The effect of writing tools on primary school students' writing anxiety and writing motivations

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of writing tools on primary school students' writing anxiety and motivation. A mixed method was used in the research, where quantitative and qualitative methods were used together. While the unequalized control group model, one of the quasi-experimental trial designs, was used in the quantitative part of the research, the interview technique was used in the qualitative part. Until the 9th week of the 18-week first reading and writing process, both the experimental and control groups used standard pencils during writing teaching. After the 9th week, the YKÖ (Writing Anxiety Scale) pre-test prepared by Katrancı (2018) and the YMÖ (Writing Motivation Scale) pre-test prepared by Öztürk (2013) were applied in order to determine the writing anxiety and motivation of both the experimental and control groups. Then, while the experimental group students were given ergonomic pencils to use during the writing action, the control group students continued to use standard pencils during this process, and this process lasted 9 weeks. At the end of this process, YKÖ and YMÖ posttests were applied to both groups, followed by the interview form prepared by the researcher. In the research, the data obtained from YKÖ and YMÖ were digitized and entered into the computer environment (SPSS 11.5), descriptive statistics were analyzed with dependent-independent group t test and covariance (ANCOVA) analysis, and the data obtained from the interview questions were analyzed with the content analysis method. The sample of the research is in the 2021-2022 academic year; It consists of a total of 36 primary school 1st grade students, 18 of whom are in the experimental group and 18 in the control group, who were selected by easily accessible sampling method in order to create an experimental and control group from a primary school affiliated with the Ministry of Education, selected from Muratpaşa district of Antalya province. As a result, in the quantitative part of the research, it was observed that the ergonomic pens used in the study had a positive effect on the writing anxiety and motivation of the experimental group students. In the qualitative part of the research, it was observed that the experimental group students expressed positive opinions, including motivational expressions, that they started to like writing at the end of the research, while the control group students expressed negative opinions, including expressions of anxiety, about the act of writing. Keywords: Primary school students, Ergonomic pen, First Writing, Writing Anxiety, Writing Motivation