journal critical thinking

Journal Critical Thinking

A Study of Students’ Assessment in Writing Skills of the English Language

By: Muhammad Javed, Wu Xiao Juan and Saima Nazli

Introduction

1.      Examine the evidence/ the argument presented!

The information provided in introduction is real. As we know that language is tool of communication. There are four skills in English language that are reading, writing, listening and speaking. From that four skills writing is considered the most difficult skill for foreign language students. The information can be trusted because the authors cites some quotation for language expert.

2.      Check out any influences on the evidence or argument!

The readers will know about the definition of language, English skills and especially about writing. When they read the introduction they will know the reason of the research choose this topic because writing is considered to the most difficult skill from four English language skills.

3.      check out the limitation of the study design/ focus

There are four skills in English language: reading, writing, listening and speaking. This study only focus on writing skill. The researchers only focus on students’ assessment in writing skill.

4.      Decide to what extent you are prepared to accept the author’s arguments, opinion or conclusion!

I truly agree with the authors ’perspective about writing. For me writing also one of the most difficult skill in English language because it requires a well-structured way of the presentation of thoughts in an organized and planned way.

 Review of the Related Literature

1.      The evidence of the literature review is there are so many quotation from other experts about writing including difficulty of writing that given by the author in this research.

2.      Influences of literature review is if the research has many resources it will make that research become a good research paper.

3.      There no limitation stated in the Review of the Related Literature

4.      I am not really satisfied with the text because the researcher actually should find the literature review about writing sub-skills, so the reader will know the related review about that.

Writing at the secondary stage

1.      The information is correct because the authors not only give their arguments but they provide some information for other experts about writing at secondary stage.

2.      The influences is on students’ ability in writing sub-skills in secondary stage about their difficulty in learning English because it is not their native language.

3.      check out the limitation of the study design/ focus

The researchers only conduct research only at secondary stage in some schools of Pakistan. They also only provide test for five sub skills of writing: word completion, syntax. Grammar, reading comprehension and handwriting. The study focus on evaluating students’ exposure in writing skill.

4.      Decide to what extent you are prepared to accept the author’s arguments, opinion or conclusion!

I agree with the researchers’ arguments.The authors have stated about why learning English for Pakistani students is difficult because English is not their mother tongue language but their second language. In my opinion it also happened in Indonesia because English for Indonesian students is a foreign language, so the problems faced by them almost same in learning English.

 Objective of the study

1.      this study tries to find out the students’ competency in different types of sub skill of writing and  also to compare the students’ proficiency in sub-skills of writing on the basis gender. Location and public and private sector, so there is no evidence on the arguments because these only the objective of the study.

2.      From this objective of the study we can know the students’ competency, so it will influence the teacher to improve their ability in teaching students because they will know the students’ ability in writing sub-skills.

3.      the limitation of the study, the researchers only try to find out the students’ competency in different types of sub skill of writing and  also to compare the students’ proficiency in sub-skills of writing on the basis gender.

4.      I disagree with the researchers about this objective of the study, actually they not only to find out the students’ competency but they also should provide feedback for those students who have low score in writing sub-skills.

Method

1.      This research was conducted in  Bahawalnagar ,Pakistan. The target population consist of the students of grade 10 from secondary school, with three major strata: male and female students, rural and urban students, public and private students.

2.      The influence of the population and sample chosen to the journal is big number of population and sample chosen is more data gained. So the researchers will get the valid data.

3.      The limitation of the method is based on the sample chosen. The population consist of 1375 students the researcher only take 440 students as the sample. The choosing of sample they use stratified sampling technique.

4.      The population are too big for students like us to conduct this research. But I agree with the researcher, because the bigger population they take the bigger result they get. So they can see the students’ achievement in district of  Bahawalnagar, Pakistan.

Research Instrument

1.      The evidence about research instrument is told in the text, that is the test was designed to assess writing skill only in the part of word completion, sentence making/syntax, grammar, comprehension and handwriting and also the material for achievement test was taken only from text book for grade 10 students.

2.      There no influences stated in this text.

3.      The test was designed to assess writing skill only in the part of word completion, sentence making/syntax,grammar,comprehension and handwriting and also the material for achievement test was taken only from text book for grade 10 students.

4.      I agree with the researcher about the research instrument because they provide the test that appropriate with the students’ competency. They also take the material from their textbook so it will make students easier to answer the question. The time is also appropriate with the number of test.

Data Collection and Analysis

1.      The data was taken based on permission from all of heads of the institutions.

2.      Good procedure of data collection also improve the students’ achievement. For example, in this journal the researcher choose the calm and quiet environment for the testing place, so, the students can be more focus because there is no disturbance in answering the question. After all the researcher will get the real data without bias from the students because of  bad administrating of the test.

3.      The limitation of data collection and analysis

The data was collecting personally. The data was analyzed on two stage . the first        stage, focusing on the descriptive statistic only, while second stage was analyzed using t-test.

4.      I truly agree with the way of the researcher provide the testing place because calm and quiet environment is more effective. The students can be more focus on answering the question without any disturbances.

 Result

1.      To prove this study has been conducted, the researcher provide 8 tables of data. The result shows that the evidence of students’ ability in writing sub-skills and also to show the comparison between students in three major strata: gender, location and private and public sector.

2.      There are some influences caused by the result data. One of them is that by knowing this result the teacher can see their students’ achievement in writing sub-skills, also they can find the better method and way of teaching writing to make teaching-learning process more effective.

3.      The limitation of the data, actually the data table consist of 40 tables, but in this journal it was not possible to present all, so the authors only provide eight tables for the result of each sub-skills and the comparison between three major strata,

4.      I am very satisfied with the results given because the data are very detailed. It will help the reader to understand the data. This also can be considered as a good and clear result explanation because the readers are served with a complete data.