EFFICACY OF PRE-WRITING ORAL DISCUSSION AS A METHOD FOR ENHANCING WRITING ABILITIES

Abstract

In the realm of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing, the scarcity of ideas often hampers original conceptual development. Teacher-led class discussions (TLCD) are widely acknowledged as an effective method for fostering learners' creativity. The teacher assumes the role of a facilitator, initiating and guiding discussions while maintaining a positive atmosphere among participants. The students' speaking proficiency, ensuing discourse, and the resulting emergence of critical thinking in writing are interconnected aspects. This experimental study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of employing such discussions as a precursor to writing tasks. Specifically, it seeks to address two main inquiries: 1) The influence of TLCD, utilizing a structured questioning approach, on enhancing learners' creativity in an EFL writing class, and 2) the varying levels of responsiveness among high, average, and low proficiency students concerning their writing outcomes in response to the questioning strategy utilized in teacher-led discussions. A cohort of 56 level 3 General Foundation Programme students at Middle East College was divided into control and experimental groups to investigate these questions. The experimental group engaged in weekly writing tasks following topic-based questions designed to facilitate conceptual learning. A mixed method approach was employed, encompassing surveys, interviews, and pre-and post-test written assessments exclusively to evaluate the strategy's effectiveness holistically. The findings reveal that high proficiency students derive significant benefits from integrating oral discussions and subsequent writing tasks, displaying notable improvements in their writing skills. In contrast, while the writing abilities of average and low proficiency students showed discernible enhancement, their progress was not statistically superior to the control group. These results highlight the potential of TLCD in stimulating creativity and enhancing EFL writing capabilities, particularly among proficient learners.