AN ASSESSMENT ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL, THE CASE OF MEKONI HIGH SCHOOL GRADE 11 STUDENTS ENGLISH CLASS IN FOCUS

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to assess students’ skills in writing paragraphs. The study was conducted at Mokoni high School at Mehoni Town. Descriptive case design was employed by the researcher to assess their paragraph writing skill. The participants of the study were grade 11 sample students and English language teachers of Mokoni high School. The researcher used simple random sampling method to select sample students and comprehensive method for sample teachers. So as to attain the objectives of this study, the study employed three data gathering instruments: content analysis, questionnaire and interview. Content analysis was employed to assess students’ paragraph writing skill. Thus, the researcher analyzed the paragraphs written by 35 students. The questionnaire was held with the students to crosscheck the data gained from content analysis and to collect further information on their paragraph writing skill. Furthermore, interview was made to triangulate the data gained from students and to gather information from teachers’ feedback in paragraph writing lessons. All the data collected using different instruments were analyzed qualitatively. The study identified the major paragraph writing problems that the students’ encountered. For example, organization, unity, punctuation, capitalization and spelling were the students’ problem in paragraph writing. In addition, students’ related factors like lack of knowledge of strategic use, lack of practice, and teachers’ related factors such as teachers’ ways of giving feedback factors were affecting students’ paragraph writing. Therefore, since paragraph writing is a skill that could be improved through regular practicing, students should have been given chance of learning and practicing features of good paragraph to use them in paragraph writing effectively.