ERIC Number: ED035633
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1969-Oct
Pages: 23
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Use of Paperbacks and Visual Aids in Teaching Composition to College Freshman. Final Report.
Gilbert, Robert B.
The major hypothesis tested in this investigation was that college students using audiovisual aids and current reading materials would achieve greater competency in composition than would students taught by conventional methods. The "STEP Writing Test," the "STEP Reading Test," and writing samples were used for evaluation. Also tested were the effects of an experienced teacher, as opposed to an inexperienced one, on the students' writing improvement. Two classes of students who had failed composition acted as the experimental groups, and a class of freshmen who had not previously taken a college composition course served as the control group. Experimental materials used were overhead projector transparencies on the structure of the paragraph, a picture-essay book, short films, newspapers, magazines, and paperbacks. Results showed that students taught with experimental materials (1) improved their writing, (2) enthusiastically changed their attitides toward English, (3) did not improve in reading skills, and (4) gained almost as much from an inexperienced teacher as from an experienced one. (Author/LH)
Descriptors: Audiovisual Aids, College Students, English Instruction, Films, Instructional Materials, Low Achievement, Paperback Books, Paragraph Composition, Reading Improvement, Reading Materials, Student Attitudes, Student Improvement, Teaching Experience, Teaching Methods, Transparencies, Writing (Composition), Writing Skills
Publication Type: N/A
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC. Bureau of Research.
Authoring Institution: Livingston Univ., AL.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A