An Approach for Developing Descriptive Paragraph Writing Competence through FRESH for Thai Tertiary Students

Abstract

This experimental research aimed to 1) determine whether there are any significant differences in descriptive paragraph writing competence before and after practicing "FRESH" of students majoring in English at Rajamangala University of Technology Isan Sakon Nakhon Campus (RMUTI SKC), 2) examine students' attitudes towards learning English after practicing "FRESH", and 3) propose guidelines for developing students’ paragraph writing competence through “FRESH” for Thai Tertiary students. The informants in the study included 54 students studying English at the Department of Liberal Arts, Faculty of Industry Technology, RMUTI SKC in 2020. They were selected by a purposive sampling method. The data were obtained through the written pretest and posttest and the attitude scale. The data were analyzed using the SPSS program. The t-test for dependent samples was used to compare and test the differences between the written pretest and posttest scores. The descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation, and percentage were used to describe the data basic patterns of the test scores and attitudes towards students' English learning.
The results revealed as follows:
1. There is a statistically significant difference at .00 between the pretest and posttest mean scores. The students' descriptive paragraph writing mean scores in the pretest and posttest were 15.53 and 30.84, respectively. That means the students'
descriptive paragraph writing competence improved after practicing "FRESH".
2. The mean score of the students' attitudes towards learning English was at a high level (mean = 3.22).
It can be concluded that "FRESH" can be an alternative technique to help students organize ideas and make a meaningful sensory descriptive paragraph.