Applying the Pareto principle for identifying errors in low-level students’ writings



This article is aimed to describe that writing skill is a quite challenging system that includes several stages of learning. Writing is a confusing activity for English language learners due to its complexity of teaching process which should be started in a proper way at the initial stage. This paper highlights peculiarities of teaching writing at the early stage which is closely interrelated with other language skills. Article represents a brief overview of techniques in teaching writing for lower-level students. Students, who participated in this study, were taken Preliminary English Test as a pre-test and post-test to check their writings. The data taken from writing performance among 28 English learners, was collected, analyzed and categorized from students writing performance. The results were taken under the principle that focuses on the “vital few” aspects that could prove its effectiveness. The content and grammar range/accuracy were evaluated. “The vital few” errors indicated as — verb tense, spelling and punctuation. Total (345) errors found from the initial writings and the most frequent errors were in verb tense (98), spelling (65) and punctuation (58). Taking into account this categorization an intensive work done during the course. Researcher put his focus and effort on teaching mistakes in students’ errors in verb tenses, spelling and punctuation. Various materials were implemented for explaining these “vital few” errors mentioned above. The technique of using pictures was applied to improve the spelling of words. In the second PET, the total errors were (226), and “vital few” were identified as verb tense (54), spelling (45) and punctuation (32). The results showed that Pareto principle can be implemented in education and used as a tool for identifying most important points.

Keywords: writing, language skills, English learners, Pareto principle, techniques of writing, pictures, initial stage, errors.

Introduction

The result of global changes in society, the role of a foreign language in the education system has changed, and it has turned from an ordinary academic subject into a basic element of the modern education system, into a means of achieving professional realization of the individual. The country has adopted “100 concrete steps» and one of the main tasks of step “79” is gradual introduction of English into the education system [1]. The head of the state K. Tokayev claimed: “We must understand that knowledge of several languages broadens horizons and awakens more opportunities» [2]. In this regard, among the language skills the possession of written speech is an integral part of intercultural communication and mandatory part to master.

Writing is one of the important skills in any language. It helps students to share their ideas to the whole auditory. Furthermore, writing is now a central feature of social life, as it is used to communicate, to share ideas, persuade, chronicle experiences and entertain others [3]. Graham claims that students are to learn write in order to be successful in school, at work, and in their personal lives. However, the skills cannot be developed without adequate practice and instruction [4].

Teaching harder does not mean teaching better. There is formed such a legend the amount of effort is equal to the results. Unfortunately, this does not lead any truth. An interesting perspective Pareto principle named after the Italian economist and sociologist Wilfredo Pareto, shows little effort leads much result. It sounds something like this: "20 % of efforts give 80 % of the result and the remaining 80 % of efforts only 20 % of the result.

This article aimed identifying the difficulties and errors committed by learners. Students struggle with handwriting, make more errors of spelling or tenses of verb at the initial stage of learning that reduce the quality of a piece of writing. Therefore, there exist numerous other errors made by learners that are not of the essence. The objective of this paper is to find out “critical few” with the Pareto principle that helps to form writing properly at the beginning which will help both the learners and teachers.

Literature review

Generally, language skills are divided into two large groups: productive and receptive. Listening and reading are the receptive skills, as learners do not have to produce language, but receive comprehensible input. On the other hand, productive skills are speaking and writing, which learners need to produce spoken and written language in order to transmit ideas [5]. Each skill has its distinct definition, although they are intertwined, that the practices on any one of these skills have a great impact on the development of other skills. As this point implies, knowledge of writing includes being aware of other related skills. For instance, writing and reading share a close relation. Likewise, instruction that improves writing skills and process should improve reading skills and process, and vice versa [4, p. 284]. Writing and reading is core of education process. But writing is much less widely assessed. Spelling, punctuation and handwriting or keyboard skill, the ‘correct’ use of grammatical forms — general scheme of evaluation [6].

Benefits of using the Pareto principle in the classroom in are essential. So O'Neill K described such areas as in teaching writing, reading, methodology, and student performance. Teaching harder is not teaching smarter. Kathryn applies the Pareto principle to the analysis of students’ errors in grammar, mechanics and style. According to his study, the results are taken from business English students. Using the results of analysis will produce the most improvement in writing concisely, punctuation (comma usage) and passive voice. Working on these errors and reducing them help the instructors and students to focus, make improvement in grammar and mechanics [7].

There is no exact form of teaching writing in EFL classes. According to Raimes, the followings aspects are what the writers should deal while producing a piece of paper: syntax, content, grammar, mechanics, organization, word choice, purpose, audience and the writer’s process [8, p.6]. The writing is the process which should be taught at the initial stage with the guidance. The beginners have to pay attention lower level of skills such as punctuation, spelling, word choice, as well as higher level skills of planning, organizing [9]. Correspondingly, Raimes states that if students practice practical writing tasks (forms, lists, letters, daily notes, instructions), they will practice not only writing, but also learn the conventions of new culture [8, p. 83].

Writing errors have been treated as important information to help teachers direct the foci of their teaching. Teachers need to pay attention to the most serious errors before addressing other errors. Study done by Mustafa and other researchers was aimed at finding the most serious errors produced by students at one of the junior high schools in Indonesia. The errors were categorized into surface strategy taxonomy and linguistic category taxonomy errors. The data was analyzed by calculating the percentage of errors based on the total cumulative errors for surface strategy taxonomy, but based on the number of attempts in the same grammatical elements for linguistic category taxonomy. The results of data analysis showed that the dominant errors for surface strategy taxonomy were selection, omission, and addition. In the linguistic category taxonomy, the most dominant types were word forms, followed by articles, nonfinite verbs, verb tenses plurals, and prepositions. It is suggested that teachers should pay more serious attention to the most serious problems, because solving these problems will hasten the students’ progress in learning [10].

Many studies gave attempt to analyze the process of writing, identifying techniques and ways of improving learners writing skills. Many researches have emphasized the use of techniques for teaching and practicing this skill. “One of the potential assets that can be used in order to facilitate the procedure of teaching and learning this skill is using visual aids in the classroom” [11, p. 2]. The study done by him, tried to examine the potential contribution of using pictures for developing EFL students’ writing. For this study 34 EFL learners were selected and divided into control group and experimental group. In the experimental group, there were used pictures for teaching writing. After particular period of time, the experimental groups’ writing has increased. They could write more words without mistakes, had less grammatical errors, and used more cohesive devices. These findings substantiated the positive effect of using pictures in teaching EFL writing [11].

Zerin claims that teacher’s role in students writing at early age is high. The reason is that young learner’s attention is difficult to keep focused. Teacher must follow some methods and techniques of teaching writing. Furthermore, motivation is the key component to accomplish success in writing. Teaching young learners need constant practice and attention. Also in elementary level, while giving feedback to the writing tasks of students, teachers should be careful as it causes learners being discouraged [12]. Furthermore, the following action research used pictures to improve spelling of verbs and got satisfied result, even the pupils interests were increased [13].

The next researcher’s study aimed to describe teaching technique for writing skill at the 10 ^th grade students in the academic year 2017–2018. The techniques in teaching writing were used such as using picture, discussions, grouping and correcting and presentation. These techniques made the writing process easier. They feel interested and excited of each technique and they were motivated presenting by videos and pictures. However, teacher faced some problems, such as in discussion technique is passive students, limitation in students’ vocabulary and grammar, and limited time in teaching writing. The solution in writing skill such as, teacher should motivate them, repeat grammar and practice vocabularies, make paragraph use correct tense, practice writing not only once [14]. Correspondingly to this paper, researchers’ study was conducted to describe the method of teaching writing. The writer found two techniques applied in teaching learning process, namely group writing and individual writing. Limited time and vocabulary, and boredom were the problems faced by teacher and students in learning writing [15] .

Methods

The participants of this study were students of I. Altynsarin educational center in Turkistan who were studying lower level of English language. A total of 28 students participated in this study. There were 3 male students and 25 female students whose ages range between “14–16”. “Pareto principle” was the main tool for identifying “vital few” and the technique of using picture was used in this study.

The study was done in several steps to investigate the usefulness of Pareto principle as an instrument for setting priorities in the area of writing of lower-level students. The first stage was identifying the students’ difficulties. So, students were asked to answer Preliminary English Test (PET) which contains 2 writing tasks. Students were provided a topic and were exposed to write a short essay with length limitation (about 35–40 words). The first task was illustrated with pictures whereas the second one was dictation they were expected to write down. The second step was to identify the errors found in the students’ tasks and their classifications into the categories. A writing task was handed to students as pre-test and post-test. Their performance was compared and contrasted determine whether writing skill was improved or not. The first writing task was evaluated ith the respect to two criteria: task response and grammar range/ accuracy. The content of task is scored between 1–5 bands.

Band 5 - All content is relevant to the task.

Band 4 - Performance shares features of Bands 3 and 5

Band 3 - Minor irrelevances and/or omissions may be present

Band 2 - Performance shares features of Bands 1 and 3

Band 1 - Irrelevances and misinterpretation of task may be present.

Band 0- Content is totally irrelevant.

To access students writing skills improvement examined and identified the number of verb forms, spelling and punctuation. The errors of students were calculated and illustrated as Pareto chart.

After identifying and preparing the Pareto chart for the study showed as “the vital few” errors. It was indicated that there were less mistakes in the task which was done with the picture. After analyzing students writing performance, found the errors as followings:

— mechanics (spelling, punctuation, sentence structure);

— noun (ending, article);

— verb (verb form, verb tense, subject verb agreement)

— words (choice and form);

— prepositions

It was explored that the most frequent errors were verb forms, spelling and punctuation. So, various supporting materials were provided for explaining mentioned errors. And the work was done during the following month working on these errors. Grammar exercises were provided to work with “verb”, and two types of writing tasks done during the experiment: informal letters and making lists. Also it is worth mentioning that the words were illustrated from the list “The Longman Communication 3000” as indicated the top 1000 most frequent words in written English. The experiment lasted for 16 sessions (3 sessions per week).

In the third stage, students were taken PET as similar to the first example. After collecting the works, the writer analyzed errors found in works by using the steps in error analysis which discussed in the previous section.

Results

The results of PET showed the mistakes of the students. In general, content of the first task in most students was irrelevant to the task. Only 5 students got band 5, band 4- 2 got students, whereas majority of students, namely 12 were scored as 3, 6 students got band 2 and band 1 was given to 3 students. After answering PET, there were found types of errors in 5 categories: mechanics (spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure), noun (ending, article), verb (verb form, verb tense, subject verb agreement), words (choice and from), prepositions . The first study aimed to find out errors among 28 students and classify errors. Pareto chart illustrated 3 most frequent ones: 1) Verb error 2) Spelling 3) Punctuation. The number of errors of learner’s writings is presented in Figure 1.

Fig. 1. Pareto chart

The total (345) errors found which is shown in the Pareto chart indicated that verb errors were 98 (28 %), spelling consisted of 65 (19 %) of total errors and punctuation 58 (17 %) relatively.Based on the Pareto chart, it is inferred that if students focus on their study and concentrate on more frequent 20 % errors, they may improve writing up to 80 %. Correcting every mistake does not give desirable result, as not every student makes the same mistake. Hence, it is necessary to pay attention to major patterns those are most frequent.

During the course students practiced two types of writing tasks: writing an informal letter in different purposes with the guide of teacher and making lists. In this way they have learnt how to give an appropriate answer and make it relevant to the task.

After analyzing and classifying the errors there were done activities and studies on them. Throughout the course students were explained tenses of verbs, picture dictionary was given them at every lesson as visual aid to avoid the incorrectness of words. Besides, exercises that help to work with punctuation also suggested. The Pareto chat yielded a “vital few” among writing performance as following in Figure 2:

1) Verb errors

2) Spelling

3) Punctuation.

There were total (226) errors and Verb error (54), spelling (45) and Punctuation (32) and other number of errors shown in Figure 2.

After the 16 sessions, the results of students have been increased. Tasks were in two categories: content and grammar range/accuracy. The content of 28 students’ tasks after the post-test were as following in Table 1.

Table 1

Content of the task (post-test)

Band	Content	Number of Students
5	All content is relevant to the task. Target reader is fully informed.	9
4	Performance shares features of Bands 3 and 5.	6
3	Minor irrelevances and/or omissions may be present. Target reader is on the whole informed.	8
2	Performance shares features of Bands 1 and 3.	3
1	Irrelevances and misinterpretation of task may be present. Target reader is minimally informed	2
0	Content is totally irrelevant. Target reader is not informed.	0

Fig. 2. Pareto chart

It is obvious from the figure that “vital few” were identified in Pareto chart similar in the first one, but less in number of errors compared to the initial amount. The number of errors and percentage of occurrence in pre and post-test were illustrated in Table 2.

Table 2

Comparative results of pre and post-test

Types of errors	Number of errors	Percentage of occurrence	Number of Errors	Percentage of occurrence
Verb Spelling Punctuation Subject verb agreement Sentence structure Word choice Preposition Article Plural ending	98 65 58 36 35 24 14 10 5 Total errors 345	28 % 19 % 17 % 10 % 10 % 7 % 4 % 3 % 1 %	54 45 32 28 26 24 9 6 2 Total errors 226	23 % 20 % 14 % 12 % 11 % 10 % 4 % 3 % 1 %

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to identify the peculiarities of teaching writing at the initial stage of learning under the “Pareto principle”. The experiment was done with lower-level students who study English course. After 16 sessions of experiment to 28 students was defined that learning writing with Pareto rule has positive effect on students. After identifying, analyzing writing performance of students, Pareto chart was prepared. Implementing this principle proved to be useful both teacher and learners who need to focus their time, resources on what is truly important in order to achieve desired results with the less energy and power. “Verb tense”, ‘Spelling”, “Punctuation” were more dominant mistakes, meanwhile the least common type of errors was preposition and article, 14 and 10 respectively. More focus was given to explain tense of verbs and using picture as a visual aid was the right solution to work with spelling without spending much energy. Usage of pictures have many advantages as making the process more live, help students to be more concentrated and making class more interesting. Moreover the integration of visual cues could encourage and improve attitude towards learning process. Comparing the final results to the initial showed the improvement in writing performance. The frequent of occurrence of errors comparing to the initial stage was decreased substantially.

The findings sustained the positive effect of Pareto principle clearly paying attention more frequent errors could make the condition of writing task better.

The results from Pareto chart analyses illustrate a way to establish priorities for improvement in a way that will give the greatest assist for most learners in a short time. This rule can assist both learners and teachers to maximize the value of limited classroom time to achieve desired result in a restriction of time.

Conclusions

This paper was meant to highlight the peculiarities of teaching writing at the beginning using the principle called “Pareto”. Students, who are at the lower-level, face with the writing difficulties in the area of spelling, punctuation and simple grammar. Teaching learners is troublesome as this process demands more energy and effort with proper instruction. It should be in mind that teacher’s role in this process is higher.

Teacher should be aware of knowing students most common weak points and benefit how to teach faster, better and take considerable results. Making errors are unavoidable for all learners at any stage. However, difficulties and errors in writing of learners at the initial stage are the root problem in further stage. Pareto principle was applied in identifying errors in students writing and study was held with 28 students. The findings showed the effectiveness of applying Pareto rule for identifying students’ errors in writings. However, there were some limitations in this study. Firstly, it was conducted only among 28 students, who registered in English course. And Pareto chart was prepared only based on their performance in the language proficiency test. Also, the writing performances were evaluated only taking into account this test. The duration of the session was 4 weeks with 28 students that may prevent from generalizing the findings. There were taken an overall result of students’ performance. For further studies the separate interpretation should be taken into account. Moreover the findings of this study can be useful for teacher to implement the Pareto principle during working with elementary level students. Taking into consideration the findings, the further studies can apply the categories of errors in lower-level students to conduct an experiment. However, it is suggested to hold an experiment to check an individual result of each student.

References:

1. https://adilet.zan.kz/kaz/docs/K1500000100
2. “Тәуелсіздік бәрінен қымбат”. Қазақстан Республикасы Президенті Қасым-Жомарт Тоқакевтың мақаласы. Алматы, 2021 жылғы 5 қаңтар.–https://egemen.kz/article/260160-memlekettik-tildi-bilu-–-qazaqstannynh-arbir-azamatynynh-paryzy
3. Freedman S. W. Teaching writing in a digital and global age: Toward access, learning, and development for all / S. W. Freedman, G. A. Hull, J. M. Higgs, K. P. Booten //Handbook of research on teaching, 2016. — P.1389–1450.
4. Graham S. Changing how writing is taught / S. Graham //Review of Research in Education, 2019. — Vol. 43. — No 1. — P. 277–303.
5. Özdemir E. The effects of wikis on motivation in EFL writing / E. Özdemir, S. Aydın//Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015. — Vol. 191. — P. 2359–2363.
6. Dombey H. What we know about teaching writing/ H. Dombey //Preschool and Primary Education, 2013. — Vol. 1. — No 1. — P. 22–40.
7. O'Neill K. S. Applying the Pareto Principle to the Analysis of Students' Errors in Grammar, Mechanics and Style/ K. S. O’Neil //Research in Higher Education Journal, 2018. — Vol. 34.
8. Raimes A. Techniques in teaching writing /A. Raimes. — Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Ave., New York, 1983. — Retrieved from: 24688339-techniques-in-teaching-writing.pdf.
9. Richards J. C. Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice / J. C. Richards, W. A. Renandya. — Cambridge university press, 2002.
10. Mustafa F. Errors in EFL writing by junior high students in Indonesia / F. Mustafa, M. Kirana, S. Bahri//International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 2017. — Vol. 6. –No 1. — P. 38–52.
11. Navidinia H. Using pictures in the English as foreign language (EFL) classrooms: exploring its potential contribution for developing students’ writing skill/ H. Navidinia, A. R. Ozhan, A. Younesi //Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education, 2018. — Vol. 33. — P. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.21315/apjee2018.33.1
12. Zerin S. Teaching writing to young learners/ S. Zerin. –2007.
13. Thornley A. J. A., Ahmad N. Using pictures to improve the spelling of verbs/ A. J. A. Thornley, N. Ahmad // Proceedings of action research seminar, 2016. — P.7.
14. Muslimah A. Teaching technique for writing skill at the tenth-grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 2 Surakarta in the academic year 2017/2018 /A. Muslimah, A. Sutopo, M. H. Hikmat. — Doctor’s thesis. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, 2018.
15. Irmawati Y. Method of Teaching Writing to the Seventh Grade Students of SMPM 25 Boarding School Pondok Modern Muhammadiyah Paciran Lamongan/ Y. Irmawati, A. Prasetyarini, D. Haryanti. — Doctor’s thesis. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, 2015.