Improving Basic Composition Skills of Secondary Level Students in the Sri the Lankan School Context: An Action Research

This is an action research based on a government school located in the Western province in Sri Lanka on Improving ESL Composition Skills of Secondary Level Students. Literature shows poor composition skills is a common issue among the junior secondary learners ranging from classroom level to national level G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination. Thus, the current study explores the issue of low performance in writing based questions of the secondary ESL students in a type C school in the western province. A sample of forty (40) students from grade ten (10) studying English as a Second Language (ESL) was taken to the study from convenience sampling. Initially semistructured interviews were conducted on the matter investigated with the principal, a few students and the two ESL teachers in grade ten of the selected school. Since their perceptions on the matter were merely taken to activate their schemata for the study, the data were not considered for analysis. A questionnaire was administered among the students, and then a pre-test and a post-test were given on an ESL composition task resembling an item in the O/L English language paper during the intervention process. Their scores were collected and the mean difference was recorded. A slight improvement was seen after utilizing the process writing approach via VARK model.