Using Teacher- and Student-Developed Graphic Organizers as a Writing Tool

This study investigated 1) whether the effect of teacher-developed graphic organizers vis-à-vis stu-dent-developed ones was more significant on improving intermediate EFL learners’ writing, and 2) whether the use of both graphic organizers had any impact on their writing. The participants were se-lected in two stages: 130 students sat for a piloted proficiency test. Those who scored above half of the total score (N = 93) took part in a writing test and, ultimately, 60 whose scores fell between one standard deviation above and below the mean were divided equally and randomly into two experimen-tal and control groups. Both groups underwent a 20-session course of which 10 sessions were allo-cated to teaching writing with the experimental group receiving five sessions of student-developed or-ganizers first and, subsequently, another five sessions of teacher-developed ones. At the end of each series of five sessions, a writing test was administered to both groups. To verify the two null hypo-theses, a mixed ANOVA was run (between-subject factor of having organizers in the experimental group and within-subject factor of organizer type in the experimental group). The data revealed that using graphic organizers had no significant impact on improving EFL learners’ writing; however, the use of teacher-developed graphic organizers did have a more significant effect than that of student-developed ones.