The Effect of Topic Selection on EFL Students’ Writing Performance

Abstract

The present study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of using topic selection as a motivational strategy to enhance engagement in doing writing tasks for second year Students in the department of English at the University of Mohammed SeddikBenYahia, Jijel. Throughout this research, we hypothesize that if teachers implement topic selection in written expression classes, student writing performance will be improved. To affirm the validity of this hypothesis, two separate questionnaires have been administered to test students’ writing performance. Thirty five (35) second year students from the department of English were subject to the first questionnaire while the second questionnaire was given to a sample of seven written expression teachers. The discussion of the results has shown that using topic selection enhances and motivates second year English Students’ writing performance. Moreover, Students claim that they prefer to write about topics chosen by them rather than assigned topics. The results of his study are insights for teacher and students’ usage of Topic Selection Method effectively in writing classes.