The Role of Using IELTS Model Essays in Improving Learners’ Writing and their Awareness of Writing Features

Journal of English Language Studies

مقاله 7، دوره 1، شماره 1، آذر 2009، صفحه 115-130   

نویسندگان

Mohammad S Bagheri¹؛ Mohammad Zare²

¹Assistant Professor of Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch

²MA in TEFL from Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch

چکیده

This study aimed at investigating the role of using IELTS model essays in improving Iranian EFL learners’ writing ability. It further sought to explore these learners’ perceptions as of what aspects of their writing they noticed to have improved after being exposed to model essays. In this study, the learners’ attention to writing features was classified into four language related episodes (LREs): lexical resources, form, discourse, and relevance. The participants were 65 learners, participating in three groups; group A: intermediate students with no model essay exposure, group B: intermediate students with model essay exposure, and group C: advanced students with model essay exposure. The results of the posttest revealed that using model essays did bear a significant impact on the writing improvement of the learners. Immediately after the posttest, 17 randomly ed participants were asked to think aloud as they were going over their own essays to state in what aspects of writing they had benefited model essays. The same participants were interviewed to ascertain their general attitude towards using model essays. The findings indicated that there was a significant difference in the frequencies of learners’ LREs denoting their differential attention to the writing features and all interviewees expressed their satisfaction with using model essays.

کلیدواژه‌ها

language-related episodes (LREs)؛ IELTS model essays؛ Think-aloud Protocol؛ Writing Ability