Increasing Iraqi EFL Learners’ Descriptive Academic Paragraph Writing Ability through Using Vocabulary-Based Approach

Abstract

The contemporary objective of the study is to examine the effect of vocabulary-based approach on the achievement of intermediate learners in Imam Al-Kadhum College (IKC) in the writing ability in academic descriptive paragraph. To achieve this aim, the study attempts to discover a response for the subsequent study question: does vocabulary-based instruction have any influence on Iraqi learners of English language? Correspondingly two null hypotheses are prearranged. The first shows that there will not be a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group (EG) and that of those of the control group (CG) in their pretest in writing ability in academic descriptive paragraph. Whereas the second hypothesis is that there will not be a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the EG and those of the CG in the achievement posttest. After eight weeks of the treatment, the results show that there is a statistically significant difference between the EG and the CG in their post-test; the EG outperform in academic descriptive paragraph writing ability. Therefore, the foremost outcomes validated the first hypothesis of the study but negated the second one. The CG acquires the mean score 52.89 while the experimental group gets 60.31. This unquestionably denotes that the practice of vocabularybased approach in class as a strategy makes learners perform better in academic descriptive paragraph writing ability.