The Impacts of Graphic Organizers on Students' Writing Ability and their Attitudes towards Writing Skill

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of graphic organizers on students' writing ability as well as their attitudes towards writing skill. The sample of this study was composed of 20 Saudi male subjects registered in the Saudi Electronics and Home Appliances Institute during the academic year 2017-2018. This study was conducted in three phases and lasted for eight weeks. Two basic sources were used to generate data for the study: (1) samples of students' writing before and after the graphic organizers intervention (2) a writing attitude survey that was done twice before and after intervention. The writing scores of the participants before and after the graphic organizers' intervention were compared and analyzed quantitatively using the test of significance to see if there were any differences between means of the scores. The data generated through the writing attitude survey was analyzed qualitatively to see if there any change in students' attitudes appeared. The results of this study proved that the graphic organizers had effectively improved the students' writing abilities and had positively influenced their attitudes towards this skill. These results suggest that graphic organizers can be an effective support in teaching writing to learners of English as a foreign language.