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Abstract The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of suggested scaffolding activities in developing engineering students’ technical writing skills and their attitudes towards writing in English as well. The study adopted the quasi- experimental design, i.e., the sample (n=60), sophomore students, was drawn and divided randomly into the experimental group/scaffolding group (SG) and control group/non scaffolding group (NSG) (n= 30) for each from civil engineering department at the Faculty of Engineering Zagazig University. The training was conducted during the academic year 2011-2012. To collect data, the researcher prepared three technical writing skills questionnaires (TWSQs) addressed to civil engineering professors, experts (engineers at workplace) and students, attitudes towards writing in English scale (AWES) and technical writing test (TWT) through which the researcher determined technical writing skills needed and students’ levels and attitudes towards writing in English. The scaffolding group/SG was taught through scaffolding activities based strategy (SABS) over a period of three months at a rate of a two- hour session a week. Data was processed using the statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The findings of the study showed that there was statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the scaffolding group/SG in their performance in the pre and post administrations of the technical writing test and attitudes scale favoring the post administration. There was statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the scaffolding group/SG and the non scaffolding group/NSG in their performance in the post administration of the technical writing test and attitudes towards writing in English scale favoring the scaffolding group. It was concluded that using technical writing activities with some scaffolding techniques have a great effect on developing technical writing skills and students’ attitudes towards writing in English. |