¶ … Handwriting Skills on Compositional Quality
What is the background and context of your project? Is there a 'problem' you want to find out more about or a potential solution that you want to explore? Is there a gap in the literature or earlier research that you want to build on or extend? What is your aim? Why do you want to investigate this topic? What is the justification for researching this issue? Include a small number of in-text references in this section as well as a corresponding list of complete references in Section 8 using a consistent format (e.g. following the SHU referencing guidelines).
I teach English in class 2 and 3 which comprises of a comprehensive book, a workbook and a writing practice book. While teaching I observed that most of the kids in class 3 had quite bad handwriting, although they had been practising from class 1 onwards.
On closer observation it became clear that the teachers themselves were not trained in handwriting skills, the writing workbook was used as a substitute for homework without clear guidance or instructions, there was more emphasis on rote learning and producing ready made answers in poor handwriting as long as they could be deciphered. As Alston and Taylor (1987) observe, good handwriting is very important in the development of the ability to articulate because it reinforces the idea of structure. Based on the study by Bing (1988), it became apparent that handwriting could be used as a tool to overcome writing problems: thus, the concept of this study was brought about. Likewise, Graham and Harris (2005) articulated the need to focus on handwriting as an initiative in improving writing performance.
Unfortunately, the school at which I teach has a semester system which tests the kids in grammar, conversation, dictation and text, but nothing in writing. According to Cahill (2009), handwriting deserves a place in the curriculum and is an essential prop in supporting academic success.
The kids with low handwriting skills were also unable to form simple sentences, which is consistent with the findings of Dinehart (2015) and Gentry and Graham (2010).
My aim is to monitor the effect of introducing handwriting programs into the curriculum and analyzing the impact of handwriting on compositional quality over a 2 semester period.
2. Research question or research questions (maximum of 3):
1. What is the effect of a specific handwriting intervention programme on the composition writing of elementary grade level ESL learners over a 2 semester period?
To investigate the above, I also need to establish;
a. Is it poor handwriting or learning disability (as the school has no such facility) by using orthographic coding
b. Whether teachers had any training in handwriting skills
c. Whether parents engage in any handwriting practice with their kid
d. What was the impact of the intervention (introduction of handwriting skills) was there any marked improvement in the kids handwriting and composition fluency
3. What methodological approach do you hope to adopt: Will it be qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods? Describe the approach briefly with your reasons for the choice.
Evaluation research will be conducted to evaluate the effect of handwriting on composition. Evaluation Research is a form of study that employs social research methodology in order to establish an evaluation of a social program (Powell, 2006). Evaluation research for example is used when a researcher is trying to examine and judge the merits of (evaluate) a specific social program. The researcher will use standard social research methods as a methodology for evaluating the merits of the program(s). For this study qualitative and quantitative data will be gathered from the students to establish poor handwriting skills or learn disability through sample writing. Before, during and after the intervention the students' writing will be analysed to see any improvement or otherwise over the period of time. The findings will be measured according to syntax, proper subject-predicate placement, and handwriting quality (from a scale of 1-5) based on the model provided by Graham (1986) which provides a set of "scales and factors that contribute to variability in handwriting scores" (p. 63). The best way to gather data from the teachers will be to survey them before and after the study. Learner views will also be accessed by way of survey and questionnaire during the focus group. The questionnaire will be correlated with individual results and the survey will be analyzed according to Likert scale and will provide quantitative data to support findings. The Likert scale is useful for "measuring people's attitudes, beliefs, emotions, feelings, perceptions, personality characteristics, and other psychological constructs" (Lewis-Beck, Bryman, Liao, 2004).
As Clason and Dormody (1994) note, "Likert scaling presumes the existence of an underlying (or latent or natural) continuous variable whose value characterizes the respondents' attitudes and opinions....
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