Semantic Mapping and Street Photography for the Teaching of Academic Writing for High School Students
Keywords:
academic writing, writing prompts, semantic mapping, ESL/EFL writing, writing performance, writing anxiety, communicative language teaching, writing feedbackAbstract
This study examined the effects of using Semantic Mapping and Street Photography as writing prompts in teaching academic position paper writing to senior high school Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students in a national high school in the Division of Iloilo during the school year 2018–2019. Two heterogeneous Grade 11 sections were pair-matched based on pretest scores and taught using either Semantic Mapping or Street Photography. Writing performance was measured through pretest and posttest position paper scores, analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-tests at a 0.05 significance level. Findings revealed that both groups significantly improved their writing performance from pretest to posttest, with no significant difference between the two instructional methods. This suggests that both Semantic Mapping and Street Photography effectively engage students in the writing process by connecting to their prior knowledge and real-life experiences, promoting communicative and functional writing skills beyond traditional grammar and vocabulary practice. The study highlights the importance of relevant, motivating pre-writing activities and continuous feedback in boosting students’ confidence and writing performance. Moreover, it emphasizes the role of teachers’ grammatical knowledge and the use of well-structured, contextualized, and interesting prompts in easing students’ anxiety around writing. These strategies are valuable tools in academic writing instruction, especially for ESL/EFL learners.
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