Research Article

The Comparative Effect of Teacher-Assigned Topics and Student-Selected Topics on Iranian Upper-intermediate EFL Learners’ Writing Skill

Authors

  • Leila Neisi Department of Linguistics, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Iran
  • Mehdi Nasri Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord Iran
  • Samira Akbari Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord Iran
  • Ehsan Namziandost Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord Iran

Abstract

The current study aimed to compare the effect of teacher-assigned versus student-selected topics on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ writing skill. In order to reach this aim, a quasi-experimental design was designed for data collection. A total of 70 students out of 120 were chosen based on their performance on the placement test and then randomly assigned into two groups, Student-Selected Topic Group (SSTG) and TeacherAssigned Topic Group (TATG). Then, both groups were given a writing test. The students in TATG were asked to write a five-paragraph essay on a teacher-assigned topic while the students in SSTG should write a fiveparagraph essay on a self-selected topic. An independent-samples t test was conducted to compare the scores for the two groups. The findings showed that SSTG performed better on the writing test than TSTG. The results generally indicated that Student-Selected Topics had positive effects on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ writing ability.

Article information

Journal

Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

Volume (Issue)

1 (1)

Pages

1-15

Published

2019-09-30

How to Cite

Neisi, L. ., Nasri, . M. ., Akbari, . S. ., & Namziandost, E. . (2019). The Comparative Effect of Teacher-Assigned Topics and Student-Selected Topics on Iranian Upper-intermediate EFL Learners’ Writing Skill. Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1–15. Retrieved from https://al-kindipublisher.com/index.php/jeltal/article/view/121

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Keywords:

Topic selection, Student-selected topic, Teacher-assigned topic, EFL writing skil