1 Research Article Review

MUGILAN MANOKARAN GS48345

GRAMMAR INSTRUCTIONS

Assignment I: Review of Research Article

NAME : MUGILAN MANOKARAN

IC NUMBER : 910617065713

MATRIC CARD NUM. : GS 48345

SUBJECT : GRAMMAR INSTRUCTIONS

SUBJECT CODE : EDU 5259

GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION
2 Research Article Review
MUGILAN MANOKARAN GS48345

Effect of Direct Grammar Instruction on Student Writing Skills written by Lisa Robinson
and Jay Feng focusses on the influence of Direct Grammar Instruction on students writing skills.
The research was meant to be presented at 2016 Eastern Educational Research Association Annual
Conference which was held in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Fifth grade students and
teachers from a Title 1 school in United States were the subject of this research. The primary focus
of the research was to examine the effects of direct grammar instruction on the quality of student’s
writing skills. Below is the critical review of the research paper

Article Summary

In the research paper Lisa Robinson and Jay Feng (2016) researched and explained how direct
grammar instruction influences the quality of students writing. This part of the review provides an
overall summary of the entire research paper looking into the purpose, research methodology and
also the results of the research paper.

Written expression is becoming recognized as the most neglected of the basic skills and there is
no consensus on the best method for either teaching composition or evaluating it (Geisler, Hessler,
Gardner, & Lovelace, (2009). This citation is how the research paper is being introduced which
clearly states that writing is being ignored as the basic skill needed for language mastery.
According to the researchers, writing is seen as a valuable tool for communication, learning, and
self-expression, which means students who do not have adequate writing skills will be at a great
disadvantage and will face restricted opportunities for education and even for employment. This
neglected skill serves as the catalyst to the research paper where direct grammar instruction is
brought into the frame to see whether it improves students writing skills. The participants in this
study included 18 fifth grade students and two fifth grade teachers where the participants went
through pre-assessment before the research and later on after the prescription of direct grammar
instruction, a post-assessment was done. Lisa Robinson and Jay Feng (2016) had a clear statement
of problem for the research where they stated that for the past five years, the fifth grade students
at their elementary school have scored below the state average of 80% meeting or exceeding on
the State Writing Assessment. This problem directed them into the research with three objectives.

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MUGILAN MANOKARAN GS48345

The three Objectives of the research:

1. To provide teachers with effective, research-based strategies that they can implement
within their classrooms to help students improve their quality of writing
2. To provide students with opportunities to practice writing on a daily basis
3. To increase student scores on the Write Score Writing Assessment

As mentioned before participants in this study included two fifth grade teachers and 18 fifth grade
students at a public elementary school. The school is a Title 1 school with approximately 650
students. In United States of America title 1 elementary school means, schools with high numbers
or high percentages of children from low-income families where financial assistance is provided
to the school to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards. Since
teachers are involved in the research, this research started with a series of professional
development sessions for the teachers. On the other hand, for the students, based on the results of
the students’ pre-assessment writing scores through Write Score, direct grammar instruction was
administered to address common errors found in their writing. The students receive direct grammar
instruction each week for about four months. At the end of the four months the students were given
a writing post-assessment.

For the results, Lisa Robinson and Jay Feng (2016) compared students’ pre and post writing
assessments from Write Score. Students’ score were categorized into Organization and Purpose,
Development/Evidence/Elaboration, and Conventions. Based on the research done, Pre- and Post-
Assessment scores showed significant gains in some student scores. From the 18 students who
participated in the study, four students scored lower on the post-assessment than they did on the
pre-assessment. Five of the students’ scores remained the same and nine of the students’ scores
increased. The results from the research didn’t support the hypothesis which states that direct
grammar instruction will influence student writing skills. Students did improve their overall scores
in the post assessment but they received more points for organization and purpose. For grammar
and conventions Most of the students received the same number of points on both the pre- and
post- assessments.

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MUGILAN MANOKARAN GS48345

Article Review

A title should be captivating, informative and should introduce the subject of the paper to the
reader in a clear and concise manner (Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, 2013). The most important
component of any textual document is its title where it gives an idea of the research in a clear and
concise manner and this research paper in my opinion followed this principle flawlessly. The title
is what made me choose this research paper for my study because since the start it gave me an idea
of what I am reading on and what I can expect from the paper. The title of this research paper
played the winning trick in making it discoverable.

Apart from the title, the abstract and introduction is also the strength of the article. Knowing that
this the overall outlook of the research paper, the researchers were straight to the point in the
abstract and introduction. A research paper should always be judged as a whole but the first
impression comes from the title, and introduction. This research paper didn’t fail in that aspect
because there was no beating around the bush and everything was on point. To strengthen their
points, plenty of citations were used throughout the introduction to give us an in-depth outlook of
what the researchers wish to convey.

In the statement of the research problem, Lisa Robinson and Jay Feng (2016) described that fifth
grade students in that particular elementary school consistently for five years failed to achieve the
state average of 80% on the state writing assessment. This drove them into the research to find out
if direct grammar instruction would be useful to improve students writing skills. Even though they
had a clear structure and research objective this part could have been strengthen further on why
direct grammar instruction was chosen as the preferred tool to improve students writing skills.
Direct grammar instruction might be the best method in this case but including a previously done
research as a reference could have strengthen their view. The researcher could have included if
there was a similar research done before and the effectiveness of it to support their claim that this
is the right way to go forward. The lack of this aspect does not make this a bad research paper but
I honestly feel that it could have made the paper a little bit more powerful and less likely debatable.

The review of literature if analyzed closely is just another prove of my point about a missed
opportunity in strengthening the paper. This part of the paper is well written with plenty citation
and in depth analysis of why writing is important to students but it was not strengthened in its
important aspect which is ‘why direct grammar instruction is the best way forward for their

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MUGILAN MANOKARAN GS48345

students and also that particular scenario’. Lisa Robinson and Jay Feng (2016) talked about why
writing is important and why grammar instruction is vital but there isn’t enough point to make us
realize and agree that this would solve the problem. As mentioned before probably a previously
done research could have been brought in to strengthen their claims.

This is a qualitative research which focuses on one particular problem in one particular elementary
school in the states so the research methodology is pretty well crafted. To experiment students
from a single grade 18 respondents were selected for a pre and post assessment. Lisa Robinson
and Jay Feng (2016) had a clear structure for the assessments and the way everything was carried
out was based on the structure. Research results of pre and post writing assessments were analyzed
using the Paired t-test.

Data analysis part is where I personally feel that there is room for improvement. The problem I
see here is that, qualitative research was used for the research and at the same time generalization
is widely being used throughout the research. Generalization, which is an act of reasoning that
involves drawing broad inferences from particular observations, is widely-acknowledged as a
quality standard in quantitative research, but is more controversial in qualitative research. The goal
of most qualitative studies is not to generalize but rather to provide a rich, contextualized
understanding of some aspect of human experience through the intensive study of particular cases.
In this research paper the results or findings were generalized for the entire fifth grade students of
the elementary school which I find off the mark. To generalize first a proper sampling method
should be used and in this paper it was not and the best that can be done with generalization in this
case is to generalize the hypothesis but even the hypothesis was not stated in any part of the
research paper.

Further Research

Lisa Robinson and Jay Feng realized that amendments need to be done for further research. They
mentioned that random sampling should be done and also the period of research should also be
extended for better understanding of the problem and its solution. One thing that can be done in
this research is carry out a mixed research by combining qualitative and quantitative research
methods to get in depth analysis of the issue. This way generalization can also be done so that

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MUGILAN MANOKARAN GS48345

findings of the research would be beneficial to the educators in getting the right method to improve
students writing skills. Doing it this way would definitely require more time, effort and money but
the findings would be hugely beneficial for the field of English language education.

There we limitations mentioned by the researcher which is the small and convenient sample size
which might have affected the outcome of the research. This issue can also be resolved in further
research. If a qualitative research is carried out to study about a small group of people, then a small
sample size would do no harm but in this case, the outcome was related to a large group of students.
A larger and randomly picked sample is needed for that purpose so that generalization can be done.
The sample size would depend on the focus group.

Conclusion

The research topic is definitely a good one and the findings can be related and used in ESL
classroom. There is plenty of room for improvement to strengthen the research paper and it should
be done in further researches so that the outcome or findings of the research would be even more
stronger and can be looked in a broader picture. This research paper is a good base for further
research to be done on the same topic. The findings might not have proved the hypothesis but there
were parts of the research which might have affected the outcome in a negative way.

The flaws of the research are understandable because the researchers went for convenience in their
research. They might have lacked the time and funding for a better execution of the research but
even with that constrains Lisa Robinson and Jay Feng created a solid base for further research to
be bettered and expanded according to need of time and situation. They clearly saw the limitations
and explained it well which shows that they had the understanding of the research requirements
but probably situation made them to work within the limitations. Overall I personally feel the
research topic to be interesting and this topic should be researched further to understand if direct
grammar instruction would influence students writing skills.

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MUGILAN MANOKARAN GS48345

APPENDIX

GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION