The effect of sentence development technique on writing skills and attitude toward writing of upper elementary school students

Human beings need a language in order to Express their feelings, thoughts and dreams. Language competence is a requirement of using a language accurately and effectively. Writing skills are the most lately acquired and the most challenging skills of four main language skills. Writing can be basically defined as exchanging messages through a number of symbols. This study aims to investigate the impact of sentence development technique which is used in teaching writing on students' written expression skills and to evaluate their attitudes toward writing. In the study, pretest-posttest control group design which is an experimental research models in quantitative research was applied. The study was conducted with 7. grade students in an upper elementary school in Alucra sub province of Giresun in autumn term of 2018-2019 school year. Implementation process of the research study continued 10 weeks and in this period of time, sentence development technique was applied to the students through a number of activities. While the experimental group was trained with above-stated technique, control group continued with the writing activities in Turkish text book. The data of the study was gathered through 3 tools: "Numbers of Sentence and Word Evaluation Form", "Written Expression Evaluation Form" and "Writing Attitude Scale for Upper Elementary School Students". The gathered data was analysed through descriptive analysis techniques. The study found out that the students in experimental group increased the number of words in their sentences at the end of the process compared with the students in control group. Furthermore, the students who developed sentence construction skills made progress on general written expression skills such as clarity, unity and coherence. The students in experimental group developed more positive attitudes toward writing. In the light of the findings, it can be claimed that use of sentence development technique in teaching writing can provide positive effects on developing writing skills.