A Think-Aloud Protocols as a Cognitive Strategy to Increase Students’ Writing Narrative Skill at Efl Classroom

Abstract

Abstract:The purpose of this study was twofold: its first aim was to know whether any differences of think-aloud potocols to develop writing narrative skill; second, to know whether which one is more effective to develop students' writing narrative skill by using think-aloud protocols and traditional method. Students randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Treatment had three stages. In Stage 1, students were asked to write about a topic. In Stage 2, students in the experimental group studied a model essay about that writing task and they had think-aloud protocol about those aspects of language that they noticed in the model essays. However in the control group, students studied model essays for themselves and they did not have think-aloud part. In Stage 3, students were asked to rewrite the writing task. The students in the experimental group showed that they got higher score in writing narrative by using think-aloud protocols than the control group. Furthermore, in the post test, experimental group outperformed the control group. The findings of the study suggest that thinking-aloud could be a good strategy for improving writing narrative performance. provide a great learning class. On the other hand, they need to practice their writing narrative in a great way. Moreover, although applied linguists have come to recognize the importance of writing in its own right as well as its complexity, writing remains one of the least well-understood, if not misunderstood, subjects in applied linguistics in general (Silva and Matsuda, 2002). Narrative is representation of a series of events connected in a temporal and causal way. KeywordsFilms, plays, comic strips, novels, newsreels, chronicles and treatises of geological history are all narratives in this widest sense. Narratives can be constructed using a wide variety of semiotic media: written or spoken language, images, gestures and acting.Think-aloud protocols involve the verbalization of thinking during reading, problem solving, or other cognitive tasks (Oster, 2001;Schunk, 2004).Participants might verbalize commentary, questions, generating hypotheses, or drawing conclusions. Such a method of data collection, known as "thinking aloud", has been imported from the cognitive sciences and applied to translation research. Thus, think-aloud may serve as both an instructional tool and method of assessment. Significant research has focused on explicit efforts to understand the thinking process and the comprehension of text (Davey, 1983; Bereiter and Bird, 1985). Utilizing think-alouds in such a manner involves teacher modeling, teacher-student interaction, and finally, the independent use by the student.However, Beck and Kucan (1997) and thoughts (Scott, 2008). In this way, text processing and learning activities are directly revealed without delay and are expressed in students' own words.Afterwards, the verbalizations are transcribed by the researcher into a think-aloud protocols.Think-aloud protocols are often used in revealing the strategic decisions...