Contents

1. IntroductionP.2 2. Literature Review...P.4 3. Motives ..P.6 4. Research Methods .P.7 5. Data Analysis P.10 6. Findings ....P.14 7. Limitation P.14 8. Recommendation ..P.14 9. Conclusion ...P.15 10. References ..P.16 11. Appendix ....P.18

(Introduction)
"Some of you wish to be writers, some of you wish to be correspondents, and some of you wish to be translators. No matter what career you choose, the ability to write is a necessity in life "(Luo, as cited in Al- Mahrooqi, p.1). Learning English Language is compulsory in Omani public schools and it becomes an essential subject for each grade starting from circle-one schools to post basic schools. It involves four main basic skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. Writing is one of the most demanding and challenging tasks that students should acquire. It involves several processes such as brainstorming, organizing ideas, proofreading and editing. However, some students suffer from many writing problems such as grammar, vocabulary and spelling. One of the most appealing problems that students suffer from is sentence structure. Since English structure differs from Arabic structure, Arab students face difficulties in writing in English. According to Lado (1961) , when the structural pattern is not paralleled in the native language, the student will have trouble learning it because of the interference from the native language habit pattern. Beginners often translate word for word from Arabic into English when they create sentences. For example, we can find sentences like Ali strong, Are they live in Muscat? Or It have many beautiful places in their writing. Students still experience serious problems in writing English even though they have learned the sentence structure through speaking and reading. It is worth to mention that English structure, form and meaning, are not paralleled in the Arabic language, so interference from mother tongue patterns often confuse students when they write in English. Purpose of the study: The purpose of this research is to determine if, by teaching sentence structure with a teacher and revising modeled quality writing (i.e. through the well written paragraphs from the teacher and/or reading short passages), the writing abilities of English Language Learners would improve. Thus, this study aims at finding out the most common writing problems that students
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face while writing in English. So I am going to examine my role in developing students writing through teaching sentence structure and providing learners with some techniques and strategies to develop my own practice. These strategies will guide and foster students in making sentences correctly. They will hinder the mother tongue interference. In fact, Students are required to write accurate simple sentences since accuracy is the ultimate goal at the initial stages. Specifically, this research paper will discuss the following question: How can teaching sentence structure improve my weak grade 12 students in writing? Therefore, this paper is divided into seven sections; the first section shows the subject of the research and reveals reasons behind conducting it. In the second section I am going to talk about the methods of data collection. The findings and their interpretations are discussed in section three. In section four, I provide some suggestions and recommendations to bridge the gap between students basic writing problems and writing requirements of grade 12. Section five shows limitations of this study. The conclusion summarizes the key finding and how this research contributes to my learning and understandings.

Literature Review
The importance of writing: Writing is a very important skill that a learner of a language should acquire in the learning process. In fact, it is central to the academic community. Academics share knowledge by writing, and it is the means by which information is transmitted. By writing, students develop and express their ideas and thoughts, and writing is crucial for instructors and professors as criteria to assess their students' performance. Many educators emphasize the role of writing as an important communication tool and a sign of a career success (Zhu, 2004). According to Bazerman (1982), "writing is the primary channel for communicating knowledge in an academic setting" (as cited in Jolliffe, 1988, p. 91). Writing is very important for students since it is the way through which they can express their ideas and knowledge and it is how students' performance are assessed. Thus, students should learn how to deliver their messages clearly and appropriately. However, English language learners face difficulty in techniques, vocabulary and
sentence formation. Francis et al (2006) contend that although the students may possess basic

skills, many lack the skills to effectively meet writing standards. Students spend the majority of their days communicating with others verbally (whether in English or in their native language), however they usually only practice writing occasionally during school. Logically, it makes sense that without continual practice, writing skills will be slow to develop (as cited in Datzman, p.8).
It is clear that English language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, are

integrated with each other, they cannot be taught separately. Decanay (1967) states: Each phase is taught with methods that strengthen learning in the other phases. They are not taught independently of each other. Each phase is taught so that it prepares the pupil for the next. Failure to recognize the essential interrelationship of all these language skills can be a serious handicap to the effectiveness of the teacher. In fact, there are numerous strategies and techniques that teachers can implement to develop students writing. Teachers should choose strategies that can easily incorporate in the classroom.
One of the most effective strategies to maintain accuracy in writing is keeping journals. According to Peyton (1990), using dialogue journals is a useful strategy because dialogue journals are
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adaptable for use with a wide variety of student populations[They] need not be limited to language arts or ESL classes. In content courses- science, social studies, literature, and even math- they can encourage reflection on and processing of concepts presented in class and in readings (p.190-191).

Exposing learners to the writing process and meeting their interests are very crucial to develop their writing. Many researchers indicate the importance of exposure to the target language for ESL learners (Hinkel, 2004; Hyland, 2004;Ferris and Hedgcock, 2005). Ismail (2011) emphasizes that Writing should receive more attention in ESL classes in order to prepare learners to cope with the communicative demands of real life situations. Exposing them to the writing process itself is then a better way for achieving this goal. Writing skills can be developed when the learners' interests are recognized and when they are exposed to situations where they can produce authentic piece of writing (p.1).

Constructive feedback plays a vital role in improving students writing. Students reveal

strong views regarding the qualitative and quantitative feedback they receive from their instructors (Ferris, 1995; Montgomery and Baker, 2007). Kaithlyn states that fluency in writing
among English Language Learners was slow to develop due to lack of practice and regular feedback from the teacher (p. 9). Results from research revealed that feedback was found sometimes

helpful but at other times it was found to prevent or not to have any kinds of impact on students learning (Silva and Brice, 2004; Hedgcock, 2005). Both teachers and students believe that feedback is indispensable throughout the writing process. Montgomery and Baker (2007) pointed out that teachers are aware throughout the writing process of their students perceptions of feedback and they try effectively to provide them with constructive and encouraging feedback (as cited in Ismail, 2011). Lundstrom and Baker (2009) conducted an investigation to assess the effectiveness of giving or receiving feedback on learners writing skills. Students were divided into givers and receivers. The overall results showed that the givers, who looked at other students writing, made a considerable progress in improving their own writing during the semester (as cited in Ismail, 2011). Many researchers believe that teachers should be familiar with the students background and literacy. Students usually bring with them to the ESL writing class the whole culture of L1 education including the cultural patterns of L1 writing which may influence L2 writing

(Griffiths, 2007). Studies have shown that even students who share the same mother tongue may have completely different schooling background (Ismail, 2011). Thus, knowing L1 is a fundamental key to improve students writing in L2. Finally, controlled writing is one of the successful methods to improve students writing at the basic level. Paulston (1972) defines the controlled writing in this way By certain control similar to those in pattern drills, the student is helped, guided, directed and controlled to produce a correct composition. For this method, it consists of a written model with specific directions. Learners have to practice the model and it is effective to teach difficult structure.

Motives:
In this research I have tried to interpret the situation of teaching writing to grade 12 students especially those who suffer from basic writing skills. Students are responsible to produce four types of writing at this stage: narrative, interactive, informative and evaluative .In fact, I took part in grade 12 correction committee and when I was correcting students writing papers, I noticed a lot of basic writing problems such as spelling, tense, subject-verb agreementetc. This position invoked me to explore why our students generally fail to satisfy the basic writing requirements of grade 12.

Methodology
This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of using controlled writing to teach sentence structure to improve writing among English Language Learners. This study examined the effects of teaching sentence structures between student and teacher on writing fluency and quality. At the beginning the study, students were asked to write about their best or worst day in life while at the end of the study, they were asked to write a story using the given pictures to judge improvements made after the writing strategies were implemented. A control group was also used to help determine the effectiveness of these strategies in comparison with standard improvements made as a result of in-class instruction and practice. In particular, my investigation seeks to learn: What are common writing problems do my gr12 students make? What strategies can I use to improve my students level of sentence structure? What is the effect of using these strategies in students writing skills?

Settings and Participants:

This study takes place at Post Basic School in Adam. The school district serves students from grade (11-12). The classroom from which I select the students contained 27 grade 12th students. Eight of these students are assessed at the beginning of the study. One of the participants declined to take part in this research.

Data Collection
In order to effectively answer the research question, How can teaching sentence

structure improve my weak grade 12 students in writing? Data were collected to evaluate the
students writing; judge improvements made throughout the intervention process and analyze the results upon the completion of the study.

Instrument:
Two major tools were employed to collect data from the target class. First, samples of the students writings were corrected and analyzed according to the six writing traits. This serves to show the progression of students writing throughout the intervention process. The writing consists of a mixture of free responses (narrative and informative), and structured responses where prompts are provided. Second, the focus group conference technique included three main questions intended to consolidate the data collected via the written samples. These questions were not rigid in nature but they were flexible and allowed the participants to think and express their own answers freely. The conference was organized during class time. Special interview sessions before the early morning classes were organized for some students who have serious writing problems and for those who showed enthusiasm to attend more sessions.

Suggested writing exercises and activities for sentence structure, controlled writing
There are various methods of guided writing activities that vary in purpose. Paulston (1972) States: Typically controlled writing consists of a written model of some type with directions for conversations or specific language manipulations in rewriting the model. The degree of control lies both within the model and within the type of manipulations the student is asked to execute the model. It is worth to mention that exercises and activities of controlled writing in this study are obtained from online sources and from the curriculum. Four types of classroom activities are presented for guided writing. 1. Multiple- choice 3. Correct the mistakes 1. Multiple- Choice Multiple- choices are those activities where students have to choose the best choice from the given choices. In this exercise students have to understand the whole sentence and write the most appropriate answer. This activity is designed to raise students comprehensions as well as their grammatical knowledge (such as pronouns, prepositions, articles and verb to be,etc). (Excersice1, appendix B &C) 2. Sentence Reordering: One of the most problems that beginners face in writing is word order. In this task, students were given scrambled sentences which they have to rearrange them in the correct order. This task reveals students knowledge of syntax. (Exercise2, appendix D) 3. Correct the Mistakes In this activity, students have to identify and correct the mistakes in the given sentences. This task aims to draw students attention to knowledge of grammar. (Exercise3, appendix E) 2. Sentence Reordering 4. Sentence writing

4. Sentence Writing In this activity, students are asked to produce a complete and meaningful sentence using the given pictures or words. Students can add more information to make their writing lively and interesting. (Exercise4, appendix F)

Data analysis
Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were implemented for the purpose of data analysis. A Qualitative data analysis technique was used to look at the data collected via the focus group conference while the quantitative techniques used to collect data from students writing.

Results and Discussion

During the first two weeks of February, I started analyzing samples of students work to identify their weakness in writing. Through analyzing the first research question (What are common writing problems do my gr12students make?), I find out most students suffer from serious writing problems.
No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Writing problem Subject verb agreement Preposition Articles Wrong words Spelling Word order Word form Missing words Two helping verbs Capitalism Possession Repetition Run on sentences 10 No of Students 14 8 5 10 25 10 7 5 5 8 7 5 4

However, the focus group (10 Students) written samples show the following writing problems. No 1 2 3 4 5 Writing problem Subject verb agreement Capitalism Articles Word order Word choice No of Students 7 4 5 7 5

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It is worth mentioning that students face other writing problems, which are not mentioned in the conference, such as capital letters and punctuation. This indicates that students might not pay attention to these problems, they write them subconsciously or they dont feel comfortable and secure in the conference. 2) What strategies can I use to improve my students level of sentence structure? The second question discusses the strategies I implement in this research. Many strategies can be used to teach sentence structure and writing in general. However, in this research I focus on controlled writing. Students have to follow a certain structure and practice it. During the first and second week of March, I start by introducing sentence structure in general (subject + verb + complement). Then I discuss with students forms of the nouns and the verbs. At this stage students are given two exercises to raise their awareness of the subject and the verb (See appendix A). However, some students could not differentiate between the subject and the verb due to difficult language and words used in the activity and the foreigners proper names. On The third week, I use multiple-choice activity to draw students attentions to subject verb agreement. (See appendix B&C). In this task, students are asked to choose the best answer. It is worth to mention that 80% of the focus group got this task correctly since subject pronouns used for verbs. On the Fourth week, students are asked to rewrite five scrambled sentences starting from the simplest one to much complicated ones. Five students of nine answered four sentences of five correctly. On the other hand, the last sentence in this activity, no one gets it right. This explains that students have difficulty with forming long and complicate sentences. (See appendix D). During the first week of May, to raise students attention more to sentence structure, I ask my students to correct the mistakes in the given sentences. The mistakes include capital letters, articles, subject verb agreement, tense and preposition and spelling (See appendix E). Table below shows students scores in this activity.

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Number of students
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Number of students

It seems that some students suffer a lot from preposition and spelling since they have special rules in English. On the other hand, student shows significant improvement in capitalism and s. v agreement due to continuous practice. During the second and third week of May, students have to write a short paragraph using the given information (See appendix F). After I implement my strategy for the focused group, I find some development with some students writing. However, some students still suffer from the same errors. (See the table below)
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Subject verb agreement Capitalism Articles Word order Word choice pre intervention post intervention

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It is clear that students show some development in writing. To explain, students scores indicate a remarkable progress in subject verb agreement. Both categories (word order and choice) decline to four students in the focused group while only one student still suffers from capitalism and two in the articles. In brief, students show some progress in sentence structure.

Findings:
Using my analysis of the results as a window through which to view the findings, the following is the core of what we get out of them. Grade 12 students face many writing problems in terms of sentence structure, spelling, capitalism, word order word choice, subject and verb agreement,.etc). To explain, some students have problems with identifying the verb. Second, students pay no attention to spelling. Third, some students do not use their dictionary to check the word form. Missing verbs (to be) is another important point among students. Finally, students rely too much on their teacher and do not bother themselves to read and write at home. Through implementing my strategies, I found the following points. Students show remarkable progress in some categories such as s/v agreement and capitalism. However, students experience some difficulties in scrambled sentences which might be due to long sentences. Furthermore, they need more practice and exercises to improve themselves in word order and word choice. In fact, students who keep journals and read a lot tend to be more successful in developing writing skills.

Limitation:
As with any study, many factors can affect its result. On factor is that there is no enough time for conducting this research. The duration of the study is too short, so I cannot rely too much on the results. In fact, if I had enough time, I would have made it shorter and concise. Second, the amount of research is limited, so I cant provide much comprehensive details about the study which will strengthen my study.

Recommendation:
The result of this study can be used for further study on to what extent can controlled writing improve students writing basic skills. This study can be used with younger students to evaluate the strategys effectiveness with different ages. In addition, implementing controlled writing with a larger
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group size would likely reveal strong conclusion. Based on this research, teaching sentence structure should start at the primary level and should be provided for the entire class.

Conclusion:
This study highlights some techniques of using controlled writing to teach sentence structure. It appears from the findings that some students show some progress in their writing especially sentence structure. On the other hand, some students still suffer from the same basic mistakes that require more time and practice to develop. Consequently, students should be exposed to authentic language and provided with more practice. The more practice students are given, the better they will become. The activities provided in this study will not solve all writing problems students face, but it will raise student awareness of their mistakes and errors.
(3.317)

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Lado, R. (1961) Language Testing. Longman Group Limited. Paulston, C. (1972) Teaching writing in the ESOL classroom: Techniques of controlled composition. TESOL Quarterly. Peyton, J. K. (1990). Dialogue Journal Writing: Effective Student Teacher Communication. Padillo, H. Fairchild & C. Valdez (Eds.) Bilingual Education: Issues and Strategies. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications. Silva, T., and Brice, C. (2004). Research in Teaching Writing. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 70-106.
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teaching and responding to writing in the disciplines. Journal of Second Language, 13, 29-48

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