It is understood that reading literature texts and writing essays are interrelated and multidimensional. This study investigates the teaching of writing focusing on two subskills: sentence-combining and vocabulary within the context of study-reading texts in literature. The study was carried out by the teacher-researcher in Beirut, Lebanon at the Lebanese American University (LAU). The research method comprised a threefold approach: a Counterbalancing Experiment including an experimental and control group that used two contrasting approaches to teaching writing in the classroom an Attitudinal Questionnaire, to take into account the learners attitude and to control bias and Transcript Analyses of 5 class sessions, to analyze the discourse of the teacher/learner interaction. The Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses of transcribed sessions included a focus on various classroom activities: vocabulary analysis, vocabulary revision, vocabulary correction, sentence-combining and reading comprehension. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) and T-tests among others were used to analyse the data of the Experiment. The results of the Quantitative Experiment reveal significant differences of both experimental groups in Essay Performance in the Counterbalancing Study. Furthermore, T-test results of the Attitudinal Questionnaire coincide in most instances with the quantitative results. However, the correlation among the 3 variables: vocabulary, sentence-combining and essay gave, in general, inconsistent results. In addition, the model of patterns of lexis, which is an innovation in research on vocabulary, has been analysed in the learners' written discourse with implications for the teaching of lexis. The study shows that vocabulary is useful in a context in which it has long been neglected. It emphasises the benefits of sentence-combining as a pedagogical means for teaching writing. Finally, it highlights the dilemma of the teacher as a researcher within a traditional context of language teaching.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:696876 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Al-Akl Khoury, Loulou |
| Publisher | University of Leicester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/2381/30962 |
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