THE IMPACT OF USING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS ON LEARNING THE ORGANIZATION OF WRITING SKILL AMONG IRANIAN PRE-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS

THIS STUDY INVESTIGATED THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS ON PRE-INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS' WRITING ABILITY OF COMPARE/CONTRAST AND CAUSE/EFFECT ESSAYS. THIS STUDY AIMED TO DETERMINE WHETHER STUDENTS WHO WERE TAUGHT THROUGH GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS WOULD PERFORM BETTER ON THE WRITING OF CAUSE/EFFECT AND COMPARE/CONTRAST ESSAYS COMPARED TO THOSE WHO WERE INVOLVED IN CONVENTIONAL METHOD OF TEACHING WRITING. THIS STUDY EXPLORED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS AND THE CONVENTIONAL METHOD IN DEVELOPING EFL LEARNERS' WRITING ABILITY. TWO EFL CLASSES WERE NON-RANDOMLY (I.E., CONVENIENT) SELECTED AT ABADAN AZAD UNIVERSITY AND AFTER TAKING PART IN HOMOGENEITY TEST, THE STUDENTS AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL WERE RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS. DATA WERE COLLECTED THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATION OF A PRE-TEST AND POSTTEST OF WRITING COMPARE/CONTRAST AND CAUSE/EFFECT ESSAYS. THE RELIABILITY COEFFICIENTS OF THE TESTS WERE CALCULATED THROUGH KR-21 FORMULA. THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP INSTRUCTED THROUGH GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS WHILE THE CONTROL GROUP RECEIVED CONVENTIONAL METHOD OF WRITING. THE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS INCLUDED PAIRED AND INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-TESTS. RESULTS REVEALED THAT COMPARED TO PRE-TEST, BOTH GROUPS PERFORMED BETTER IN COMPARE/CONTRAST POST-TEST AND GRAPHIC ORGANIZER GROUP SIGNIFICANTLY OUTPERFORMED THE CONTROL GROUP. THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS STUDY COULD BE USED IN WRITING COMPARE/CONTRAST ESSAYS TO FAMILIAR THE LEARNERS WITH GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS.