The Importance Of Expository Writing

bstract—The purpose of this study is to investigate the questions of whether 1) Does concept mapping knowledge have any effect on Intermediate EFL learners’ self-efficacy? 2) Does concept mapping knowledge have any effect on Intermediate EFL learners’ expository writing accuracy? The following five steps determine the delivery and the sequence of the study: 1) A TOEFL test (writing section) as the pretest, 2) self- efficacy questionnaire, 3) 8 sessions of instruction on concept map construction with experimental group, 4) integration of concept mapping as a pre-writing strategy in experimental group, and 5) post-test of writing and self-efficacy questionnaire with both groups. Firstly, the writing Proficiency Test along with self-efficacy

questionnaire

However, writing is the most popular means by which teachers evaluate students’ knowledge; it is not a skill to be learned easily. It is a complex task that needs a number of processes to be performed.

Undoubtedly, expository writing is the genre that is needed in education and work. In the middle grades and beyond, writing becomes the backbone and expression of academic growth. As children move from the stage of learning to read to the stage of reading to learn, expository writing helps them to organize and express their thinking. Since expository writing needs logical analysis, students are required to have direct instruction in how to organize their writing, give their logical options based on the main topic, and create plausible sentences.

Expository writing usually emphases the main topic, logical supporting facts, strong organization, a logical order, clarity, unity, coherence, and smooth transitions. It is used in the college admission or job application essay (CV), a query letter, proposal, and inter-office memo is useful in school and

Recently, concept mapping has been used as a tool for learning and teaching. Concept maps are tools that make ideas visual. They allow prior experience and understanding to be taken into consideration when building new concepts into the perceptual framework. By using concept maps, learners use their prior knowledge to understand the new concepts. It makes a link between unknown and known information that leads to deeper understanding (Novak, 2010).

By choosing concepts and linking words carefully, learners can use concept maps as a learning tool to catch every nuances of meaning, and summarize their knowledge. Concept mapping relies heavily on cognitive theory and

Ausubel’s assimilation (Novak & Cañas, 2008) theory. According to assimilation theory, learning is the most effective when new knowledge is related to previously learned material.

II. S TATEMENT OF THE P ROBLEM

Writing is considered as one of the cumbersome skills in EFL context. Hyland (2003) pointed out that writing is a sociocognitive activity which involves skills in planning and drafting. Writing is always seen as one of the most prominent skills in EFL pedagogy whose paramountcy is especially underscored in academic and higher