Achievement in Writing by Nepali and Tharu Native Speakers

Abstract

The present study aims to assess the achievement in writing by Nepali andTharu native speakers. The main focus of the study was directed towardwhether the achievement of writing differs because of difference inthe nativelanguages of the students; if it differs then to what extent? The study wascarriedout using bothprimary and secondary sources of data. For primary data,the ninth grade students of a government aided secondary school were taughtwriting. Altogether 26 students (13 Nepaliand 13 Tharu native speakers) wereselected as sample and taught writing on the basis of the original texts of theEnglish text book of grade nine. The representative examples from the threetypes of writing namely controlled, guided and free writing were chosen forteaching. The sampling procedure was purposive because ofthe availability ofthe Tharu students. During the data analysis the Nepali native speakersdominated the Tharu students in terms of scores all along. But the trend andrate of progress in writingseemed similar in both of the groups. In conclusion,different native languages of the learners do not necessarily show thesignificant gap between theirachievements.The first chapter consistsof background,definition of language, first language,second language, foreign languageand filter language.The theory of languageacquisition, monolingualism and bilingualism are also introduced in the firstchapter.The first chapter also includesthe writing skills, mechanics and othercomponents ofwriting,correctingscoring written works.The origin of actionresearch, its definition and process have been put in this chapter. The finalpartsof this chapter arereview of the related literature, objectives and significance ofthe study.The second chapter deals with the methodology applied in the study,the sources of data, sample population, sampling procedure, tools andprocedures for data collection. The chapter also states the limitations of thestudy.The third chapter presentsanalysis and interpretation. The fourth chapterconsists of the findings and recommendations based on the analysis andinterpretation of data. References and appendices are attached at the end.