LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:5 May 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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An Analysis of Writing Skills in English of
Secondary Level Students from Schools Affiliated to PSEB and CBSE
in Three Districts of Malwa Region of Punjab, India

Priya Rani, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Research Scholar
Dr. Shivani Thakar, Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the performance of secondary level learners from schools affiliated to Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in three districts namely Sangrur, Barnala, and Mansa of Punjab (India) with regard to writing skill in English. Random sampling procedure was adopted for the selection of 200 students (100 each from schools affiliated to PSEB and CBSE) of grade 10 from ten schools (5 each from the two boards; and 20 students per school) from each district. The assessment of the writing ability of students was made from the two paragraphs written by each of them regarding their daily life. These written samples were analysed on the basis of five components -- Content, Organisation, Vocabulary, Language use, and Mechanics. When the ‘t-test’ was applied on the data, the results revealed a significant difference in the performance of learners from the schools affiliated to the two boards. Furthermore, the performance of the students from the two boards in five sub-skills of writing was also compared.

Key words: Writing skill, EFL, PSEB, CBSE.

1. Introduction

Writing is a fundamental aspect of academic and communicative competence in present educated world. Writing well is not a naturally acquired skill; it is a process that needs to be taught, practiced, and assessed. It is defined as “a reflective activity that requires enough time to think about the specific topic and to analyse and classify any background knowledge. Then, writers need a suitable language to structure these ideas in the form of a coherent discourse” (Behizadeh and Engelhard 189). It is seen as “a complex activity, a social act which reflects the writer’s communicative skills which is difficult to develop and learn, especially in an EFL context” ((Behizadeh and Engelhard 189). Richards and Renandya are also of the opinion that this difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas but also in translating these ideas into readable texts (303). The student who learns to write English has not only to cope with the mechanical problems connected with the script of the language but also with the problems of ease and fluency of expression, of grammatical and lexical accuracy and of the appropriateness of the style of writing as demanded by the occasion or situation (Varghese 78). It can be said that the writing skill includes a number of sub-skills as word selection, organization, syntax, grammar, content, fluency, and mechanics etc. In addition to this, the task of writing is not a single stage process. Tompkins and Hoskisson also talk about five stages of writing process which are - prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing (211-222).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Priya Rani, M.A., M.Phil.
Lecturer (English)
Government Multipurpose Secondary School
Patiala-147001
Punjab
India
lect_priya26@rediffmail.com

Dr. Shivani Thakar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor (English)
Department of Distance Education
Punjabi University
Patiala-147002
Punjab
India
shivanidde@gmail.com
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