Grammar for successful written discourse: are the ESL/EFL students in Tanzania universities truly learning?

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

2016-03

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Grammar of a language is one of the key factors to successful writing at college or workplace. This study thought to investigate whether English grammar taught to undergraduate students in Tanzania helps them write well. 120 students were drone from one university and subjected to a writing test before and after grammar training. Thereafter, their texts were evaluated using rubrics, and scores analysed using Paired T-Test. The overall analysis reflected that there is a significant difference (t (119) = - 4.398, p<0.05). However, this does not mean each grammatical item is statistically significant. A slight / no difference was realised on some grammatical items. The study recommends instructors to put much effort on all the grammatical components, but with a special focus on sentences construction and punctuation skills, tenses, linking signals and paragraph crafting, since these are the areas which the study showed that students have serious weaknesses

Description

Journal Article

Keywords

Discourse, Intensive Grammar, Learning, ESL1/EFL Students

Citation