THE INFLUENCE OF GRAMMAR ON CREATIVE WRITING IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

1.1 Introduction

Creative writing is a process of communicating with others in which a writer sends and expresses the ideas and also information through written forms. Hidayati (2018) notes that writing is a communication tool in written form. Additionally, in teaching writing there is English competence including learners’ grammatical competence, vocabulary mastery, and how to organize a good paragraph of English (Brown, 2004, p.233 as cited in Hidayati, 2018). Education is an eternal development project of society because the development of education can drive the development of the whole society (Guci et al., 2021). In improving the quality of English teaching, English grammar teaching is the main method. To a certain extent, improving students’ learning effect of English grammar needs to rely on the psychological level, thereby strengthening their interest in learning and promoting the comprehensive learning effect (Aniuranti et al., 2021).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

---

1.2 Background of Study

In Nigeria, English language is the lingua - Franca (the official language) the language of Government, businesses, education, law, politics religion, mass media and international communication. This is the inevitable situation because Nigerian is a multilingual society with many different ethnic groups such as Yoruba Edo, Igbo, Tiv, Hausa, and so on. Since it is only in English language that all these groups can communicate, we can realize the indispensable role which English plays in Nigeria.

The field of EA in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) was established in the 1970s by Corder and colleagues. A widely-available survey can be found in chapter eight of Brown (2000). A key finding of EA has been that many learner errors were produced by learners misunderstanding the rules of the new language. EA is a type of linguistic study that focuses on the errors learners make. It consists of a comparison between the errors made in TL and within that TL itself.

According to Corpuz (2011), the grammatical error correction technique in writing benefits teachers in creating awareness among learners. In instilling independent reading habits among students besides aiding revision, teachers can also gain benefits in designing or planning strategies and measures to help students overcome their problems and improve their language performance (Muhari & Mansor, 2008). Myles (2002) also mentions that feedback is the most significant part of writing and that improvement is impossible without it. Indirectly, these will be able to inculcate awareness among the students of the common types of errors to avoid (Naeini, 2008).

Considering those problems, this research focuses on analyzing students’ grammatical errors in writing a text. This study aims to reveal the grammatical errors in essays written by second year-students who enrolled essay writing examination. Furthermore, the writers would like to know various forms of errors in part of speech use there.

Zheng in Sohli and Eginli (2020) argued that acquiring writing skill in a second language is considered to be more challenging than the other language skills. Writing consists of cognitive strategies and background knowledge of the target culture encouraging teacher to teach many components to the students. Writing also includes several processes requiring the writer to produce a comprehensible, clear, and informative written expression (Yuce and Atac, 2019). This skill involves the process of discovering ideas on the text not only by putting the words on the paper but also by selecting and organizing the ideas by considering several components.

Widiawati and Cahyono (2006) assert that teaching creative writing can support to reinforce grammar, reading, and vocabulary to use for communicative purposes. Therefore, the implementation of teaching writing to junior high school students in EFL context remains challenging. Studies about writing have been well-investigated almost in a few decades. Dueraman (2012) argues that teachers in one of the Southern colleges of Technology in Thailand encountered difficulties when teaching writing related to the teachers’ inadequate writing skills, insufficient English language use, limited writing resources, and absence of feedback from peers. In addition, Adas and Bakir (2013) verbalized that teaching writing has fostered language skills for second and third year students at conventional universities in Palestine through blended learning integrated with traditional methods.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Influence of Grammar on Creative Writing in Junior Secondary Schools.

---

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the teachers faced difficulties in developing English writing related to student’s lack of grammar and vocabulary knowledge, motivation, the topic in the text book is not interesting, mother tongue interference among students is a disruptive factor in teaching writing (Almubark, 2016).

Also, teachers faced challenges related to have a big class who made the learning process not effective, the time for teaching writing is less which makes students difficult to understand the materials that have explained (Ariyanti, 2016; Andriani & Abdullah, 2017). There are causes of writing problems such as English language learners who have limited vocabulary and less creativity (Adas and Bakir, 2013).

---

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Influence of Grammar on Creative Writing in Junior Secondary Schools. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To investigate the factors inhabiting junior high school teachers towards the use of grammar in teaching creative writing;
2. To determine the impact of creative writing on students’ progress;
3. To examine the challenges English teachers encounter when teaching creative writing to junior high school students; and
4. To determine the teaching methods utilized by English teachers towards overcoming their challenges during teaching creating writing.

---

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What are the factors that inhabit junior high school teachers towards the use of grammar in teaching creative writing?
• What is the impact of creative writing on students’ progress?
• What are the challenges English teachers encounters when teaching creative writing to junior high school students?
• What are the teaching methods utilized by English teachers towards overcoming their challenges during teaching creating writing?

---

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant effect on the utilization of grammar in teaching creative writing among junior high school students
• H1: There is significant effect on the utilization of grammar in teaching creative writing among junior high school students

---

1.7 Significance of Study

The study will be relevant in teaching students creative writing with different levels of language learning, such as grammar, vocabulary, phonology, and communication. It also promotes language play which means it encourages learners to play with the language creatively. Creative writing also stimulates the right and left brain to think as much as possible and promotes balanced thinking.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

---

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Influence of Grammar on Creative Writing in Junior Secondary Schools using Okpe Local Government Area, Delta State as a case study.

---

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

---

1.10 Definition of Terms

English language: English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca.

Academic Performance: can be defined as the outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goal. Academic achievement is commonly measured by examination or continuous assessment.