Developing IT Students' EFL Functional Writing and Attitude Through Task-Based Learning

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of using Task-Based learning to develop second year IT students' EFL functional writing and attitude at Minia Sadat's Academy for Management Sciences. The quasi-experimental research design which depended on one-group pretest-posttest design was used. Sixty eight IT students participated in the study in the first semester in the academic year 2021-2022. The researcher taught a course entitled "English language 3". It was mainly about "Essentials for Business Communication". To achieve the purposes of the study, the researcher prepared a functional writing checklist, an EFL functional writing skills test , a functional writing rubric and a writing attitude scale. Additionally, the researcher prepared a teachers' guide. The total number of the sessions was twelve. Findings showed a considerable statistical improvement favoring the post administrations of the English EFL functional writing test and the writing attitude scale. Moreover, there was a strong positive correlation between the two dependent variables. Recommendations and suggestions for further research were presented.