The Effect of the Knowledge of Semantic Macro-Structure on the News Report Writing Ability of Iranian Students

• Published in: International journal of applied linguistics & English literature 2014-05, Vol.3 (3), p.157-163
• Main Authors: Hamidreza Faraji Nejad, Soori, Afshin, Janfaza, Abusaied, Faranak Faraji Nejad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: English as a second language learning; English as a second language tests; Report writing; Research design; Researchers; Second language writing; Semantics; Writing ability; Writing tests
• ISSN: 2200-3592; 2200-3452
• DOI: 10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.3n.3p.157

The current study investigates whether the knowledge of semantic macro-structures, specifically local to news texts have any significant effect on the report writing of advanced learners of English in terms of three main categories of rating, namely structure, vocabulary, and organization. This study is a true experimental design which provides pretest of general proficiency test as well as pretest of writing ability. The experimental group received treatment and the control group received placebo. Finally, the students were provided with a posttest of writing. The participants of this study were 40 male upper-intermediate Iranian EFL students studying English in two well-known English institutes of Jahrom, Iran. After running a preliminary test of general language proficiency, the researcher administered the pretest. Having used a t-test, the researcher found that there was no significant difference between the subjects’ reports vocabulary, structure, and organization quality across groups of control and experimental. After the treatment program, the researcher administered a post test, containing 5 more news texts. After collecting the papers, he asked the raters to rate them. Finally, using t-test, the researcher found that the knowledge of semantic macro-structures specifically local to news texts had significant effect on the organization quality and vocabulary quality of the learner’s report sheet but it failed to have any significant effect on the structure quality of his report sheet.