The Effect of Analytic Text-Based Writing Strategies on ESL Argumentative Writing Among Malaysian Form-Six Students in Sabah, Malaysia: A Proposal

Proceedings International Conference on Teaching and Education (ICoTE) Volume 3 English Language Teaching Research and Practices (2022) The Effect of Analytic Text-Based Writing Strategies on ESL Argumentative Writing Among Malaysian Form-Six Students in Sabah, Malaysia: A Proposal Rosalind Joannes; Asmaa AlSaqqaf* Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) – MALAYSIA1 * DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26418/icote.v3i1.55855 This article was presented orally at: 1st International Conference on English Language Teaching Research and Practices; organized by TEFLIN of West Kalimantan Chapter; 1-2 June 2022 Abstract Producing effective and quality academic writing such as argumentative writing requires more than the regular writing ability, but rather analytical writing which would increase argumentation skills, and analytical thinking and promote higher cognitive skills. This study is conducted in response to a problem that exists within the Malaysian education setting where students have difficulties in presenting and expanding ideas of viewpoints convincingly, lack of knowledge of the subject matter, and insufficient linguistic competence. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the effect of analytic text-based writing strategies on the students’ argumentative performance by proposing a conceptual framework that integrates the approach of text-based instruction and the writing model by Hyland (2003) that emphasizes the genre approach of teaching writing. This study will employ a mixed-method research approach and a quasi-experimental research design with a purposive sampling where two groups of FormSix students will be involved in the study. The experimental group will be assigned to carry out a 12-week intervention program and the control group with regular classroom practices. Pre-test and post-test will be conducted on both groups before and after the intervention. These features of analytic text-based writing which largely focuses on reading and writing skills would be expected to bring a great improvement in the writing performance among Malaysian ESL learners in Sabah. Keywords: Analytic Text-Based Writing, Argumentative Writing, Malaysian ESL learners in Sabah. ICoTE Proceedings is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 1 INTRODUCTION Writing is a core skill that should be mastered by all students at all levels in the education system. It is a fundamental skill (Graham, 2019). Writers use this skill for many reasons; to learn new ideas, persuade others, record information, express feelings, entertain others, heal psychological wounds, and explore the meaning of events and situations (Graham, 2018). For students, having strong writing skills may improve their chances to succeed in their educational and employable requirements. Whereas, the writing process itself brings substantial knowledge to students as it does not only Rosalind Joannes, Asmaa Al-Saqqaf improve communication skills but sharpens creativity and imagination levels, widens the knowledge base, and increases the level of confidence (Rae, 2020). Higher level and complex writings such as academic writing bring more skills and provide wider opportunities to students. Writing academically will help them analyse, convey understanding, think critically, and focus on technique and style (Azizi Ahmad, 2020). When students write, they need to read previous writings, form their own understanding and analyse the ideas or viewpoints presented by the writers. These help students to think critically and objectively and to look at any issue from e-SSN: 2685-1407 | 23 different perspectives and this promotes intellectual maturity. However, the complex features of argumentative essay writing make it one of the most challenging tasks for students to accomplish. Substantial research has documented second learners’ difficulty in learning this form of writing (Peloghitis, 2017) as it requires sophisticated cognitive and linguistic abilities (Taylor et al., 2018)). The complexity of this type of writing causes ESL learners to face difficulties in producing high-quality writing (Ozfiden & Mithchell, 2020; Dang, Chau & Tra, 2020; Zhangwei et al, 2017). Students encounter problems in terms of organization/structures, thesis statement, content development, providing concrete evidence, writing counterclaims and refutation paragraphs as well as vocabulary and grammar-related problems. ESL students in Malaysia are facing the same problem. Students revealed that they found it difficult in elaborating ideas and organizing ideas in the proper order (M. Fadhly Farhy Abbas & Herdi Herdi (2018). A similar issue revolves around Form-Six students who sit for Malaysian University English Test (MUET) as a compulsory test. Based on the latest report of the third session of the examination, released by the Malaysian Examination Council (MEC) in 2019, only 89.56% of the candidates were considered modest to limited users. Based on the report, the students had difficulties in presenting and expanding ideas or viewpoints convincingly, lack of knowledge on the given topic, misconceptions, and lack of language proficiency. The reasons for Malaysian ESL students’ difficulties in writing tasks, besides cognitive difficulties, they have insufficient linguistic competence in English, hence facing problems to comprehend, conceive and compose ideas (Ghumamuddin, 2021). Additionally, from previous studies, the problem occurred as students still seem to be receiving inadequate writing instruction (Hashim, et al.,2018). Effective writing instruction is vital to guide students to develop their writing skills, especially in argumentative writing where students need to write proficiently and convincingly. Analytic text-based writing has been claimed to be effective in enhancing students’ writing (Matsumura et. al.,2019; Campbell & Filimon, 2018). It’s a cognitively demanding task that requires the integration of reading and writing skills. The task provides opportunities for students to process up to three stimulus texts and then use the information to construct an argument and provide supporting evidence from the source text using their own words. The process of completing the task would help students to write good quality argumentative essays with convincing arguments, concrete evidence and elaboration, and the use of standard English conventions. The Standard-Based English Language Curriculum (SBELC) in Malaysia has emphasized the engagement of students in responding, analyzing, and evaluating a variety of literary text types as well as understanding a variety of texts by using a range of appropriate strategies to construct meaning. However, Rosalind Joannes, Asmaa Al-Saqqaf the SBELC does not provide any directives on teaching strategies related to how using reading text from different sources can help improve students’ writing performance. There are also a few st (...truncated)