Dictogloss or Processing Instruction: Which Works Better on EFL Learners’ Writing Accuracy?

Abstract

Although many investigations have been carried out into the consequence of applying different approaches to teaching writing, there is still a lack of the empirical comparing research into two influential focus-on-form methods of generating writing accuracy. This study is therefore significant as it is the very first study that compares the relative effects of the two instructional interventions of dictogloss and processing instruction on EFL learners’ writing accuracy. To achieve the abovementioned aim, 56 teenage Iranian participants with elementary level English were homogenized and selected out of 90 learners at a language school, using the results of a piloted sample Key English Test (KET). These participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups with 28 participants in each to practice in one group dictogloss tasks and in the other processing instruction tasks after a pretest. A picture sequence writing task was administered as a posttest at the end of the treatments to both groups. Finally the mean scores of both groups on the posttest were compared through an independent samples t-test. The result rejected the null hypothesis demonstrating that dictogloss could significantly motivate the participants who outperformed the processing instruction group regarding their writing accuracy.