The Effectiveness of STOP and DARE in Planning and Drafting Argumentative Writing: A case of Saudi College Level Students

Abstract

Changing social dynamics have influenced writing a lot and learning and teaching process has also evolved greatly in terms of its theoretical as well as practical aspects. EFL learners in Saudi context behave very much differently to the writing tasks as English is introduced at a later stage in school education. Consequently, learners face a lot of challenges in responding positively to the methods and strategies implemented at the college level. The courses are intensive but failed to achieve the desired outcomes at the end of the program. A sample of work from 20 second year bachelor level students is taken to check the validity STOP and DARE strategy in improving students’ writing skills and also to see how the learners respond to this method. Teaching of argumentative writing is a part of their mother tongue teaching of which they are conceptually aware of but how do they respond in EFL learning is of interest to this present study.