Utilizing Process Approach through IELTS Essay Practice in Teaching Writing for Medical Students through Online Teaching

Abstract

Mastering the skill of writing means mastering a very powerful tool of expression. Hence, English language teaching is an integral part of training medical students in Egypt. Developing ‘writing skills’ is essential for their future career after graduation. Due to smartphones, autocorrect devices, and pre-prepared writing templates available online; students lack the competence in a very indispensable skill in their academic progress which is ‘writing’. The main goal of this study is to investigate how ‘writing’ could be developed through the process approach in an academic semester during the period of quarantine in Egypt from 15^th of March, 2020 to 30^th of May, 2020, which coincidentally became an online teaching semester due to Covid-19 circumstances, an experiment involved (230) students in Oral and Dental Medicine Faculty at Delta University in their first year of study. There was a variety of research methods involved in this paper which included the theoretical and the practical ones in addition to inductive-deductive ones, observation, and analyzing techniques to reach data and statistical values of students. The results revealed a great improvement estimated by more than 60% in students writing performance after the application of this approach and demonstrating an ability to use proper terms and conjunctions in academic writing.