A STUDY ON ENGLISH CAUSE-AND-EFFECT PARAGRAPH WRITING ABILITY OF GRADE 11 STUDENTS

Abstract

This research aimed to study 1) the overall ability of Grade 11 students at Watraikhing Witthaya School, Sam Phran District, Nakhon Pathom Province in writing English cause-and-effect paragraphs, and 2) the ability of these students in writing English cause-and-effect paragraphs in specific areas, which includes evaluation in five aspects: writing a topic sentence, expressing cause-and-effect relationships, writing a concluding sentence, organizing the paragraph, and using language conventions. The sample for this study consisted of 40 Grade 11 students at Watraikhing Witthaya School, Sam Phran District, Nakhon Pathom Province, from one classroom who were enrolled in an English reading and writing course during the second semester of the 2023 academic year. The participants were selected using a cluster random sampling method. The research instrument used was a cause-and-effect paragraph writing task, along with a scoring rubric developed by the researcher. The validity of the instrument ranged from 0.67 to 1.00, and its reliability was 0.78. The statistics used for data analysis included the mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage.

The findings of the study were as follows:

1. The overall ability of Grade 11 students at Watraikhing Witthaya School, Sam Phran District, Nakhon Pathom Province, in writing English cause-and-effect paragraphs was at a fair level, based on the specified average criteria. The mean score across all five aspects was 2.45 (S.D. = 0.72) based on a full score of 4 points. The total average score for all aspects was 12.06 out of 20, equivalent to 60.30%, which exceeded the specified criterion of 60%.


2. Grade 11 students at Wat Raikhing Witthaya School, Sam Phran District, Nakhon Pathom Province, had the ability to write English cause-and-effect paragraphs in each aspect, based on a full score of 4 points, as follows: 1) writing topic a sentence received an average score of 2.52 (S.D. = 0.74), equivalent to 63%, 2) expressing cause-and-effect relationships received an average score of 2.57 (S.D. = 0.77), equivalent to 64.25%, 3) writing a concluding sentence received an average score of 2.35 (S.D. = 0.72), equivalent to 58.75%, 4) organizing the paragraph received an average score of 2.45 (S.D. = 0.70), equivalent to 61.25%, and 5) using language conventions received an average score of 2.17 (S.D. = 0.67), equivalent to 54.25%. Considering each aspect based on the 60% criterion, it was found that two aspects did not meet the standard: writing a concluding sentence (58.75%) and using language conventions (54.25%).

The findings of this research provide valuable recommendations for enhancing students’ cause-and-effect paragraph writing skills.