Abstract:
The main purpose of this study was to assess students’ paragraph writing problems. The
study was carried out in Bole Senior High School and St. Anthony of Padua Senior
High/Technical School with special reference to final year students in focus. Case study
design and purposive sampling technique were used to address the problem. A sample
size of (280) was used. The study employed data collection instruments such as
document analysis, open ended questionnaire, interviews, and classroom observation.
The data were analyzed qualitatively. The study identified problems of organization,
unity, adequacy, topic sentences, supporting sentences, concluding sentences and
capitalization as the major paragraph writing problems students encounter. In addition,
factors that were affecting students’ paragraph writing were found to be students’
related factors such as lack of knowledge of strategic use, students’ writing
apprehension, lack of vocabulary and lack of regular practice, and teachers’ related
factors such as teachers’ ways of giving feedback. Therefore, since paragraph writing
is a skill that could be improved through sufficient practicing, students of Bole Senior
High School and St. Anthony of Padua Senior High/Technical School should be given
the opportunity of learning and practicing features of good paragraphing to effectively
use them to write paragraphs.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Foreign Languages Education, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy
(Teaching English as a Second Language – TESL) in the University of Education, Winneba
SEPTEMBER, 2022