The effects of product approach to English language writing skills on students performance within selected secondary schools of Kenya

Abstract

The study analyzed the effects of product approach to language writing skills on students’ performance.Product approach stresses on the final result of the writing process that writers go though in composing texts. The purpose of this study was to find out the effects of product approach to English language writing skills on students’ performance within selected secondary schools of Kenya. The objectives were to determine the students’ performance in the writing test before and after instruction using the product approach, and to analyze the effect of product approach on students’ performance in English language writing test within selected secondary schools of Kenya. The study sample comprised 206 students and 2 English language teachers from 6 counties. A written task and lesson observation was used to collect data which was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics that included t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Data analysis revealed that product approach to writing skills had no significant effect on students’ performance in the writing test (t = 0.115, p> 0.05). It was concluded that product approach did not improve students’ performance in writing skills. Based on these findings it was recommended that teachers of English language should use other effective approaches to improve students writing skills.