The Use of Journal Writing and Reading Comprehension Texts During Pre-Writing in Developing EFL Students’ Academic Writing

This study aimed at investigating the effects of journal writing and reading comprehension practice during pre-writing on the development of the writing of college students enrolled in English as a foreign language (EFL) programme. A factorial design was manipulated, where subjects (n = 42) were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Existing scores on the students’ first semester writing achievement test were used to determine the writing proficiency levels of the subjects. Data were collected through administering two writing tests, an one-hour test and a 15-minutes free writing test. The results of these tests were analyzed using t-test to assess the relationship between writing fluency, complexity and accuracy. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and two multivariate analyses of variances (MANOVA) were further run in order to address the questions raised in the study. Findings of the study showed that there was no significant difference between journal writing and reading comprehension practice in improving the writing fluency, complexity and accuracy of the students. The MANOVA test run to test the interaction between the treatment (journal writing and reading comprehension texts) and the writing proficiency levels (low vs. high) on the writing fluency, complexity and accuracy showed no significant results. Recommendations for future research were provided at the end of the study