MEASURING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN A GRAMMAR-LED GENERAL ENGLISH COURSE AT A TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTION

Maria Eugenia Zevallos Valdivia

DOI Number
https://doi.org/10.22190/JTESAP231009018Z
First page
223
Last page
230

Abstract


With the need for instant communication and the boom of the digital era, quality content concerning grammatical output by language learners has become a hot issue among teachers, particularly university professors who aim at accuracy when dealing with their students’ production. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of a remedial grammar course created “ad hoc” for university leavers (n = 987) in Lima, Peru between March 2018 and September 2019. The dataset deployed in the study came from two instruments: Pre-Test and Post-Test, applied to participants at the start and end of every term. When processing the data, the difference of the paired samples did not follow a normal distribution, therefore, the t-student test could not be applied. Alternatively, the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test had to be used, but only after verifying the assumption that the differences between post and pre-test samples followed a symmetric distribution. The test result yielded a very significant p-value, thus rejecting the null hypothesis that there were no differences regarding median grades between the pre- and post-tests. Furthermore, the effect size of nearly 70% confirmed the effectiveness of the grammar course and the appropriacy of the application of teaching and assessment methods.


Keywords

ELT, grammar, Wilcoxon test, CEFR, academic achievement

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22190/JTESAP231009018Z

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