Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

This chapter provides data on return rate of research instruments and

demographic characteristics of the respondents.

1. Attributes of the Student-Respondents

1.1. Age

Table 1

Age of the Students

Grouping Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

18 years old 1 2.0%
17 years old 1 2.0%
16 years old 2 4.0%
15 years old 37 74.0%
14 years old 8 16.0%
13 years old 1 2.0%
Total 50 100%

Table 1 presents the grouping of the respondents according to age.

The data show that ten or 2.0% are thirteen years old; 8 or 16.0%, 14 years

old; 37 or 74.0% ,15 years old; 2 or 4.0%,16 years old; one or 2.0% ,17 years

old; and one or 2.0%, 18 years old. The figures clearly imply that most of

students belong to the age 14- 15 years’ old which implies that the

respondents were grade nine students.

1.2 Gender

Table 2 Gender of the Students

Gender Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

Male 25 50.0 %
Female 25 50.0 %
Total 50 100.00%
 Table 2 shows the distribution of the students according to gender. The

data reveal that among those 50 respondents, 25 or 50% are females and 25

or 50% are males. The figures imply that there were equal number of students

who participated in the study.

2. Attributes of the Second Language Teachers

2.1. Professional Qualifications

Table 3 Professional Qualifications of Teachers

Highest Educational Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

Attainment
MA Graduate 3 30.0%
MA Units 5 50.0%
Bachelor’s degree 2 20.0%
Total 10 100.00%

Table 3 indicates that the majority of teachers five (50%) who

participated in the study had Master’s units (M.A units) while another three

(30%) had Master’s degree (MAEd/M. A) while only two or (20%) had

Bachelor’s degree (BSED/BA). This implies that all the teachers who

participated in the study were professionally qualified to handle L2 writing

classes. Professional training and qualification of teachers are essential

aspects in enabling them to have a good mastery of the content and

acquisition of skills appropriate for language teaching.

The study also sought to find out teachers’ experience in teaching L2.

It was considered an important variable for this study due to the assumption

that experienced teachers have a clear understanding of their students, which

enable them to select appropriate teaching methods to meet their learning

needs.
 As stated by Hossain in his study to develop writing skills in classroom,

teachers should be given the knowledge and training on writing and should be

encouraged to adapt relevant approaches. Teachers should adopt different

teaching techniques and strategies to let learners write independently. The

teachers should also try to design some innovative writing activities for the

class. Hossain in his study states that in order to develop writing skills in

classroom, teachers should be given the knowledge and training on writing

and should be encouraged to adapt relevant approaches.

2.2. Length of Experience

Table 4 Experiences as Language Teacher

Length of Experience Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

11-30 years 3 30.0%

6-10 years 2 20.0%

0-5 years 5 50.0%
Total 10 100.00%

Table 4 shows that five or (50%) of the teachers had an experience as

L2 for not more than five years while two or (20%) of the teachers had six

years and three or 30.0% for more than 10 years. This implies that the

majority of the teachers had teaching experience of not more than five years.

This period is considered sufficient for one to gain experience in efficiently

handling L2 subjects.

3. Writing Needs of Grade Nine Students

3.1. Grade Nine Students’ Assessment

Table 5 Grade Nine Students’ Assessment on Their Writing Needs

Writing Needs Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

Yes No Yes No
Choosing a topic 17 33 34.0% 66.0%
Developing the topic 24 26 48.0% 52.0%
sentence and main idea
Writing the introduction 18 32 36.0% 64.0%
Developing support details 17 33 34.0% 66.0%
Stating the conclusion 13 37 26.0% 74.0%
Citing sources 17 33 34.0% 66.0%
Acquiring sufficient word 18 32 36.0% 64.0%

stock and writing mechanics

Observing coherence and 14 36 28.0% 72.0%

cohesion
Developing grammar and 22 28 44.0% 56.0%

syntax skills
Employing correct format and 13 37 26.0% 74.0%

punctuation

The information from table 5 shows the writing needs of students in

developing their essay writing skills. Out of the ten writing needs, developing a

topic got the highest percentage with 24 or 48 %. This only shows that most of

the students had difficulty in developing the topic sentence ad main idea.

Findings also reveal that most of the students 24 (48.0 %) indicated that

they need to master how to develop good topic sentence and main idea;

develop grammar and syntax skills; 22 (44.0%), write the introduction and

acquire sufficient word stock and writing mechanics; 18 (36.0 %), choose a

topic 17 (34.0 %, develop supporting details and cite sources; 17 (34.0%),

observe coherence and cohesion; 14 (28.0%, stating conclusion; and 13 (26.0

%), format and punctuation.

Findings on writing needs of students are almost similar to a review of

related literature on English language learning in Malaysian school’; it was

claimed that using the correct form of English grammar is the main problem

with Malaysian students’ writing. Moreover, college students are barely

proficient in the use of mechanics particularly in capitalization and punctuation

based on the study conducted by Cabansag in 2013. Grammar is important

because it provides information to helps the reader’s comprehension. Writing

that is poorly punctuated and contains grammatical errors is difficult to read

and sometimes impossible to understand. If the students have insufficient

word stock, the development of good habits in the field of L2 writing is not

well-established.

In addition, using the same variable, teachers were asked to give

information concerning the areas in essay writing students need. The

responses are in table six.

3.2. Teachers’ Assessment

Table 6 shows that 8 or 80% of the teachers indicated that grammar

mastery was the most important writing needs of students in essay writing;

70%, content; 50 % for vocabulary, and 40 % introduction, coherence, and

punctuation. The least writing needs of 20% students included spelling and

paragraphing.

Table 6 Subject Teachers’ Assessment on Student Writing Needs

Writing Needs Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

Yes No Yes No
Introduction 6 4 60.0% 40.0%
Content 3 7 30.0% 70.0%
Grammar 2 8 20.0% 80.0%
Conclusion 8 2 80.0% 20.0%
Coherence 6 4 60.0% 40.0%
Spelling 8 2 80.0% 20.0%
Vocabulary 5 5 50.0% 50.0%
Paragraphing 8 2 80.0% 20.0%
Punctuation 6 4 60.0% 40.0%

It is evident that lack of vocabulary is also a problem of some students.

One tool that can power up students’ writing skills is a strong vocabulary. A

great vocabulary is just one essential tool in a writer’s toolbox, along with

punctuation, grammar, and many others. Vocabulary can make one’s writing

more powerful and more effective and help them say exactly what they
mean. Writing prompts that include specific vocabulary words can be powerful

skill boosters.

4. Strategies in Developing Essay Writing Skills

4.1. Strategies Used by Grade Nine Students

Table 7 Strategies Employed by Students in Developing Writing Skills

List of Strategies used by Mean Standard Adjectival Interpretation

the Grade Nine Students Deviation Rating

Taking Notes 3.40 .603 Sometimes Practice
Asking teachers for 3.00 .739 Sometimes Practice

clarification of concepts not

understood
Participating in group 2.97 .643 Sometimes Practice

discussions
Engaging in peer teaching 2.61 .777 Sometimes Practice
Making corrections to rectify 3.02 .841 Sometimes Practice

mistakes on written essays

Revising work learnt in class 2.94 .708 Sometimes Practice
Participates in role play 2.56 .914 Sometimes Practice
Writing extra essays and 2.46 .937 Rarely Somewhat practice

giving them out for marking

Reading widely other written 3.09 .767 Sometimes Practice

materials in English

examples newspapers,

storybooks, etc.
Making summary notes on 2.97 .846 Sometimes Practice

the set textbooks for essay

writing
Accepting assignments on 2.77 .777 Sometimes Practice

proof reading written essays

Planning or organizing ideas 3.30 .835 Sometimes Practice

before writing

Another objective of the study was to establish strategies students

utilized in developing their essay writing skills. The findings are presented in

Table 7 above.
 The results displayed in table 7 reveal that taking notes is the most

frequently used learning strategies by the students, obtaining the mean of

3.40, standard deviation of .603; adjectival rating of this sometimes, and

practice as its interpretation. Since it got highest mean among the twelve

strategies, it is understood that this strategy is frequently used. Other learning

strategies frequently used included: planning or organizing ideas before

writing and reading widely other written materials in English, with the mean of

3.30 and 3.09 respectively, while making corrections on written essays, 3.02;

writing extra essays, and giving them out for marking, 2.46.

These results indicate that students employ a variety of strategies in

developing their essay writing skills. The concept of metacognition in writing is

applicable. Troester in his study “The Writing Process: Using Peer Review to

Develop Student Writing”, sates that when students are involved in their

learning of writing; they are also motivated to improve their writing.

However, it is evident that the 21st century learners are not utilizing

interactive strategies to develop their writing skills. Instead of using

cooperative and collaborative learning strategies such as group work, peer

editing, and role play, they chose to utilize note taking a traditional approach

to develop their essay writing skills. Note taking is quiet ineffective especially

this does not create a situation wherein student-journalists can share their

knowledge and experiences. Role play, peer editing, and such group provides

a real life situation that build constructive knowledge which helps students

monitor their own progress in writing.

4.2. Strategies Used in Teaching Essay Writing Skills

Table 8 Strategies Used by the Teachers in Teaching Essay Writing

Strategies Mean Standard Adjectival Interpretation

used in Deviation Rating

Teaching
Lecture 3.90 0.316 Frequently Often

practiced
Question and 3.80 0.421 Frequently Often

Answer practiced
Group 3.70 0.483 Frequently Often

Discussion practiced
Role Play 2.70 1.159 Sometimes Practiced
Brainstorming 3.70 0.483 Frequently Often

practiced
Debate 1.50 0.527 Never Not practiced
Demonstration 3.30 0.483 Sometimes Practiced
Structure peer 2.50 1.080 Rarely Somewhat

teaching practiced
Oral 2.20 1.032 Rarely Somewhat

presentation practiced

One of the objectives of this study was to determine methods L2

teachers used in developing the essay writing skills of students. Results from

table 8 revealed that L2 teachers used some teaching methods more

frequently than others. Almost all L2 teachers indicated that they frequently

practiced lecture method, with the mean of 3.90, question and answer

method, with the mean of 3.80. Results further showed that brainstorming and

group discussion both gave a mean (3.70) also interpreted as frequently used

teaching method. As stated by Mukminin (2014), teachers need to think about

a variety of techniques, activities, and teaching aids to make teaching-learning

process appealing to the students.

 In another article written by Adas and Bakir (2013), traditional

methodologies like lecture do not help a lot. Unless the teacher can create an

interest in the minds of the learners, the teachers or trainers cannot expect

desired results. Writing is viewed as product, as process or as genre or writing

with “focus on form, focus on the writer, and focus on the reader.” Therefore,

integrated approaches in teaching writing are necessary such as

demonstration, presentation, peer teaching, group discussion, role play, and

debate.

By utilizing the different types of integrated approaches, the strengths

of each approach can successfully complement each other and help teachers

to develop students’ written competence by providing appropriate input of

knowledge and skills in the writing process. The integrated approach to

language teaching aims at maximizing meaningful communication and

classroom interactions in meaningful situations. It fosters holistic learning

such as sharing of information, experiences and development of values.

4.3. Strategies Used to Promote Essay Writing Skills

Table 9 Strategies Employed by the Teachers to Promote Writing Skills

Strategies to Develop Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

Students Writing Essay Skills

Organizing Trainings 10 100.00%
Conducting group discussions 7 70.0%
Encouraging reading widely 6 60.0%

among students
Conducting remedial teaching 4 40.0%
Inviting resource person 5 50.0%
Encouraging peer editing in 4 40.0%
essay writing
Rewarding students with best 2 20.0%

written essays
Displaying well-written students’ 2 20.0%

essays on notice boards

Using audio-visual teaching 3 30.0%

resources such as video tapes

Issuing handouts 6 60.0%
Encouraging students to make 6 60.0%

corrections on their written

essays
Organizing essay writing 4 40.0%

competition
Attending seminars and 5 50.0%

workshops
Providing frequent feedback on 7 70.0%

students’ essays
Including students’ best works in 8 80.0%

school publication

The findings of the study as shown in Table 9 reveal common

measures that the L2 teachers put in place to help improve students essay

writing skills. These measures include the following: organizing trainings,

which got 10 (100%) the most number of frequency, 8 (80%), including

students’ best work in school publication got; 7 (70%), conducting group

discussions and providing feedback on students written essays obtained; 6

(60%), encouraging reading widely among students, issuing handouts, and

encouraging students to make corrections on their written essay, 5 (50%),

inviting resource person and attending seminar and workshop, 3 (30%),

remedial teaching, encouraging peer editing of essay writing competitions,

using audio-visual teaching resources such as video tapes, 2(20%); rewarding

students’ best written essays and displaying well written students’ essays on

notice boards.
 Motivation plays an important role in improving one’s writing skill. Most

student-journalists have intrinsic motivation since they really love and have

passion on writing others are extrinsically motivate because they want to be

rewarded. Not only self-strategies influence students’ performance, but also

the effectiveness of the methods and techniques that teachers apply in their

composition courses. Each method is useful with some students but fails with

others, so writing needs to persist and teachers must consider other

strategies if they want their students to develop effective writing skills.

As Bautista (2015) suggested in his study, teachers should give more

emphasis on teaching as a process and not as a product. Teachers need to

encourage their students to write, to guide and to support their hesitant writing

steps. The teacher supports the student through several revisions of a paper.

After the tabulation of the results from the research tools an essay test was

administered to the selected grade nine students to determine the focus of the

PPP lesson plan. The results of the survey showed that developing and

writing the topic sentence are the number writing needs of the grade nine

students. The essay writing test contained four areas: introduction, content,

grammar, and conclusion.

5. Students Performance in Essay Test before Using the PPP Approach

in Teaching

5.1 Pre-Writing Assessment

Table 10 Students’ Performance in Essay Test before Using the PPP

Approach in Teaching Writing

Gender Number Mean Mastery Stand Percentage

of Level Deviation
 Students
Male 25 8.94 14.90 0.70 50%
Female 25 9.91 16.52 0.42 50%
Total 50 18.04 31.42 1.12 100%

Average 9.43 15.71 0.56

The findings from Table 9 indicate that performance in essay writing

test of males and females were below the mean or below average. This is

reflected in their mean 9.91 for females and 8.94 for males. Findings also

reveal that although the overall performance in the essay writing test was

below average, girls’ performance was slightly higher than that of boys. From

these results, it implies that there are no significant differences with regard to

writing needs of males and females. This is attributed to their weakness in

writing the introduction, content, grammar, and conclusion. The PPP approach

in teaching writing was used in planning the lesson to guide the students to

develop their skills in writing the introduction, body, and conclusion of an

essay. The same topic was given to them after two weeks for discussing the

topic, topic sentence, main idea, body, and conclusion using the PPP

approach in teaching writing.

5.2 Post-Writing Assessment

Table 11 Students’ Performance in Essay Test After Using the PPP

Approach in Teaching Writing

Gender Number Mean Mastery Stand Percentage

of Level Deviation

Students
Male 25 9.92 16.53 0.87 50%
Female 25 10.44 17.40 0.89 50%
Total 50 20.36 33.93 1.76 100%

Average 10.18 16.97 0.88

 Two weeks after the execution of the lesson using the PPP approach

an essay writing assessment was made. The essay test was parallel to the

first essay writing assessment. There is an increased both on mean and

mastery level. After the PPP approach was employed in teaching writing the

mean is slightly above average (10.18) while the mastery level climbed to

16.97 from 15.71. The results of the essay writing serve a gauge that the PPP

approach is an effective strategy to be used in teaching writing even in a short

period of time.

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations

This chapter presents the summary of findings, conclusions, and

recommendations of the study and suggestions for further research.

This study sought to assess the writing needs of Grade Nine students

in essay writing skills.

Summary of Findings

This sub-section gives a summary of the study findings in relation to

the objectives of the study. It addresses teaching methods, writing needs in

learning essay writing skills and learning strategies.

1. Students’ Attributes

1.1. Age

The age bracket of student journalists ranges from 13 to 18 years of

age. Most of the students belong to age bracket of 14 and 15 years of age

which comprise the 74 % of the entire respondents.

1.2. Gender

The number of male and female respondents are equal.

 2. Attributes of the School Paper Advisers and Trainers

2.1. Professional Qualifications

Five of teachers (50%) who participated in the study had Master’s units (M.A

units) while three (30%) had Master’s degree (MAEd/M. A). Only two or (20%)

had Bachelor’s degree (BSED/BA). This implies that all the teachers who

participated in the study were professionally qualified to handle L2 writing

classes and could therefore provide important insights into the needs of

students in learning second language essay writing skills.

2.2. Length of Experience as L2 Teachers

Five or (50%) of the teachers had an experience as L2 teachers for not more

than five years while two or (20%) of the teachers had an experience as L2

teacher for more than six years while the remaining three had an experience

of more than 10 years. This implies that the majority of the teachers had

teaching experience of not more than five years

2.3. Strategies Used by the L2 Teachers in Teaching Essay

Writing Skills

L2 teachers who participated in the study used some teaching methods

more frequently than others. Almost all of the teachers indicated that they

frequently practiced lecture method, with the mean of 3.90; question and

answer method was also frequently practiced by the trainers, with the mean of

3.80. Results further showed that brainstorming and group discussion both

have a mean of (3.70) which are also frequently used teaching method.

3. Writing Needs of Students

The main objective of the study was to identify the writing needs of

students in developing their essay writing skills. The results show that
developing a topic got the highest percentage with 24 or 48 %. This only

shows that most of the students had difficulty in developing the topic sentence

and main idea.

Findings also reveal that most of the students 24 (48.0 %) indicated that

they need to master how to develop good topic sentence and main idea;

develop grammar and syntax skills; 22 (44.0%), write the introduction and

acquire sufficient word stock and writing mechanics; 18 (36.0 %), choose a

topic 17 (34.0 %, develop supporting details and cite sources; 17 (34.0%),

observe coherence and cohesion; 14 (28.0%, stating conclusion; and 13 (26.0

%), format and punctuation.

Using the same variable, teachers were asked to give information

concerning the areas in essay writing that students need. Majority or 80% of

the teachers indicated that grammar mastery was the most important writing

needs of students in essay writing; 70% stated content; 50 %, vocabulary, and

40 %, introduction, coherence and punctuation; 20%, spelling and

paragraphing, the least writing needs of students included spelling and

paragraphing, 20%.

4. Strategies in Developing Essay Writing Skills

4.1. Strategies Employed by the Students to develop their Essay

Writing Skills

The fourth objective of the study was to establish strategies employed

by the students in developing their essay writing skills. The study findings

reveal that students employed a variety of learning strategies. Taking notes is

the most frequently used learning strategy by the student-journalists, with a

mean of 3.40 and standard deviation of .603, as the adjectival rating with
practice as the interpretation. Other learning strategies frequently used

included: planning or organizing ideas before writing and reading widely other

written materials in English, with the mean of 3.30 and 3.09 respectively while

3.02 indicated making corrections to rectify mistakes on written essays.

Relatively small number of students with the mean of 2.46; indicated that they

frequently used writing extra essays and giving them out for marking.

4.2. Strategies Employed by the Teachers to develop Students’ Essay

Writing Skills

The common strategies that the L2 teachers put in place to help

improve students essay writing skills include: organizing trainings was most

frequently done, with 10 (100%); including students’ best works in school

publication, 8 (80.0%); conducting group discussions and frequently providing

feedback on students written essays, 7 (70.0%); encouraging reading widely

among students, issuing handouts, encouraging students to make corrections

on their written essays, 6 (60.0 %); organizing resource person and attending

seminar and workshops, 5 (50.0%); remedial teaching, encouraging peer

editing in essay writing and organizing essay writing competitions, using audio

visual teaching resources such as video tapes, 3 (30.0%); and rewarding

students’ best written essays and displaying well-written students’ essays on

notice boards, with 2 (20.0%).

5. Significant Difference between the Pre-Writing Assessment and the Post-

Writing Assessment

The computed mean and mastery level show that after the execution of

the lesson using the PPP approach there is an increased both on mean and

mastery level. The mean is slightly above average (10.18) while the mastery
level climbed to 16.97 from 15.71. The results of the essay writing serve a

gauge that the PPP approach is an effective strategy to be used in teaching

writing even in a short period of time.

Conclusions

This study has resulted into five main conclusions as follows:

1. Most of the students belong the age bracket of 14 and 15 years of

age.

2. Even in the 21st century teaching and learning process, the lecture

method is not outdated. It is still the most widely used teaching method. The

findings of this study showed that lecture method is still effective since the L2

teachers opted to use this traditional method. Moreover, aside from lecture the

teachers also utilized demonstration and question and answer method.

Further, it is evident that the L2 teachers put more emphasis on the

importance of correct grammar, structure and mechanics to develop student-

journalists essay writing skills.

Process-based approaches such as group discussions and

presentation, practice, and production are given relatively small attention even

though they are more effective than lecture method in enhancing the essay

writing skills of student journalist. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that

teaching methods L2 teachers use affects the learning of essay writing skills

among the students.

3. Developing a topic sentence, grammar and syntax skills, writing the

introduction, and acquiring sufficient word stock and writing mechanics are the

greatest writing needs of students in developing their essay writing skills.

Developing a topic sentence, grammar and syntax skills, writing the

introduction, and acquiring sufficient word stock and writing mechanics among

others are the hindrance to students in attaining their full potential as affective

writers.

4. The findings of the study reveal that students employed a variety of

learning strategies to develop their essay writing skills. However, they do not

fully maximize these strategies when developing their essay writing skills.

They tend to depend more on their teachers’ feedback than practicing and

learning alone or with their peers through interactive and cooperative learning.

5. Finally, the results of the study reveal that there is a significant

difference between the mean and mastery level of the students in their essay

writing test before and after the PPP approach. It only shows that the

presentation, practice, and production is an effective approach in teaching L2

writing.

Recommendations

Based on the conclusions of the study, the following recommendations

were made.

1. ESL teachers must strive to enhance the communicative

competence in essay writing. This could be done through exposing students

to good samples of writing using process-based approaches such as group

discussion, role play, brainstorming, peer editing, debates in the teaching of

writing skills and presentation, practice, production approach.

2. L2 teachers should also be acquainted with the use of Information

Communications Technology or simply ICT in teaching and training students

in essay writing lessons in order to help students with different learning

abilities.
 3. Writing Workshops or L2 Writing Summer Camp should be regularly

organized by the Department of Education and should be part of the K-12

curriculum to equip L2 teachers with skills necessary to meet the writing

needs of students.

4. ESL teachers should train students on the use of classroom

interactive learning strategies such as group work, peer review, and peer

teaching, and any other related strategies. School heads should strive to

purchase learning resources. Teachers should also encourage students to

read widely a variety of written materials such as newspapers, story books,

magazines, etc. This will enhance reading skill which will serve as basis for

promoting the development of writing skills among students and students.