An Analysis of the Structure of Group Writing Activities in English Textbook

Mohammed Yibre

Abstract


The main purpose of this study was to analyze how effectively pair/group work writing activities in the currently in- use Grade 11 English textbook were structured or organized to promote CLL. To this end, the pair/group work writing activities were identified and analyzed based on the six basic elements of the CLL. Findings of the study show that less weight is given to the activities compared to that of the non-group work writing activities in the textbook. The promotion of most of the basic elements of CLL in the designed cooperative writing activities is limited to only the pre-writing stage. It has been found that only a small number of the writing activities allow and encourage learners to work cooperatively at drafting and revising stages. It is also noted that there is no writing activity in the textbook that encourages students to process group interaction. It is, therefore, recommended that textbook developers should incorporate the six basic elements of CLL at each stage of writing to structure group writing activities while preparing teaching materials.

Keywords


Cooperative Language Learning, Writing Skills, Group Writing Activities, Textbook

Full Text:

PDF

References


Allwright, R.L. (1999). What Do We Want Teaching Material for? In R. Rosser and R. Bolitho (eds.). Currents in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford university press.

Ames, C. and Ames. R. (eds.) (1985). Research on Motivation in Education: Volume2.Orlando: Academic press, Inc.

Atkins, J. Hailom Banteyerga and Nuru Mohammed (1996). Skills Development Methodology. Part II. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Printing Press.

Christison, M. (1994). Cooperative Learning in the EFL Classroom. In T. Kral (Ed.). Teacher Development: Making the Right Moves. Selected Articles from the English Teaching Forum, 1989-1993. Washington: English Language Program Division.

Cunningsworth, A. (1984). Evaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials. London: Heinemann International.

Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Girma, G. (2003). In-service English Language Teacher's Perceptions of the Factors that Influence the Implementation of Group-work Activities in ELT Classes." The Ethiopian Journal of Education, XXII, 2:103-117

Grabe, W. and Kaplan, R.B. (1997). The Writing Course. In Kathleen, B. and Beverly, H.(eds.). Beyond Methods. Components of Second Language Teacher Education. Boston: MCgraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford university press.

Hutchinson, T. and Torres, E. (1994). The Textbook as Agent of Change. ELT Journal 48(4), 315 - 327

Jacobs, J.M. and Ball, J. (1996). An Investigation of the Structure of Group Activities in ELT Course books. ELT Journal 50(2), 99-107

Johnson, D, W., Johnson, R. T. and Holubec, E. J.(1993). Cooperative Learning.Retrived on March 20, 2009 from http//www.co.operation.org/pages/c/html.

Leki, I. (1994). Teaching Second Language Writing: Where We Seem to Be. In T. Kral (ed.). Teacher Development: Making the Right Moves. Selected Articles from the English Teaching Forum, 1989-1993. Washington: English Language Program Division.

Leki, I. (1997). Techniques for Reducing Second Language Writing Anxiety. In Dolly,T.(ed). Affect in Foreign Language and Second Language Learning: A Practical Guide TO Creating a low-Anxiety Classroom Atmosphere. Boston: MCgraw-Hill Companies.

MoE (2006). English for Ethiopia Grade 11. Teacher's Book. Addis Ababa:KIPEWCE

MoE (2006). English for Ethiopia Grade 11. Students' Textbook. Addis Ababa:KIPEWCE

MoE (2006). English Syllabus for Grade 11. Addis Ababa(Document)

Nunan, A. (1992). Collaborative Language Learning and Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ramies, A. (1983). Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford: oxford university press.

Richards, J.C and Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Slavin, R.E. (1994). A Practice Guide to Cooperative Learning. Massachusetts: Ellyn and Bacon Comp.

Tan et al. (1999). Using Cooperative Learning to Integrate Thinking and Information Technology in a Content-Based Writing Lesson. The Internet TESOL Journal, 5(8), Retrieved on January 28, 2009 the Internet http//iteslj.org/Tan.cooperative.html.

Thousand et al. (1994). An Overview of Cooperative Learning. Retrieved on February 24, 2009 from http //www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/44.html.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.7n.2p.122

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2013-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies  

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.