosis;E=effectiveness+eloquence+evaluation

• This innovation focusing on each individual’s poor writing problems

>>>This innovation is Simplicity, Practicality, and Self-assessment or SPA model

Methodology/ Data Collection1.Individual’s tests focusing on pretests and post-

tests2.Division of students into 3 groups according to his

or her marks obtained from tests & assignments given (see Table A,B,C & D)

3.Observation of 11 students’ improvement & development individually esp. on their writing topics assigned (special techniques: 6A’s>ask +advise+ assign+ answer+ assess+ achieve; 3B’s>brief + back up + better; 9C’s>contact+ chat+ coach+ comment on +comfort +cheer up + control + check +correct +(rewarding rules: punctual + tidy + complete work)

4.Retest those who cannot pass the criteria set

Table A: Comparisons of marks obtained between pre-tests & post-tests in 4 times , in 4 months Letters& abbreviations denoted: P1=pre-test,P2=post-test; MM=memo, LT=letter, OP=opinion

• ** Good paragraph= good content(facts +opinions)+good organization(topic+ details+ conclusion)

• Criteria: Applied (holistic+analytic+authentic scoring test) Hughes(2006),Weigle(2002),O’Malley&Pierce(1996) Full marks=10

Table B: Comparisons of marks obtained between pre-tests & post-tests in 4 times , in 4 months Letters& abbreviations denoted: P1=pre-test,P2=post-test; MM=memo, LT=letter, OP=opinion

Table C: Comparisons of marks obtained between pre-tests & post-tests in 4 times , in 4 months Letters& abbreviations denoted: P1=pre-test,P2=post-test; MM=memo, LT=letter, OP=opinion

Table D: Observation of students’ behavior: 4-item observed in 4times, in 4months

Note: Times No. 1=11 June, 2=17July, 3=17August, 4=11September Time: 11.40--13.20 Room: 425 Items observed: Participation, Interest, Responsibility & Sociability (Adapted from ‘Satisfactory Characteristics of Vocational Graduates, Vocational Dept. Education Ministry B.E 2003’). Criteria Level: 3= Always, 2= Sometimes, 1= Rarely Total= 48 Acceptable Grading: A=Excellent 37> 48 Marks Class Activities: Q & A B= Good 25> 36 Pair / Group work C= Ok 24> 13 Opinions expressed &exchanged D= Poor 01> 12 written/presented !Adapted & applied: Observation techniques (Wallace, 1999:104-123)

Results/Findings

• According to the criteria set, the improvement of students’ writing of A & B group including the only one from C-group through ‘ABCDE Innovation’ was satisfactory.

• 73 % or 8 out of 11 students’ writing development was acceptable . This study was verified & implied that the result somewhat met the assumption mentioned above (A business Eng. writing skill will be better after passing through ‘ABCDE Innovation’.

• Individuals’ negative attitude esp. undisciplined, uncooperative & uninterested behavior always affects their writing improvement seen from 3 students from C-group (Table D).