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Cite this article as: Ajoke, A. &. Shapii, A. (2017). Poor Performance in Essay Writing:

Consider Causes in ESL Situation of Secondary School Students in Ilorin West. ELT Vibes:

International E-Journal For Research in ELT. 3(4). 01-19..

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Article information Volume 3, Number 1-19 (2017)

Article Received: 11/10/ 2017 ISSN: 2395-0595

Acceptance: 19/10/ 2017

Poor Performance in Essay Writing: Consider Causes in ESL Situation of

Secondary School Students in Ilorin West

Alabere Rabiat Ajoke 1, Aspalila bt. Shapii

2

1Department of Education and Modern Languages, University Utara Malaysia/ Nigeria.

2Department of Education and Modern Languages, University Utara Malaysia

___________________________________________________________________

Abstract

This paper evaluates essay English writing among senior secondary school

students in Ilorin West Local Government Area, Kwara State to perceive the

causes of students’ poor performance in English language, particularly in essay

writing aspect of the certificate examination. A brief analysis of the rate of

general failure in English and failure in essay writing in the state is presented.

Also addressed are the factors that lead to students’ poor performance in term of

content, organization, expression, and mechanical accuracy. A total number of

100 students were sampled using simple random sampling technique. 2016

WAEC essay writing test was adapted for data collection while descriptive

statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics of t-test were

used for data analysis. Finding from this study revealed that the performance of

senior secondary school students in the content, organisation, expression and

mechanical accuracy of essay English writing was very poor in Ilorin West Local

Government Area, Kwara State. Findings also revealed that there was no

significant difference in the performance of students in essay writing on the basis

of gender and school type in Ilorin West Local Government Area, Kwara State.

The result shows that the students failed in content, organization, and mechanics

except in expression where they performed a bit better.

Keywords: Essay Writing, ELT, Failure, Performance, Gender.

Impact Factor : 5.10

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 3, Number 4. 1-19. (2017)

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Alabere Rabiat Ajoke & Aspalila bt. Shapii

Page 2

Introduction

Examination has been adoptedby Educators as one of the methods of assessing

students’ level of academic attainments with the view to know whether they have

mastered what they have been taught. In view of Muriana (2013), examinations

serve as part of human culture readily available to assess the effects of teaching

and learning, to distinguish, upgrade and select talented students. Also of the

same view areOnuka andDurowoju (2011) who affirm that examination is

frequently used for promotion, award orcertification. Therefore, for the benefits

of accurate measurement of students’ performance, examinations must be reliable

and valid. In the past, the issue of school-based assessment scores has brought

inequalities in the quality of assessment instruments coupled with deficiencies in

the procedural scoring and grading of theassessment instruments adopted by

various schools in the award of certificates. The reliability and validity of

examinations among other factors for national interest in achieving national goals

and aspirations have been the underlying factors for the establishment of external

agencies(examination bodies)like West African Examinations Council(WAEC),

NationalExaminationsCouncil (NECO), National Business and Technical

Examinations Board (NABTEB) to conductexaminations for school students and

GCE for those outside the school in their various disciplines.

In 2011 it became an issue that standards in examinations is the concern of any

examining board and its stakeholders and students on their parts feel confident

when their certificates bear the true reflectionsof theirabilities. Parents will be

dignified to invest in reliable assessment for their wards and various institutions

need to be assured that the knowledge, abilities and skills of their prospective

candidates are accurately and genuinely reflected in certificates they bear.

In January, 2011 Dr. Iyi Uwadiae in his speech on causes of mass failure in

Examinations conducted by theWest African ExaminationCouncil (WAEC) to

several factors, and then reminded the body that since it was entrusted with the

conduct oftheexamination, itshouldnotbeseenasapublicenemybecausethecouncil

does not fail candidatesdeliberately.


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It was observed in 2011 close to one million candidates failed in the year’s

WAEC and this became a great concern for the government and the entire

society. She added that this could be as a result of non-completion of the course

contents in the syllabus. Therefore, this research intends to examine the causes of

failure of students in essay writing and necessary solutions to the problems. The

effects of school type and gender on students’ poor performance are also

examined.

Purpose of the Study

This study aims to evaluate essay writing among senior secondary school

students in Ilorin West Local Government Area. Specifically, this study evaluated

1. The contents of essay writing among students in Ilorin West Local Government

Area

2. The organisation of essay writing among students in Ilorin West Local

Government Area

3. The expression in essay writing among students in Ilorin West Local Government

Area

4. The mechanical accuracy in essay writing among students in Ilorin West Local

Government Area

5. Proficiency of students in essay writing on the basis of gender and school type in

Ilorin West Local Government Area

Research Questions

The following questions were raised to guide this study

1. What is the proficiency of students in the ‘contents’ of essay writing in Ilorin

West Local Government Area?

2. What is the proficiency of students in the ‘organisation’ of essay writing in Ilorin


3. What is the proficiency of students in the ‘expression’ in essay writing in Ilorin


4. What is the proficiency of students in the ‘mechanical accuracy’ of essay writing

in Ilorin West Local Government Area?


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5. Does difference exist in the proficiency of students in essay writing on the basis

of gender in Ilorin West Local Government Area?

6. Does difference exist in the proficiency of students in essay writing on the basis

of school type in Ilorin West Local Government Area?

Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were postulated and tested in this study;

Ho1: There is no significant difference in the proficiency of students in essay

writing on the basis of gender in Ilorin WestLocal Government Area

Ho2: There is no significant difference in the proficiency of students in essay

writing on the basis of school type in Ilorin West Local Government Area

Scope of the Study

Senior secondary schools in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State

and 100 students participated in this research.

Methodology

Descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage for the demographic profile of

the respondents; mean and standard deviation were used to provide answers to

the research questions while the null hypotheses were tested with the use of

inferential statistics of t-test.

Related Literature

The Challenges of Teaching Writing Skill

There are numerous factors affecting the teaching and learning of writing

especially in Nigerian context. Teaching to write has always proved to be

frustrating and difficult for the teachersbecause the methods used are time-

consuming.It should be noted that no single approach can solve the problem of

writing, if one approach is good for some students, it may not be favourable to

others. Therefore, writing teachers need to vary their approaches when teaching.

Even if the approach of a teacher encourages students to be creative and

organized, they still need to put more efforts in vocabulary, mechanics, grammar,

organization and content of essay writing in their teachings.


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The followings are some challenges faced in essay writing class:

Large number of students in writing class is a big change for writing teachers.

Writing should not be taught as other subjects because, it needs constant

practicing by students and teacher’s reading and comments on what is written by

students for better improvement in consequence essays.

For a teacher to continuously read and comments on every student’s script in a

class of over 80 students is hectic and boring. Therefore, for better improvement

in essay writing, the proposed number of students in writing class should be

reduced to maximum of 40 students in a class at secondary level, maximum of 10

in undergraduate class and maximum of 5 at postgraduate level for better results

and management for the teacher. This is necessary to avoid marking students’

essays with substandard scale. In Nigeria and Malaysia most teachers use holistic

scoring method which is not favourable to some students because scores are

given based on what they think is okay for the students (Bloom, Daiker & White,

Alabere et al., 2017).There two main scoring methods to essay: holistic and

analytic. Most teachers adopted holistic method due to its nature of awarding

marks. The problem with this method is that it is not specific enough with how

the scores are derived and liable to biasness on the part of the teacher. The

method of marking sees essay as a whole without analysing which aspects of the

essay each student know better by analysing the scores.Analytic scoring method

on the other hand sees essay in a more specific ways. It allows students to know

which aspect of writing they are lacking and where to put more efforts. This

method uses writing rubrics as standard of awarding marks or scoring essay. It

provides more information of the levels of writing performance to students than

holistic soring method.

Lack of communicative skill is a major problem with most students do not that

writing on a topic should fits into a certain situation and convention. Teachers of

writing should make students aware of the fact that there are different patterns of

sentences which can be applied to a particular writing to make it conventional,

knowing fully well that each essay type has it own writing style or register. The

language used for legal or business report is different from the language of

descriptive or argumentative essay.


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Once students are aware of this, their style of writing will chance.Mother tongue

interference is another problem of essay writing in second language situation. It is

unavoidable in ESL situation due to the influence of L1 in learning L2 as students

capitalized where they are not supposed to and write small letter where they are

supposed to write capital letter such as at the beginning of proper nouns or

sentence vase visa. Inadequate and wrong use of punctuation marks is another

problem that leadstostudents’ failure in essay writing at secondary school level.

The inadequate use of full stop and commas to convey accurately and effectively

point, for instance, in long sentences adequate comma must be applied to make it

meaningful to the reader. This problem could reduce students’ chances of scoring

high scores because the more the errors the less the marks.

Poor and non-sequential arrangement of thoughts in writing make most students

fail. Students should be taught how to systematically and logically organize their

sentences and paragraphs for better presentation of ideas in essays. If this

problem is not well addressed, students will continue to score low marks in essay

leading to general poor performance in English language. In Alabere et al., (2015,

2017) teachers of writing should make students practice the process of generating

ideas and arranging them by themselves in a logical sequence for better

presentation. This can be achieved through reading and constant practice of

writing and debate among students.Grammatical problem is another aspect of

students’ shortcomings in essay writing. It is as a result of inadequate knowledge

of the rules of grammar. Most students transfer the rules of L1 to L2 making what

they write meaningless to the reader. The poor grammatical expression of ESL

students can be attributed to social and family background in the sense that the

more students are provided adequate learning facilities at home the better they

become at school. The more students speak English at home and with peers the

more they master the rules of grammar. Learners should be taught the rules of

grammar and o avoid ambiguous or too long sentences for clarity since, the

consequence of growing up poor affects millions of young school learners all

over the world.It is the responsibility of schools to develop students’ academic

writing skills because; the failure of students in essay writing is ascomplex as

school failure due to poor teaching and weak leadership.


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The economic and political instability in a country can contribute to poor writing

ability of students as well as teachers’ inadequacy and not dedicated to work due

to non-payment of salariesand economic hardship which often lead to strikes.

Lack of incentive and motivated on the part of the teachers affect their

performance. Students on the other hand lack enough knowledge of the target

language, poor parental background affect their language competency. Majority

of ESL learners are not taught how to write essay right from the elementary

level.Therefore, find writingessay difficult when introduced at later

stage.Legibility in writing especially in examinations can contribute to students’

performance. If the hand writing of a learner is not good or readable could lead to

his/her failure when the marker/teacher cannot read meaning in what is written.

Such marker will be frustrated and neglect the script or just give anyhow mark.

Therefore, students should write well and clear for the reader to get the message.

So teachers at this level should remember individual differences and should take

time to carefully read such students’ scripts to avoid being bias. Slow in writing

can also make student fail if he/she could not complete the required answers to

the questions in an examination at the stipulated time.Very soon with

advancement in technology in the country, students at all levels of education will

own laptop and answer examination questions electronically for legibility.

Shortage of Qualified Teachers in schools has effects on the performance of

students in any academic pursuit, and judging students’ work is largely the

teacher’s responsibility. The major problem in the process of teaching and

learning is that many students do not learn to evaluate their own work and to

develop high standards.The teacher should often ask the students to assessand

evaluate him/her teaching. Students frequently overestimate their understanding

of teaching material and the quality of their written work, which may lead to

taking criticism too personal, putting blames on teacher for their poor

performance causing personal conflicts with their teachers

Students with interference from psychological problemsat times are affected with

the psychological problem and this problem can only be taken care of by

establishing emotional independence from parents, determining a personal value

system, finding a career goal, establishing relationships within peer groups.


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While these demands are normal age-related tasks, they may sometimes become

overwhelming and seriously interfere with academic performance when it is not

well controlled. Having a good plan of what to study by students and have a

clearly understanding of the future they intend to create for themselves helps to

reduce the emotional barrier. But in a situation where students put in for

programs without much interest and a clearly stated objective could lead to doing

the wrong thing at school and not paying attention when taught. Therefore,

students should create passion for what they are at school to study to achieve

what they aimed at. Another effect of emotional problem is students’ poor

relationship with colleagues at school and workplace, poor family relationship

could affect their performance at school, especially during writing exercise.

Therefore, students should not allow their personal/internal problems affect their

activities at school. In other words, proper relationship and time should be set

aside for family, friends, social activities, and time to just be alone. Writing essay

in L1 is as difficult as writing essay in L2, if student cannot write in his/her

mother tongue, it will be very difficult for him/her to write in the second

language. To ease this difficulty, teachers of writing should device suitable

approach to teach the students.

Laziness on the Part of the Students is one of the main problems among students

is the fact that many of them cannot develop their writing skill, mostly the ones

who are making compositions in a second language. This has become very

difficult not only for students but also for professors, because all of them are

looking for good results in every single step of the learning process. Through

history there have been many cases of this situation and it is important to say that

this problem happens not only in our country but also in around the world. In the

United States in 1874, 97% of the nation ́s high school graduates entered college.

However, although they were native speakers of English, their writing skill was

poor. For example, the Harvard faculty was distressed by the low level in English

on the freshmen students‟ part, including upper-class students.


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Factors that Affect Academic Performance in writing

According to Aremu & Sokan (2003), Muriana (2013) prior literature has shown

that learning outcomes are determined by variables like family, school, society,

and motivation.

The home has role to play in child’s educational development as the family

background affects the child’s reaction to life situations and his level of

performance. Tenibiaje (2009) and Eweniyi (2005) have it respectively that the

family structure (nuclear or polygamy) has a significant influence on students’

performance and mental development as parents are responsible for providing a

supportive learning environment at home. Uchie, Ononga, and Owolabi (2012)

added that when some parents are overburdened with responsibilities and

emotional reaction to their situation, at times become irritated, impatient and

insensitive to their children’s educational needs which could lead to poor

academic performance by such children. The pedagogical implication of this is

that student’s academic performance in school is influenced by parents’

background.

Another problem that affects academic performance is the low level of emotional

intelligence among students Nwadinigwe et al. (2012) attests that lack of

emotional intelligence in students makes them fail to handle effectively the

demands of the school academic writing. Students who are in this position may

not be able to achieve personal goals such as school success. Emotional

intelligence is students’ ability to monitor their feelings and the feelings of others,

differentiate them, and use information to guide their feelings and thinking. It

also helps students to reduce negative emotional stress and build good healthy

relationship and effective communication, all these help students to attain high

academic performance in writing and other academic tasks.

In addition, owners of schools and inadequate facilities as mentioned by Alimi, et

al. (2012) is another factor of poor academic performance of students in Nigeria.

According to them, facilities in school include classrooms and the equipment,

offices, laboratory and the equipment, audio-visual aids, electricity, water,

stationeries, playground, internet facility and so on. If school lack adequate

facilities to achieve its stated goals and objectives will be very difficult.


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Therefore, facilities in schools are very vital because they aid smooth teaching

and learning. Akinfolarin (2008) also identifies those facilities as a major factor

that contributes to academic performance in the school system. Different studies

carried out by Ayodele (2000) and Vandiver (2011) also showed that a positive

relationship exists between availability of facilities and school academic

performances. Therefore, schools are commonly evaluated by using students’

academic performance as well as academic write-up Heck, (2009).

Furthermore, teacher as a factor for academic performance of students cannot be

disassociated from the school they teach for the academic results because they

play important role in students’ academic achievement. Since teachers are

responsible for the transmission of knowledge, values and skills in the process of

learning, if ineffective the students under such teacher will perform poorly and

achieve inadequate progress academically Gerald et al. (2013). Etsy (2005)

contributes by saying that teachers’ lateness to class or absenteeism, and inability

to complete the school syllabus affect students’ academic performance. It was

added that studies have shown that teachers’ experience exerts a great influence

on the academic achievement of students.

Teachers play a major role in affecting students’ academic performance. Hattie

(2003) argues that teachers occupied about 30 percent of the variance related to

academic attainment. Teachers should continuously enroll themselves in

workshops, seminars, conferences, courses or programs to develop their

profession to help them be better and good teachers. By so doing the academic

performance of the students will improve drastically as the teachers’ methods or

approaches used in delivering the subject they teach will be suitable for the level

of students they handled. Therefore, that type of training and knowledge is

crucial for every teacher who enters a classroom to teach or assess students in

other areas, in order to make learning achievable Adedoyin, (2011).

Result of Data Analysis

Data was collected from 100 respondents and were analysed using descriptive

statistics of frequency and percentage to present the demographic profile of the

respondents; mean and standard deviation to provide answers to the research

question while the null hypotheses were tested with the use of inferential

statistics of t-test.


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Table 1

Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male

Female

Total

45

55

100

45%

55%

100%

School Type Frequency Percentage

Public

Private

Total

60

40

100

60%

40%

100%

Table 1 shows the demographic profile of the respondents. 45(45%) of the respondents

were male while 55(55%) were female students. This shows that more female students

partook in this study. Also, 60(60%) of the respondents were from public schools

while 40(40%) were from private schools. This implies that more of students from

public senior secondary schools were involved in this study.

Answers to Research Questions

Research Question One: What is the proficiency of students in the content of essay

writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area?

Table 2

Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Proficiency in the Content of Essay Writing

Mean

Score

S.D. Minimum

Score

Maximum

Score

Remark

Proficiency in

Content

2.46 1.99 0.00 8 Poor

As shown in table 2, the mean score of 2.46 with minimum score of 0.00 and

maximum score of 8 was obtained. This shows that the proficiency of students in

the content of essay writing is generally low and poor in Ilorin West Local

Government Area.


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Research Question Two: What is the proficiency of students in the organization of

essay writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area?

Table 3

Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Proficiency in the Organisation of Essay Writing

Mean

Score

S.D. Minimum

Score

Maximum

Score

Remark

Proficiency in

Organisation

1.90 1.88 0.00 7 V. poor

As shown in table 3, the mean score of 1.90 with minimum score of 0.00 and maximum

score of 7 was obtained. This shows that the proficiency of students in the organisation

of essay writing is generally low and very poor in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

Research Question Three: What is the proficiency of students in the expression of essay

writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area?

Table 4

Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Proficiency in the ‘Expression’ of Essay English

Writing

Mean

Score

S.D. Minimum

Score

Maximum

Score

Remark

Proficiency in

Expression

5.27 3.23 1.00 15 Poor

As shown in table 4, the mean score of 5.27 with the minimum score of 1.00 and

the maximum score of 15 was obtained. This shows that the proficiency of

students in the expression is generally low and poor in essay writing in Ilorin

West Local Government Area.

Research Question Four: What is the proficiency of students in the mechanical

accuracy of essay writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area?


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Table 5

Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Proficiency in the Mechanical Accuracy of Essay

Writing

Mean

Score

S.D. Minimum

Score

Maximum

Score

Remark

Proficiency in

Mech. Acc.

0.43 1.43 0.00 8 V. poor

As shown in table 5, the mean score of 0.43 with the minimum score of 0.00 and

the maximum score of 8 was obtained. This shows that the proficiency of

students in the mechanical accuracy of essay writing is generally too low and

very poor in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

Hypotheses Testing

The null hypotheses postulated in this study were tested with the use of t-test at

0.05 level of significance.

Research Hypothesis One: There is no significant difference in the proficiency of

students in essay writing on the basis of gender in Ilorin West Local Government

Area

Table 6

T-test Statistics Showing the Difference in the Proficiency of Students in Essay Writing on the

Basis of Gender

Gender N Mean S.D. df t-cal Sig. Remark

Male 45 10.13 8.53

98 0.75 0.59 NS

Female 55 10.01 7.45

*Insignificance at p>0.05


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Table 6 shows the t-value of 0.75 obtained with a p-value of 0.59 computed at

0.05 alpha level. Since the p-value of 0.59 is greater than 0.05 level of

significance, the null hypothesis one is retained. This implies that there is no

significance difference in the proficiency of male and female students in essay

English writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area (t(98) = 0.75, p>0.05).

Research Hypothesis Two: There is no significant difference in the proficiency of

students in essay writing on the basis of school type in Ilorin West Local

Government Area

Table 7

t-test Statistics Showing the Difference in the Proficiency of Students in Essay

Writing on the Basis of School Type

School Type N Mean S.D. df t-val Sig. Remark

Public 60 9.66 7.44

98 -0.79 0.48 NS

Private 40 11.00 8.69

*Insignificance at p>0.05

Table 7 shows the t-value of 0.79 obtained with a p-value of 0.48 computed at

0.05 alpha levels. Since the p-value of 0.48 is greater than 0.05 level of

significance, the null hypothesis two is retained. This implies that there is no

significance difference in the proficiency of public and private students in essay

writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area (t(98) = -0.79, p>0.05).

Summary of Findings

Based on the data collected, analysed and interpreted, the following findings were

obtained

1. The proficiency of students in the content of essay writing is generally low and

poor in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

2. The proficiency of students in the organisation of essay writing is generally low

and very poor in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

3. The proficiency of students in the expression is generally poor in essay writing in

Ilorin West Local Government Area.


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4. The proficiency of students in the mechanical accuracy in essay writing is

generally very poor in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

5. There is no significant difference in the proficiency of male and female students

in essay writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area (t(98) = 0.75, p>0.05).

6. There is no significant difference in the proficiency of students from public and

private schools in essay writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area (t(98) = -

0.79, p>0.05).

Discussion of Findings

Findings from this study revealed that the proficiency of students in the content

of essay writing is generally low in Ilorin West Local Government Area. In the

students’ essay writing, the mean score of 2.46 was obtained for the contents of

the respondents essays out of 10 marks allocated to it. This implies that the

contents of essay writing among senior secondary school students are ‘poor’ in

Ilorin West Local Government Area.

Findings from this study showed that the proficiency of students in the

organisation of ideas in essay writing is generally low among secondary school

students in Ilorin West Local Government Area. The mean score of 1.90 was

obtained from the organisation of ideas in essay writing out of 10 marks assigned

to it. This indicates that the organisation of ideas writing among senior secondary

school students is very low in Ilorin South Local Government Area.

Result from this study also revealed that the proficiency of students’ expression is

generally fair in essay writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area. The mean

score of 5.27 was obtained from expression in essay writing out of 20 marks

allotted to it. This signifies that the expressions in essay writing among senior

secondary school students arelow in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

In addition, this study showed that the proficiency of students in the mechanical

accuracy in essay writing is generally very low in Ilorin West Local Government

Area. The mean score of 0.43 was obtained from the mechanical accuracy of

students in essay writing out of 10 marks assigned to it. This denotes that

mechanical accuracy in essay writing among senior secondary school students is

very poor in Ilorin West Local Government Area.


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Therefore, the Outcomes of this study revealed that there is no significant

difference in the proficiency of male and female students in essay English writing

in Ilorin West Local Government Area (t(98) = 0.75, p>0.05). This means that the

proficiency and aptitudes of male and female students are the same in essay

English writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area

Findings from this study showed that there is no significant difference in the

proficiency of students from public and private schools in essay English writing

in Ilorin West Local Government Area. (t(98) = -0.79, p>0.05). This means that

the proficiency and aptitudes of students from public and private schools are the

same in essay writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

Conclusions

Good writing requires practice and adequate feedback, which many writing

teachers did not pay much attention to. As such students who need writing

practice but do not get, choose topics that do not require much writing. In

addition, students are unable to assess the quality of their own writing because

they are not taught how to evaluate their work and are unaware of the criteria

teachers use in grading essay writing.

To solve this problem, teachers should see that students are active participants in

the process of teaching such that they are fully equipped and trained to help

themselves acquire the required knowledge for writing. It is also observed that

students no longer actively participate in essay writing at secondary level which

could lead to the problems of academic writing in their future careers.

Therefore teachers of writing should choose the right approaches that suit their

students to reflect on their practices and be conscious of what is right or wrong

about their writings either in the classroom or at work place. So teachers with the

same background with the students are required in the educational sectors for

better development of ESL students’ academic writing.Given the findings of this

study, it can be concluded that the proficiency of students in the content,

organisation and mechanical accuracy is too low and very poor but the expression

of students is fair in Ilorin West Local Government Area.


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It can also be concluded that the proficiency and aptitudes of public and private

school students are the same in essay writing as there is no significant difference

in the proficiency of male and female students from public and private schools in

essay writing in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

Implication of the Study

The poor proficiency of students in the four components i.e. content,

organisation, expression and mechanical accuracy is attributed to their failure in

essay writing since they were not used to it in product approach used by writing

teachers because they use holistic marking rubric which is different from analytic

system of marking.

Recommendations

Based on the findings from this study, the followings are therefore recommended;

1. Students should be constantly engaged in reading story books such as novels,

newspapers, as well as constant practices of writing story, letter, etc. This would

help to improve their proficiency in outlining and constructing good contents,

organisation, expression, as well as fine-tuning and perfecting their mechanical

accuracy in English language essay writing

2. Teachers should undertake regular assessment to identify any difficulty that

students might be experiencing in writing essay and provide consistent feedback

to ensure students are making sufficient progress in the content, organisation,

expression and mechanical accuracy.

3. New materials should be distributed to students on regular basis with

opportunities to practice writing and teachers should give explanation and

feedback where necessary to improve their proficiency in essay writing.

4. School administrators should establish regular quiz, puzzle and debate among

students and tailor it to broadening their proficiency in essay writing


Volume 3, Number 4. 1-19. (2017)

ISSN: 2395-0595


Page 18

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