Conceptual Writing and Development of Writing Skills among English Language Students in Selected Secondary Schools in Makindye Division, Kampala Uganda

ABSTRACT 

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of conceptual writing on the development of writing skills among English language students in selected secondary schools in Makindye Division, Kampala District Uganda. For this reason, the study specifically ascertained the effect of expository writing, assessed the significance of descriptive writing and examined the role of narrative writing on development of writing skills among such students in the same schools in the division. This study adopted a descriptively correlational research design based on the quantitative and qualitative approach. The study population included 6 head teachers representing their deputies, 7 DOSs standing in for HODs as well as 48 Senior Four Teachers (Arts) and 470 Students who represented the rest of the teachers and students, respectively. It is from these population subgroups that the study sample 168 respondents were selected using purposive and stratified random sampling strategies. The questionnaire, interview guide and documentary review matrix were used as data collection instruments. Analysis of the collected data was done using quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative analysis included descriptive tools, namely frequency distribution, arithmetic mean and standard deviation, as well as inferential statistics of Pearson’s Correlations Co-efficiency and multiple linear regression. The main findings were that generally the level of English writing skills was relatively low among English language students in secondary schools of field survey. This was attributed mainly to descriptive writing education that was least consistent. It was also to some extent attributed to narrative writing and expository writing education, in that order, which were less fairly consistent and relatively consistent, respectively. It was concluded that expository, descriptive and narrative writing as potential conceptual writing education strategies were significantly predictive but inadequate. It was therefore recommended for better English writing proficiency, a lot more should have done mostly about descriptive writing education, then narrative writing learning and expository writing in that order. Such improvements should be the collective responsibility of all stakeholders, including Uganda’s department of secondary education standards, school management, English teachers, students and parents.