Improving ninth-grade monolingual high school students' english writing skills through narratives

This article reports the findings of a research study carried out in 2006. The purpose of the study was to design and implement a didactic proposal within the postulates of the Communicative Approach, aimed at improving the writing skills of ninth grade-high school monolingual students in Cali, Colombia, through narrative writing. The data was gathered through a diagnostic stage and an intervention stage. The findings show that after investigation stage, students improved their ability to write in English: their texts exhibited creativity and contained fewer surface errors. Students' attitude also changed positively and they were more interested in and committed to writing in English. This findings in line with those in previous studies which suggest that low-level protficiency students can be gradually introduced to writing by offering them a clear purpose to write, choosing topics from their daily life, and guiding them through their wring process.