Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The Impact of Audio-Visual Aids and Graphic Organizers on the Writing Skills of ESL Learners at AMU +2 Girls

Anam Shams, Asfia Khanam and Shagufta Imtiaz

This study is an analysis to illustrate the importance of a ‘smart’ classroom in improving the writing of the ESL learners. This study looks at the use of audio-visual and graphic organizers in a writing classroom. Particularly with respect to how multimedia resources may be utilized as a pre-writing activity which could help in improving the quality of writing. The graphic organizers were produced after watching the audio-visuals. Both graphic organizers and audio-visual aids are used as pre-writing activities in the present study. The study has included five questions of Dally & Miller (1975) scale as a measure of writing apprehension of the ESL students before they compose their essay. Other questions that were used are on the five point rating scale which analyzes the impact of using audio-visual and graphic organizers on ESL students’ writing. The experimental method was utilized, with an experimental design of ‘pre-test’ and ‘post-test’, control group and an experimental group on which the study was conducted. The study was divided into two composition classes taken consequently on the alternative days; the first composition class was taken in the very traditional teacher-led way where students were given a random topic on which they were asked to compose an essay. The next class was the experimental class, of the same students and the same topic was given to them, this time they were asked to write under the conditions of applying the aids that were provided to them like showing the audio-visuals, preparation of graphic organizers and the blackboard facilities prior to their writing. This study has also adapted the ‘Burhan Nugriyantoro’s writing scoring system (2004) to assess and evaluate both the drafts of the essays. All the statistical analysis has been carried out through the SPSS software 16.0 and MS-Excel version 7.Results showed no statistically significant differences overall in the writing. Although students were found to write longer and richer drafts when they were guided through audio-visuals and were asked to draw graphic organizer of their ideas and thoughts after watching the audio-visuals prior to their writing. The results showed that such conditioning of audio-visuals and graphic organizers in composition class can work as a good aid to improve the writing quality of ESL learners and can also motivate them towards learning and writing in the second language.