The Effects Of Direct Instruction Of Academic Formulas (Diaf) Framework On Academic Writing Performance At The Higher Educational Institution
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Date
2015-01
Authors
AB MANAN, NOR ASHIKIN
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Abstract
Many undergraduates pursuing tertiary level education at institutions of higher learning in Malaysia lack academic vocabulary repertoire which consequently leads to their poor academic writing performance. The study has developed a framework for academic formula instruction to be incorporated into an academic writing course. The main objective of the study was to investigate whether incorporating direct instruction of academic formulas (DIAF) would be effective in enhancing the students’ receptive knowledge of the target academic formulas (TAF) and their academic writing performance. The sample of the study consisted of eighty (N=80) diploma level students from a public university in Malaysia enrolled in an academic writing course. The study employed a quasi-experiment with an experimental and a control group, and a focus group interview to collect the quantitative and qualitative data respectively. It was concluded that DIAF is effective in enhancing the subjects’ receptive knowledge of TAF and their academic writing performance. DIAF promotes more TAF use and the use of more varied TAF in the post Academic Essay Writing (AEW) test. The effect size of DIAF was greater on ‘language’ (ES=0.98) and ‘organization’ (ES=0.86) components of the AEW test compared to the ‘content’ (ES=0.45) component. There is a significant but weak positive linear relationship between the number of TAF used in the post AEW test and the post AEW test scores (r=0.473), and the number of TAF used is a significant predictor in estimating the scores for all the three AEW test components. Although TAF selection based on ‘pedagogic’ corpus would ensure better contextualization,
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the selection criteria should take into consideration the learners’ proficiency level. It was concluded that the selection of TAF is instrumental in ensuring that learners from all proficiency levels can capitalize on DIAF. This study offers valuable insights on how formula instruction can be operationalized and provides empirical evidence on the positive effects of DIAF and its flexibility that DIAF could be implemented in an academic writing class with an institutionally imposed syllabus. Diversification of use in context, target students and pedagogical implementation, allow EAP/ESP writing teachers at tertiary level to implement DIAF which is attuned to their students’ needs regardless of the syllabus or approach adopted by their institutions.
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The Effects Of Direct Instruction Of Academic Formulas (Diaf) Framework On Academic Writing Performance , At The Higher Educational Institution