Enhancing ESL Writing Instruction Using Headgram

Abstract

Language instructors have long focused on improving students’ competency. The greatest methods for involving students in the classroom are constantly evolving to meet the demands of the students. To accomplish the goal, new strategies and methods have been developed. As a result, some form of motivation is required to make sure that students are inspired and involved in the class so that it will be more meaningful. In light of this context, the researchers suggest the use of a board game called Headgram. Headgram is a board game developed by the researchers of the present study. A total of 62 students enrolled in the Integrated Language Skills III at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang were chosen as participants of the present study, and they played Headgram. This preliminary study is set out with the purpose of examining the students’ perception of Headgram and to learn whether Headgram has helped the students perform better with their writing skills. In doing so, an action research study was conducted, and information was acquired using a combination of methods, including semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews and 15 questions on pre- and post-tests. The results of this study indicate that the students enjoy Headgram, though it is a challenging game, and Headgram effectively encourages a sense of enjoyment while enhancing students’ writing abilities—specifically, sentence structure. Further, it was revealed that Headgram encourages students to work well as a team. Future studies might concentrate on the opinions of the teachers in order to have a balanced viewpoint, whereas the current study concentrated only on student responses using Headgram. Additionally, since technology is a cutting-edge tool, it would be amazing if Headgram became accessible online in the future.

Keywords

• ESL
• writing
• board game
• news headlines
• UiTM