Sajjad Fathi - Part-time Lecturer, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS)

Nowadays, EFL educators are seeking teaching approaches and techniques in which learners can be more active and engage in the language classroom. Also, because of its complexity, writing skill is one of the most difficult skills to be acquired in language learning. This study was designed to investigate the effect of implementing activity-based teaching (ABT) approach on learners‘ writing complexity among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. For conducting this study, 40 intermediate EFL learners were divided into two groups: experimental group (N=20) and control group (N=20). All the participants were required to write an essay on the assigned topic before the instructional phase. During instructional phase, the experimental group were exposed to ABT practice and the control group were exposed to conventional teaching practice. After instructional phase, all the participants were required to write an essay on assigned topic. Michigan Writing Rating Scale (2019) was used to measure writing complexity. Both assigned essays were recorded and compared to find the significance of differences between two administrations in both two groups through SPSS software. The results of this study showed that implementing ABT in classroom practice had a statistically significant effect on promoting learners‘ writing complexity. By considering this element of writing quality i.e. complexity and implementing ABT in their practice, language teachers can help learners to promote their writing quality and their language performance respectively.

Involvement, Classroom Practice, Activity-Based Teaching Approach, and Writing Complexity