Using Newspaper-Based Activities to Enhance Secondary Stage Students' EFL Writing Skills and their Motivation towards Writing

This study aimed to investigate the effect of newspaper-based activities on enhancing secondary stage students' EFL writing skills and their motivation towards writing. The participants of the study were forty first secondary students at Manzala secondary School, EL-Dakahlia Directorate. Instruments of the study were an EFL writing skills checklist, an EFL pre and post writing test, an EFL writing scoring rubric and an EFL writing Motivation scale. In this study, pre post-test was used with two groups (Experimental and control, 20 students each). Results of the study revealed that the experimental group students outperformed their peers in the control group in their writing performance as validated through the post- test scores. Also, their Motivation toward writing improved considerably. The experimental group’s gains in this productive skill and the enhancement in their motivation were attributed to using the newspaper-based activities.
Key words: newspaper-based activities, secondary stage, EFL writing skills, motivation.