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Factors influencing the writing attainment of junior college students in the General Paper
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Type
Thesis
Author
Seng, Swee Hoon
Supervisor
Skuja-Steele, Rita
Abstract
The primary objective of the study is to determine the extent that certain selected variables contribute both individuality and in combination to the variance in writing attainment in the General Paper. The study was guided by six hypotheses. Hypotheses one aimed at checking for the correlation between language proficiency and writing attainment; hypothesis two, for rhetorical cognitive ability and writing attainment; hypothesis three, for background information and writing attainment; hypothesis four, for exposure to English and writing attainment; hypothesis five, for stream and writing attainment; and hypothesis six, for sex and writing attainment.
Subjects for the study were drawn from a pre-university two cohort of a junior college. A total of ninety-six students, that is, sixteen boys and sixteen girls from each of the Science, Commerce and Arts streams, participated in the study.
Four instruments were administered in the study: an essay test to assess students' writing quality, a word association test to measure students' store of background information on the set essay topic, a questionnaire to measure students' rhetorical cognitive ability and another to gauge the extent of students' exposure to English. The last refers to students' contact with reading material like newspapers, magazines, books (other than text books), and TV and radio and other taped programme. Language proficiency was based on students' 'O' level English grades.
The Pearson Product-moment Correlation was used to investigate the relationship between the criterion variable (writing attainment) and each of the predictor and moderator variables. Stepwise Regression Analysis was also employed to estimate the contributions of the independent variables to the variance in writing attainment. The Commonality Technique using Multiple Regression Analysis was used to compute the shared variance of some of the independent variables. In addition, Two-way Analysis of Variance was used to ascertain if the male and female subjects in each stream were significantly different from those of the other streams in terms of essay, language proficiency and background information performance, and rhetorical cognitive ability and exposure to English patterns. Where the variance was significant, pairwise comparisons using Duncan's Multiple-range Test were also calculated to establish where the differences lay.
Results indicated that five out of the six independent variables correlated with writing attainment in the General Paper. Sex was the variable uncorrelated with writing attainment. The Stepwise Regression Analysis showed that language proficiency, rhetorical cognitive ability and background information predicted 72.1 % of the variance in writing attainment. The most powerful predictor was language proficiency, followed by rhetorical cognitive ability and background information.
The findings underline the importance of linguistic ability as the fundamental tool for writing attainment. Once this basic criterion is attained, the students' rhetorical cognitive ability becomes the other pertinent factor. Background information is relevant as far as it serves as the basis on which arguments can be generated and formulated.
Subjects for the study were drawn from a pre-university two cohort of a junior college. A total of ninety-six students, that is, sixteen boys and sixteen girls from each of the Science, Commerce and Arts streams, participated in the study.
Four instruments were administered in the study: an essay test to assess students' writing quality, a word association test to measure students' store of background information on the set essay topic, a questionnaire to measure students' rhetorical cognitive ability and another to gauge the extent of students' exposure to English. The last refers to students' contact with reading material like newspapers, magazines, books (other than text books), and TV and radio and other taped programme. Language proficiency was based on students' 'O' level English grades.
The Pearson Product-moment Correlation was used to investigate the relationship between the criterion variable (writing attainment) and each of the predictor and moderator variables. Stepwise Regression Analysis was also employed to estimate the contributions of the independent variables to the variance in writing attainment. The Commonality Technique using Multiple Regression Analysis was used to compute the shared variance of some of the independent variables. In addition, Two-way Analysis of Variance was used to ascertain if the male and female subjects in each stream were significantly different from those of the other streams in terms of essay, language proficiency and background information performance, and rhetorical cognitive ability and exposure to English patterns. Where the variance was significant, pairwise comparisons using Duncan's Multiple-range Test were also calculated to establish where the differences lay.
Results indicated that five out of the six independent variables correlated with writing attainment in the General Paper. Sex was the variable uncorrelated with writing attainment. The Stepwise Regression Analysis showed that language proficiency, rhetorical cognitive ability and background information predicted 72.1 % of the variance in writing attainment. The most powerful predictor was language proficiency, followed by rhetorical cognitive ability and background information.
The findings underline the importance of linguistic ability as the fundamental tool for writing attainment. Once this basic criterion is attained, the students' rhetorical cognitive ability becomes the other pertinent factor. Background information is relevant as far as it serves as the basis on which arguments can be generated and formulated.
Date Issued
1990
Call Number
PE1471 Sen
Date Submitted
1990